Buster Keaton on DVD

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Cash Flagg
Joined: Thu Jan 24, 2008 11:15 pm

Re: Buster Keaton on DVD

#76 Post by Cash Flagg » Mon Dec 15, 2008 9:33 pm

From DVD Times:
Powis Square Pictures have announced the UK DVD release of two titles on 12th January 2009. The inaugural releases from this new label are The Sadist from writer/director James Landis and Speak Easily, a talkie starring Buster Keaton......Speak Easily is presented in full screen with English 2.0 audio. There are no subtitles or extras.

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Scharphedin2
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Re: Buster Keaton on DVD

#77 Post by Scharphedin2 » Tue Jan 13, 2009 7:51 pm

First of all, thanks to Chris for reconstituting the initial post of this thread, which should help interested viewers in deciding which editions of Keaton's films to purchase, and how to approach a complete collection of his work on DVD.

I recently purchased the Looser Than Loose release of Buster Keaton: Educational Two-Reelers, and I have posted some stills in the Screen Captures thread.

These films are not thought of as Keaton's best, but they are still interesting and are in fact quite "silent" in their approach to comedy. As indicated, they are short films of 15-20 minutes, and all except one of the films are sourced from 16mm prints. As the stills show, the films look like 16mm transfers, which may add to the charm for some viewers, and very probably detract considerably from the viewing pleasure for others.

In all, the set contains 16 films, and as the index in the first post reveals, many of these shorts have appeared on various other releases as supplements, however, a handful are unique to this set, and I believe the quality on this release is often superior to that of previous transfers of these films. In addition, the set also features a number of other odds and ends as extras. Amongst other things, there are several sketches and appearances of Keaton in TV shows, and there is a short film by Mack Sennett ("Way Up Thar"), which features Myra E. Keaton and Louise Keaton.

I purchased the set directly from Looser Than Loose, and it is as far as I know the only way to purchase it. The transaction was without friction.

Revelator
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Re:

#78 Post by Revelator » Wed Feb 25, 2009 1:01 am

Forgotten Goldfish wrote:Of course a totally complete Keaton would have to include not only everything I've mentioned above, but also the various 1930s-40s films which contain moments of "pure Keaton" because he gave backstage advice, even though he never appears in front of the camera.
I've often wondered if the finale for the Marx Brothers' Go West was Buster's work, or at least featured some of his gags. The train/house gags with Harpo could not be more Keatonian. We know that Buster was involved with At the Circus (though to little avail--his ideas didn't suit the Brothers and there are hardly any memorable sight gags in the film), and in an early 70s interview Groucho did say that Keaton helped out with Go West. But Groucho's memory was obviously not at its best then, and the topic is still far from settled.

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nsps
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Re: Buster Keaton on DVD

#79 Post by nsps » Sat Feb 28, 2009 6:13 pm

Does anyone know of a release of "Sherlock Jr" that contains the two shots missing from the Kino (especially the final pool shot)?

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DignanSWE
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Re: Buster Keaton on DVD

#80 Post by DignanSWE » Sat May 02, 2009 4:06 am

I was really shocked when I watched the extras on the special edition of "The Jazz Singer" last night -- "Hollywood Handicap" is one of the extras.

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dadaistnun
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Re: Buster Keaton on DVD

#81 Post by dadaistnun » Mon Aug 10, 2009 4:05 pm

There's a new dvd of Go West, The High Sign, and One Week featuring Bill Frisell's accompaniment. It's apparently only available through his website.

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nsps
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Re: Buster Keaton on DVD

#82 Post by nsps » Sun Aug 23, 2009 6:51 pm

Some clips from the Frisell DVD here.

However, I believe that the text is incorrect that Frisell scored six Keaton films and they will all be out on DVD. Seems he only did these three. Anyone know otherwise?

Has any one received/watched this disc yet? I'm curious about the source, transfer, etc.

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Antoine Doinel
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Re: Buster Keaton on DVD

#83 Post by Antoine Doinel » Mon Aug 24, 2009 10:42 am

Wow, those are great clips. I'll have to track these down.

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nsps
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Re: Buster Keaton on DVD

#84 Post by nsps » Mon Dec 14, 2009 6:10 pm

Did anyone ever get their hands on the Frisell DVD? Amazon doesn't have it in stock or show any signs of it becoming available.

Also, for the sake of this thread's completeness we should mention the release of the first silent Blu-ray in the US, Keaton's The General, which I commented on briefly in the Kino thread. Sherlock Jr. and Our Hospitality next!

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nsps
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Re: Buster Keaton on DVD

#85 Post by nsps » Thu Apr 22, 2010 6:56 pm

Kino has announced that they're releasing the Educational shorts as LOST KEATON, transfered from 35mm sources, so that should be an upgrade on the Looser than Loose releases (or bootlegs, as apparently the films are not in fact public domain). Also it appears that Steamboat Bill, Jr. will be the next blu-ray, rather than Sherlock, Jr./Our Hospitality.

videozor
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Re: Buster Keaton on DVD

#86 Post by videozor » Tue Jan 11, 2011 1:08 pm

Our Hospitality coming from Kino on March 22, 2011 on DVD, and BD.

