The Fall of Buster Keaton: His Films for MGM, Educational Pictures, and Columbia
With Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd, stone-faced Buster Keaton ranked among the top silent film comic geniuses. The other two were astute businessmen who retained their fabulous wealth and reputations, while Keaton fell off the map in the early 1930s. He went on to make two-reel comedy shorts for Educational Pictures and then Columbia, films that he later dismissed as 'crummy.' Neibaur (Chaplin at Essanay: A Film Artist in Transition, 1915-1916) summarizes the plots and sometimes the critical reception of each, as well as the films Keaton made at M-G-M and those he appeared in until his death....The greatest value in this book is a reevaluation of the films' merits. Keaton's legions of fans will enjoy this book. (Library Journal)The Fall of Buster Keaton...marches in chronological order through Keaton’s MGM and post-MGM performances, dutifully trying to find a trace of his old spark.(The New York Review Of Books)[A] key strength of Neibaur's books is that there are in-depth recaps of the MGM, Educational and Columbia films Keaton made. A plus for readers is that Neibaur debunks a common perception that the Educational and Columbia shorts were all artistic failures. In fact, the author serves to rehabilitate Keaton's talkie shorts' image by extolling the virtues of short films such as 'Allez Oop,' 'One-Run Elmer,' 'The Gold Ghost,' 'Jail Bait,' (Educational) and 'Pardon My Berth Marks,' 'Pest From the West,' 'Nothing But Pleasure,' (Columbia) and a few others. The author makes a convincing case that Keaton needs to be re-evaluated as a talkie comedy shorts talent. ... We should appreciate the love that produces books of this dedicated scholarship.(Plan 9 Crunch: All About Cult Films)