Buster Keaton (1939-1941)
The "Great Stone Face" was brought to Columbia in 1939 at the suggestion of Buster's good friend, writer Clyde Bruckman.
Jules White, having directed Keaton in the MGM feature SIDEWALKS OF NEW YORK in the early 1930's, was thrilled at the prospect of having Buster work for Columbia. A meeting was arranged, and shortly afterward, a contract was drawn up. Many consider Keaton's Columbia shorts as the worst films he's ever appeared in. Keaton himself thought this and left Columbia after completing SHE'S OIL MINE.
PEST FROM THE WEST (1939) is easily the best of the series, with PARDON MY BERTH MARKS (1940) following close behind.
The Keaton shorts were syndicated by Screen Gems Television in 1959.
PEST FROM THE WEST (6/16/39) D: Del Lord. Lorna Gray, Gino Corrado, Richard Fiske, Bud Jamison, Forbes Murray, Eddie Laughton, Ned Glass. Buster, a millionaire vacationing in Mexico, falls for a pretty señorita and sets out to win her heart. TRIVIA: A partial reworking of Keaton's AN OLD SPANISH CUSTOM.
MOOCHING THROUGH GEORGIA (8/11/39) D: Jules White. Monty Collins, Lynton Brent, Jill Martin, But Jamison, Ned Glass, Jack Hill, Stanley Mack. Buster relates, in flashback, how he outwitted the Yankee Army during the Civil War. TRIVIA: Remade with the Three Stooges as UNCIVIL WARBIRDS (1946).
NOTHING BUT PLEASURE (1/19/40) D: Jules White. Dorothy Appleby, Beatrice Blinn, Bud Jamison, Richard Fiske, Jack Randall, Robert Sterling, Bobby Barber. Buster and his wife travel to Detroit to buy a new car; to save money on the shipping fee, they decide to drive it back home. TRIVIA: This short was later reworked by Clyde Bruckman as an episode of THE ABBOTT & COSTELLO SHOW.
PARDON MY BERTH MARKS (3/22/40) D: Jules White. Dorothy Appleby, Richard Fiske, Vernon Dent, Cy Schindell, Eva McKenzie, Ned Glass, John Tyrrell, Bud Jamison, Jack Tiny Lipson, Lynton Brent, Fred Snowflake Toones, Stanley Brown. Buster, and aspiring reporter, boards a train and innocently becomes involved with a mobsters wife. TRIVIA: Remade with Harry Von Zell as ROLLING DOWN TO RENO (1947).
THE TAMING OF THE SNOOD (6/28/40) D: Jules White. Dorothy Appleby, Elise Ames, Richard Fiske, Bruce Bennett. Buster runs afoul of a jewel thief.
THE SPOOK SPEAKS (9/20/40) D: Jules White. Elise Ames, Don Beddoe, Dorothy Appleby, Lynton Brent, John Tyrrell, Bruce Bennett. Buster and Elise are hired as housekeepers, unaware that the residence, belonging to a magician, is rigged with secret gadgets. TRIVIA: A reworking of BLUE BLACKBIRDS with Moran and Mack aka The 2 Black Crows.
HIS EX MARKS THE SPOT(12/13/40) D: Jules White. Elise Ames, Dorothy Appleby, Matt McHugh, Jack Tiny Lipson. Busters ex-wife and her boyfriend come to live with him, to the dismay of his new spouse. SO YOU WONT SQUAWK (2/21/41) D: Del Lord. Eddie Fetherstone, Bud Jamison, Matt McHugh, Vernon Dent, Hank Mann, Edmund Cobb. Buster is mistaken for a gangster marked for death.
GENERAL NUISANCE (9/18/41) D: Jules White. Elise Ames, Monty Collins, Dorothy Appleby, Lynton Brent, Bud Jamison, Nick Arno, Harry Semels. Buster is smitten with a pretty army hospital nurse.
SHE'S OIL MINE (11/20/41) D: Jules White. Elise Ames, Monty Collins, Eddie Laughton, Bud Jamison, Harry Semels, Stanley Brown. Bumbling plumber Buster gets mixed up with an oil heiress and her jealous suitor.
MOOCHING THROUGH GEORGIA (8/11/39) D: Jules White. Monty Collins, Lynton Brent, Jill Martin, But Jamison, Ned Glass, Jack Hill, Stanley Mack. Buster relates, in flashback, how he outwitted the Yankee Army during the Civil War. TRIVIA: Remade with the Three Stooges as UNCIVIL WARBIRDS (1946).
NOTHING BUT PLEASURE (1/19/40) D: Jules White. Dorothy Appleby, Beatrice Blinn, Bud Jamison, Richard Fiske, Jack Randall, Robert Sterling, Bobby Barber. Buster and his wife travel to Detroit to buy a new car; to save money on the shipping fee, they decide to drive it back home. TRIVIA: This short was later reworked by Clyde Bruckman as an episode of THE ABBOTT & COSTELLO SHOW.
PARDON MY BERTH MARKS (3/22/40) D: Jules White. Dorothy Appleby, Richard Fiske, Vernon Dent, Cy Schindell, Eva McKenzie, Ned Glass, John Tyrrell, Bud Jamison, Jack Tiny Lipson, Lynton Brent, Fred Snowflake Toones, Stanley Brown. Buster, and aspiring reporter, boards a train and innocently becomes involved with a mobsters wife. TRIVIA: Remade with Harry Von Zell as ROLLING DOWN TO RENO (1947).
THE TAMING OF THE SNOOD (6/28/40) D: Jules White. Dorothy Appleby, Elise Ames, Richard Fiske, Bruce Bennett. Buster runs afoul of a jewel thief.
THE SPOOK SPEAKS (9/20/40) D: Jules White. Elise Ames, Don Beddoe, Dorothy Appleby, Lynton Brent, John Tyrrell, Bruce Bennett. Buster and Elise are hired as housekeepers, unaware that the residence, belonging to a magician, is rigged with secret gadgets. TRIVIA: A reworking of BLUE BLACKBIRDS with Moran and Mack aka The 2 Black Crows.
HIS EX MARKS THE SPOT(12/13/40) D: Jules White. Elise Ames, Dorothy Appleby, Matt McHugh, Jack Tiny Lipson. Busters ex-wife and her boyfriend come to live with him, to the dismay of his new spouse. SO YOU WONT SQUAWK (2/21/41) D: Del Lord. Eddie Fetherstone, Bud Jamison, Matt McHugh, Vernon Dent, Hank Mann, Edmund Cobb. Buster is mistaken for a gangster marked for death.
GENERAL NUISANCE (9/18/41) D: Jules White. Elise Ames, Monty Collins, Dorothy Appleby, Lynton Brent, Bud Jamison, Nick Arno, Harry Semels. Buster is smitten with a pretty army hospital nurse.
SHE'S OIL MINE (11/20/41) D: Jules White. Elise Ames, Monty Collins, Eddie Laughton, Bud Jamison, Harry Semels, Stanley Brown. Bumbling plumber Buster gets mixed up with an oil heiress and her jealous suitor.
NOTHING BUT PLEASURE