Buster Keaton: The Short Films Collection. DVD/blu ray review

Kino has released another DVD set of Buster Keaton silent short films, "Buster Keaton: The Shorts Collection (1917-1923)." All of the silent short films of Buster Keaton are compiled in this new anthology that surpasses all others. It is the most complete, features the best restorations of each film, offers the best musical accompaniment for each, and includes some excellent special features.

Serge Bromberg and Lobster Films spent years carefully locating and restoring the very best footage for this collection. As indicated in the accompanying booklet, all of the footage contained in this five disc set is from superior pre-print sources and none is from previously released collections.

The importance of these movies cannot be overstated. Buster Keaton was a master filmmaker who understood cinema’s form and function to a greater degree than perhaps any other filmmaker active at the same time. His understanding of how to present broad comedy within the framework of the intimate movie camera, understanding nuance over bombast, is already evident in his first films.

Disc One shows Buster Keaton as apprentice to starring comedian Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle. While Arbuckle, who directed, preferred broad over-the-top slapstick, and was a master at comic timing and sheer movement within the frame, Keaton quickly augmented this style with his own more subtle methods. In his first screen appearance, “The Butcher Boy,” Keaton’s artful slapstick pratfalls nicely compliment Arbuckle and co-star Al St. John’s more blatant gestures. This extends to “The Rough House” in which Arbuckle reportedly already had Keaton directing some scenes in which only Roscoe appears. A brilliant gag where “Fatty” pragmatically puts out a fire in his bed one cup of water at a time is pure Keaton, Rather than react wildly as per his usual forte, “Fatty” ponders, and pragmatically approaches the situation with a relaxed patience, even stop on his way to take a bite of a donut, and kiss the pretty maid. He even stops to wonder why the flames are not subsiding after several trips. The scene does evolve into bombastic slapstick as per Arbuckle’s usual approach, but Keaton’s influence as a comedian and filmmaker was already evident with his second movie. Disc One features better prints of “Coney Island” and “Out West” than can be found in previous collections, as well as a censored alternate ending from “Coney Island” that can not be found elsewhere.

Disc Two continues with the remaining films Keaton made with Arbuckle, including the brilliantly clever “Moonshine,” which is seen here to better advantage than previous collections. The pre-print material on “Moonshine” was usually from a 16mm source, due to the 35mm camera negative only surviving in fragmented form. This set combines better sources to make as sharp a film as can be had with the currently existing footage (from a 35mm fine grain at the Museum of Modern Art and an incomplete safety dupe neative in the Lobster Films Collection). The print of “Good Night Nurse” is better than any previous collection has offered. Sadly, the ending of “The Cook” remains missing. The Arbuckle-Keaton films are not only amusing, but fascinating examples of Arbuckle’s creativity and Keaton’s progressive nature as a filmmaker.

On Disc 3, we start to get into Keaton’s solo short films. When Roscoe Arbuckle graduated to feature films, he left his short comedy studio to Buster Keaton, who was thereafter free to produce comedies based strictly on his own vision. It is here where Keaton is allowed to fully explore his most creative and inspired ideas based on a supreme knowledge of physical comedy as well as an increasing understanding of cinema’s form and function. “One Week,” for instance, remains one of the quintessential short comedies of the silent screen, and a perfect introduction to Buster Keaton as a solo artist. The print of “Convict 13” here has better contrast than previous releases, and “Neighbors” is represented by a much better print as well. Finally, “Hard Luck” on this set does include the recently rediscovered, and restored, ending that was missing from a previous set.

Disc 4 offers such extraordinary comedies as “The Boat,” “The Play House,” and “Cops,” but its highlight is the original ending to “My Wife’s Relations;” a long lost piece of footage that can be found on no other collection. While the ending most associated with the film is amusing (Buster on a train bound for Reno, the divorce capitol of the world) the new footage discovered for this set has an extended sequence where Buster leaves the house, runs into a cop who chases him back in, he then escapes out a window right into the throes of a paddy wagon, that takes off. He falls out of the back of the wagon into a mud puddle, and runs away as the film fades out.

Finally, disc 5 presents the remainder of Keaton’s silent shorts, including an alternate version of “The Blacksmith.” The version of “The Blacksmith” that is known today is from Keaton’s personal work print that is said to have been pulled from release after a bad preview, and might not have ever been seen had it not been the only one in existence. The alternate version offered on this set for the first time was discovered in 2013 by Argentinian film archivist Fernando Pena. Comparing the two versions offers further insight into Buster Keaton’s creative genius. Each of these films is discussed in depth in Terri Lynch’s and my book “Buster Keaton’s Silent Shorts.”

This five disc set does surpass any previous collections. And while some of the pre-print materials do remain rather rough, this set contains the best possible restorations, good musical accompaniment by the likes of Rodney Sauer, Donald Sosin, The Mon Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, Neil Brand, Robert Israel, Antonio Coppola, Sandra Wong and others, and special features including alternate versions available nowhere else. This is a DVD set that should be owned by everyone.

You can purchase the set at this LINK