Buster Keaton

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charliechaplinfan
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Re: Buster Keaton

Post by charliechaplinfan »

Me too, I'm having withdrawal symptoms, I've not watched him in a movie for a couple of months. Still Joe likes Pepe Le Pew so I do get a Boyer accent of sorts from time to time. I can no longer watch Boyer with chris around as he launches into his Pepe Le Pew impression and kills it for me. Just like he says everytime Fred Astaire is on the screen 'Don't you think he looks like Stan Laurel?' Something else that kills the mood.

Talking of hubby's likes and dislikes, he really dislikes Buster Keaton, I personally think it's because he has a habit of half watching things and you can't do that with Buster, it's in the little things that Buster is great and he misses them.
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
Gary J.
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Re: Buster Keaton

Post by Gary J. »

charliechaplinfan wrote: Just like he says everytime Fred Astaire is on the screen 'Don't you think he looks like Stan Laurel?' Something else that kills the mood.
You can see Astaire's impersonation of Laurel during the "A Fine Romance" number in SWINGTIME - (36). It was probably the idea of it's director, George Stevens.
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charliechaplinfan
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Re: Buster Keaton

Post by charliechaplinfan »

Yes, I remember a discussion about this very subject somewhere, I think Fred wasn't unaware of the likeness. I'd like to have seen Laurel playing Astaire.
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
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movieman1957
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Re: Buster Keaton

Post by movieman1957 »

I guess the closest you can get is the little dance in "Way Out West."
Chris

"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana."
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JackFavell
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Re: Buster Keaton

Post by JackFavell »

Image
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charliechaplinfan
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Re: Buster Keaton

Post by charliechaplinfan »

Ha ha, thanks for that. I wonder if Fred was quaking in his boots seeing the talent of Stan Laurel?
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
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Rita Hayworth
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Re: Buster Keaton

Post by Rita Hayworth »

Stan Laurel and Fred Astaire
Screen Gems 1936 Cartoon (Charles Mintz)
The Merry Mutineers

Image

I watched hundreds and hundreds of cartoons in my lifetime and I remembered seeing a Screen Gems Cartoon featuring the likeness of Laurel and Astaire in it along with W.C. Fields, Marx Brothers, and others comedic geniuses back in those days and it was a classic cartoon and I unable to find a youtube of it. So, you have to settle for a picture that I found in Photobucket.

I was racking my brains out and I remember seeing an animated cartoon featuring them and I was dead on.
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Rita Hayworth
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Re: Buster Keaton

Post by Rita Hayworth »

Buster Keaton and Rita Hayworth

Rita Hayworth with Buster Keaton on their arrival at Le Havre, France, aboard the new U.S. American liner United States, September 24, 1952. They were cordial friends and enjoyed their friendship together. Most people don't realize that. I will post that picture on my thread on a latter date. I just got this photograph not to long ago; and Rita was separated from Prince Aly Khan and was unhappy for awhile until this trip to Le Havre, France with Buster Keaton.

Buster had a great time with Rita and he was very kind and gentle to her. Buster was a true gentleman with Rita.

Buster was 57 in this photograph ... Rita was 34.
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charliechaplinfan
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Re: Buster Keaton

Post by charliechaplinfan »

Thankyou for the photobucket picture of Fred and Stan Laurel, it made me smile.

I think Buster was a gentleman and Rita comes across as having one of the most gentle personalities of all the big stars, I bet they had a lovely time travelling together. If Rita had just split from Ali Khan she was probably dodging photographers bent on getting a story, something Buster could probably sympathise with.
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
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Rita Hayworth
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Re: Buster Keaton

Post by Rita Hayworth »

charliechaplinfan wrote:Thankyou for the photobucket picture of Fred and Stan Laurel, it made me smile.
Your Welcome, CCFan!

I also agree with your assessment concerning both Buster and Rita. Thanks for sharing it.
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movieman1957
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Re: Buster Keaton

Post by movieman1957 »

The last short. "The Railrodder."

http://www.nfb.ca/film/railrodder/
Chris

"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana."
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knitwit45
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Re: Buster Keaton

Post by knitwit45 »

How fun! That magic orange box would come in handy, wonder where you get one??? :D
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JackFavell
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Re: Buster Keaton

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Oooh, I love The Railrodder. It's my favorite of the later Buster appearances.
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Re: Buster Keaton

Post by Gary J. »

It's a marvelous short that acts as a grand coda to a long career because it is so essentially Keaton. Buster loved playing the stranger in a strange land, but his fundamental Americanism always compelled him to adapt to his new surroundings -such as his clothes changing running gag from PEST FROM THE WEST - (39). His comedy grew out of treating an absurd situation as being entirely commonplace – thereby making it even more absurd. In THE RAILRODDER we are treated to the sight of a man in a flat hat stuck on a runaway rail car as it tours across Canada. So what else is there to do but……set up house. The visual images of Buster on a linear track as he eats supper or reads the paper immediately brings to mind THE GENERAL - (26) where Buster spends an interminable amount of time in the cab of the pursuing train keeping busy by chopping wood and sweeping up. Even closer to this mindset is THE BALLOONATIC – (23). Aloft in the air on a runaway balloon which he has no control over, Buster settles in and gets comfortable. This involves doing the laundry and scrounging for game with a little duck hunting. Even in his films where he is not out of his element Keaton can find situations that are tight and cramped, and then works to make them more hospitable. Before the grand chase erupts in COPS – (22) Buster spends the first reel of the film tethered to an old horse and wagon. Since the horse steers himself Buster doesn’t have any real chore to command his attention so what does he do? He gets up and paces. And it’s not like he is in someone’s living room. His pacing consists of one and a half steps on the buckboard before he must pivot around and retrace his steps. It’s a hilarious image of Buster keeping busy. His entrance on the dinosaur in THE THREE AGES – (23) similarly finds himself on a moving vehicle that doesn’t need any manual steering, so Buster whiles away the moment by relaxing upon the reptile’s back as if he were reclining on a chaise lounge.

And since all of these examples came from Keaton’s most creative years it’s only fitting that THE RAILRODDER should also be played completely silent by the star.
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JackFavell
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Re: Buster Keaton

Post by JackFavell »

Hey, I love that you brought up this theme of Buster's - man setting up house in the most inhospitable circumstances. I think this is one of those things that makes Keaton so much more than a comedian, but a real philosopher.

I don't want to overblow this idea, but to me, it is somehow more than just Keaton doing a gag - he represents man's inherently foolish quest to conquer the natural world. When Keaton paces atop the horse and buggy, or when he sets up laundry in the balloon, he is poking a bit of fun at our futile attempts at expansion and domestication - how silly we are when we are attempting to subdue or dominate nature or natural laws that cannot be repressed or overpowered.
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