Note: This may not be about a silent film, but it involves one of the greats of Silent film history
In 1950 one of the greats of cinema, would move to the small screen. This great was Buster Keaton, one of the most legendary names of the silent film comedy, and he would move to the small screen with a program called the Buster Keaton Show.
At this time Buster Keaton was not at the high point of his career, after giving up being an independent filmmaker who would take part in not only the acting but would often be a co-writer, and Co-director for his films, he would move to MGM. MGM viewed Buster as only an actor and took away much of his creative freedom. Even though his first film for MGM, The Cameraman, was a masterpiece, he would soon appear in films that were way below his talent. Unfortunately these films made for MGM would include almost all of his talkie films, though he would make some sub-par but better talkies for Educational Pictures. This affected his career badly, and by this time his film career was over.
Luckily this show made for CBS would give him more freedom than MGM, but not the same amount he had back making his classic silent films. He would not direct or write for the show but he would be able to improvise much more than he could at MGM. These improvisations were often the highlights of the show, and the writers would take advantage of this by making the stories not much more than excuses for him to improvise. While you may miss the brilliant story structure of Keaton's best work, these improvisations are really funny, and will definitely make Keaton fans quite happy. Most of these improvisations are completely in pantomime, and show that even at the age of 55 Buster Keaton was one of the greatest pantomimist of all time. These are simply masterpieces of pantomime.
One of the directors of the show would be Edward Cline, who co-directed most of Buster Keaton's short films, as well as his first feature The Three Ages, as well as directing The Bank Dick with W. C. Feilds One of the writers for this show was Clyde Bruckman who was a co-writer for some of Busters best films such as Sherlock Jr., The General, and The Navigator, as well as also writing for The Three Stooges, Harold Lloyd and Laurel and Hardy. Another writer Harold Goodwin was more prolific as an actor, and even appeared in The Cameraman and College with Keaton. Other writers would include Carl K. Hittleman (36 Hours, The Buckskin Lady), Ben Perry (The Boss, The Brothers Rico), Jay Sommers (Gordy, Green Acres, Beverly Hillbillies), and Edwood Ullman (many Three Stooges shorts). Other directors would include Arthur Hilton (Lassie (TV Series), The Return of Jessie James).
Like many TV shows of the 1950's this one was shot before a live audience. This would unfortunately mean we would get little of the technical mastery that enhanced his silent films, because everything had to also work perfectly for the stage, not just for the screen (small or big). Though this show may not be as well made as Keaton's silent films, it was a vast improvement over his MGM films.
What it lacked in both the story structure and the technical mastery of his silent films, this show made up for in humor. The show was simply quite funny. While if you expect the quality of Keaton's best work, you might be disappointed, this is a fun show that is well worth checking out.
-Michael J. Ruhland
