Now available on Blu-ray from Liberation Hall
Buster Keaton was a huge star at one point during his illustrious career, making audiences far and wide laugh regularly. Here, the set at hand presents 9 episodes of his television show, 2 short films, and a few other elements. To be honest, this show will appeal to fans of Keaton, or possibly only to super fans of his. There is something here that is historically important, but if someone is not already into this man’s antics, getting into them is not something this set will do for them. Here the humor is dated at best, mostly pitfalls, and not at the height of the man’s capacities. Watching the set in one sitting may not have been the best of ideas here, but it’s how it could be reviewed best amongst the insanity of these last few months.
That being said, there is some fun to be had here, and the short films are much more interesting than the television show itself. The acting is ok, the cinematography does what it can, and the sound is a bit messy. Which is one of the main gripes is that the images are not as well restored as they could be and the sound on some of the episodes is downright horrible with background noise that likely could have been cleaned up by a sound specialist. It’s really bad at times and those with noise sensitivity should probably abstain from watching this set.
In an effort to not completely be negative here, this review will be kept below the usual number of words and end on the fact that fans of Buster Keaton should like this and should enjoy the fact that never before available elements are now available to the public. Overall, the quality here is a bit lacking and not up-to-par with recent re-releases for other series from the era.
