Tag Archives: Buster Keaton

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The Bootleg Files: A Salute to Stan Laurel

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BOOTLEG FILES 925: “A Salute to Stan Laurel” (1965 TV special with an all-star cast).

LAST SEEN: On YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: Not cleared for home entertainment release.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Doesn’t seem likely at the moment.

You may be wondering why there is a photo of Fred Gwynne’s Herman Munster on top of an article about “A Salute to Stan Laurel.” After all, “The Munsters” share no common ground with Stan Laurel, either as a solo performer or in his teamwork with Oliver Hardy. However, the inclusion of Herman Munster – playing a violin, no less – in a celebration of Stan Laurel is typical of the incoherent nature of this bizarre production, which arguably deserves to be considered on any list of the worst television specials of all time.
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The 10 Best Musical Numbers You May Not Have Seen (But Need to See)

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When it comes to the subject of movie musicals, it always seems like a handful of numbers from classic films are always presented as being the best of the genre. And, to be fair, they deserve that attention. Whether it involves Judy Garland pining to be “Over the Rainbow” or James Cagney giving a new meaning to patriotism with “Yankee Doodle Dandy” or Gene Kelly getting happily soaked while “Singin’ in the Rain,” everyone knows these numbers by heart.

Today, we’re going in the opposite direction with segments from 10 films that never quite achieved classic status but nonetheless feature larger than life musical sequences that are too much fun.
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The Bootleg Files: Casanova wider Willen

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BOOTLEG FILES 915: “Casanova wider Willen” (1931 German-language version of “Parlor, Bedroom and Bath” starring Buster Keaton).

LAST SEEN: On YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: It fell through the proverbial cracks.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: It was released as a Region 2 DVD in Europe.

When the silent cinema disappeared in favor of the talkies, film producers found themselves with a tricky situation regarding the international distribution of their work. In the silent cinema, new intertitles in different languages could easily be edited into the prints sent around the world. But once there was a dialogue soundtrack, it appeared that films would be stuck in nations where the actors’ language was spoken.
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The Bootleg Files: The Lord Don’t Play Favorites

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BOOTLEG FILES 881: “The Lord Don’t Play Favorites” (1956 television musical starring Kay Starr, Louis Armstrong, Buster Keaton and Robert Stack).

LAST SEEN: On Internet Archive and YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: Music clearance issues and a poor quality surviving kinescope.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Nope.

One of all-time favorite books is Arthur Shulman and Roger Youman’s “How Sweet it Was,” which chronicles American television from the late 1940s through the mid-1960s. While many of the entries in the book are well-known, there was one photograph that always intrigued me – it was for a 1956 musical called “The Lord Don’t Play Favorites” and it showed Buster Keaton wearing a polka dot clown costume and his trademark flat hat while playing a calliope. Next to Keaton was Kay Starr, a popular singer in the 50s, who had a straw hat and a cane while wearing a striped blouse and a long black skirt. The caption for the photo only said that the show was a musical with a circus setting and co-starred Robert Stack, Dick Haymes and Louis Armstrong. (Yes, that’s the photo at the top of this page.)
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Sand, Sun and Songs: Celebrating The Beach Movies

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On this episode of “The Online Movie Show,” we set the clock back to the early 1960s with a celebration of cheerful distractions provided by Frankie, Annette and their beach movies gang -including Buster Keaton! Film historian Tom Lisanti, author of “Hollywood Surf and Beach Movies: The First Wave, 1959-1969,” is the guest on this episode.

The episode can be heard here.

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10 Of The Most Intriguing Films That Were Never Made

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Film history is littered with proposed projects that seemed tantalizing in concept, but somehow never found their way before the cameras. But were these aborted efforts destined to succeed? Seriously, would Stanley Kubrick’s proposed biopic of Napoleon or Alejandro Jodorowsky’s “Dune” been instant classics? I think that some vigorous debates could be enjoyed on whether or not we should be fortunate those works never got made.

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