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matrixschmatrix
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Re: Buster Keaton on DVD

#87 Post by matrixschmatrix » Tue Jan 11, 2011 1:12 pm

videozor wrote:Our Hospitality coming from Kino on March 22, 2011 on DVD, and BD.
More details. I'm happy to see this, and happy to know that Kino's going to continue putting their Keaton out on blu, but it seems too bad that it's stepped back a bit from the Sherlock Jr release- two features might have been too much to hope for, but it would have been great if they'd gotten another commentary (especially another Kalat!).

videozor
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Re: Buster Keaton on DVD

#88 Post by videozor » Tue Jan 11, 2011 1:21 pm

matrixschmatrix wrote: two features might have been too much to hope for
I think Hospitality could sell by itself, but the remaining features (College, Go West, Butler, Navigator), most likely will be combined in one way or another - hopefully with Seven Chances as a main feature

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knives
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Re: Buster Keaton on DVD

#89 Post by knives » Tue Jan 11, 2011 1:33 pm

In this case I doubt there would have been much room, considering this is DVD too, for a second feature. After all this is about as long, maybe longer, than the two that were left to themselves. Plus we get a short and a total re-edit of the film that amount to another 70 some odd minutes.


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Roger Ryan
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Re: Buster Keaton on DVD

#91 Post by Roger Ryan » Thu Aug 04, 2011 12:12 pm

LOADED with HOURS of Special Features (TBD)!

This statement has me intrigued. I'm thinking that both films might have commentary (the easiest way to get to a couple of hours of special features) plus I'm sure we'll see a shooting locations featurette. What else?

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denti alligator
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Re: Buster Keaton on DVD

#92 Post by denti alligator » Fri Aug 05, 2011 9:56 am


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Aspect
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Re: Buster Keaton on DVD

#93 Post by Aspect » Fri Aug 05, 2011 10:16 am

denti alligator wrote:No Blu?
That's what I thought too. Fortunately, there is. Yay!

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matrixschmatrix
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Re: Buster Keaton on DVD

#94 Post by matrixschmatrix » Sat Aug 20, 2011 10:47 pm

Wow, I just watched The Cameraman on the TCM set, and the picture quality and commentary are fine but my God, that's the worst score for a silent movie I've ever heard. It telegraphs all the jokes, mickey mouses the shit out of everything, and is so wildly distracting that I couldn't enjoy the movie properly until I turned it off- it's like the version of The Gold Rush with Chaplin's narration. Is there a release with a different score out there?

Jonathan S
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Re: Buster Keaton on DVD

#95 Post by Jonathan S » Sun Aug 21, 2011 3:34 am

As The Cameraman is one of the two Warner-owned Keaton silents, I imagine any non-R1 legitimate release would have that score too. Ben Model has created an alternative theatre organ score which can be downloaded or bought on disc for about $5 and synched with the TCM release, available here. I haven't heard it - personally, I dislike organ scores, especially for comedies, but many of his other scores are very much to my taste.

The Cameraman used to be televised with a piano score I much preferred but there was a lot of distortion on it. Incidentally, I have a 1990s German TV recording which includes about 20 seconds of footage missing from the Warner disc. As it's part of one of the lost scenes, I guess they thought the film played better without it.

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matrixschmatrix
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Re: Buster Keaton on DVD

#96 Post by matrixschmatrix » Sun Aug 21, 2011 3:41 am

That's a really neat site, thanks. I'll probably pick up a couple of things from there- Model's not my favorite, but I never found his work obnoxious, so it seems like it would definitely be an improvement for The Cameraman.

I can understand why the Warner disc wouldn't include incomplete scenes in the main feature, but it would be nice if they'd put them in with extras. Ah, well.

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knives
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Re: Buster Keaton on DVD

#97 Post by knives » Mon Oct 24, 2011 10:40 pm

It seems we don't have a proper Keaton thread to post this so I'm just laying it down here. Anyways all month TCM has been going through his films replaying the usual suspects over and again, but they have managed a few oddities including a lot of the unreleased MGM features and I have to say going against reputation they're not bad. Okay a few definitely are stinkers, but none on the level of Free and Easy. In fact I think Doughboys which played last night is really great and on the level of his best silent work and one of the best if not the best war comedy I've seen. There's not as many physical gags or visual puns as I would like (though an early swinging by chandelier sequence is very good), but the vocal comedy is shockingly good and the story possibly the strongest of his career. Nothing else has matched that so far very clearly being B work of his, but there's still a good number of gags and Keaton in general seemed to adapt well compared to reputation.

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Ashirg
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Re: Buster Keaton on DVD

#98 Post by Ashirg » Tue Oct 25, 2011 12:44 am

Warner Archives already announced Doughboys, Sidewalks of New York, and What! No Beer? for November 8.

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knives
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Re: Buster Keaton on DVD

#99 Post by knives » Tue Oct 25, 2011 12:50 am

The first two are range from okay to great, but that last one is fairly dire. The transfers if they're using the same are all excellent.

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Roger Ryan
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Re: Buster Keaton on DVD

#100 Post by Roger Ryan » Tue Oct 25, 2011 12:50 pm

knives wrote:The first two are range from okay to great, but that last one is fairly dire. The transfers if they're using the same are all excellent.
I wish I could agree with you, but there's no way I could endorse DOUGHBOYS as good Keaton. It might be one of his better films from the 30s, but the direction is poverty row terrible and Keaton himself is barely going through the motions (and possibly intoxicated during some of it). There's a few snappy lines of dialogue, but it takes forever for the film to go anywhere. Also, the print quality was very mediocre. I still have THE PASSIONATE PLUMBER and WHAT! NO BEER? to watch (I'm not holding out any hope for these), but so far I'd say that PARLOR, BEDROOM AND BATH strikes me as the most watchable from this period.

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