The Best Arbuckle/Keaton Collection
Our Price: $149.29
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Buy Used: from $84.89 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD Cover Information
Actor: Buster Keaton, Roscoe Fatty ArbuckleBrand: Image Entertainment
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Black & White, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 248 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-10-22
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Image Entertainment
Movie Reviews of The Best Arbuckle/Keaton Collection
Movie Review: Very funny comedy from the late Teens
Summary: 5 Stars
I rented this from the local library and liked it so much and found it so great and funny that I knew I would have to buy myself my own copy later. A lot of people who aren't familiar with the genre at all constantly assert that silent comedy was little more than pie fights and police chases, but the shorts on these two discs reveal that that's not true at all and is little more than an urban legend spread by people who have no serious experience with this forgotten world of comedy in the late Teens. Some comedies (or just films in general) from this long ago do look unsophisticated and crude by modern sensibilities, but the stuff that Roscoe, Buster, Al St. John, and their other co-stars were doing in the late Teens stands head and shoulders over a lot of the lesser-evolved comedy shorts from the Teens. The plot might not always make sense, and some shorts may jump around in terms of plot and setting, but that's part of what makes early film comedy so fun. Besides giving a wonderful view of Buster's earliest films and seeing what natural comedic presence and talent he had even in his earliest work, it's also a wonderful view into a bygone world, one with long-gone makes of cars, horse-drawn wagons, fashions, trains, old-fashioned fire engines, elevators, hotels, and, most priceless of all, the authentic footage of Coney Island, particularly in Luna Park, which was destroyed by fire in the 1940s. Even though there are efforts to restore Coney Island today, there's no substitute for seeing how it really looked during its glory days, before it became as run-down and has-been as it is today. Luke the dog is also really good, as much a screen presence, in his own canine way, as his human co-stars.
The much-discussed scene in 'Out West,' when an African-American man goes into the bar where Buster just gave Roscoe a job as a bartender and a bunch of mean cowboys, even Roscoe himself, start shooting at his feet to make him dance till the woman from the Salvation Army comes to the rescue, is very disturbing and hideously-aged, although as difficult as this is to watch in the modern era, it really only lasts for maybe a minute and isn't the main focus of this short. Although it's one thing to make allowances for an old film only having African-Americans in serving positions or having them act in overly cartoonish ways, this section could not be excused in the same way; things like this and much worse really were happening back then, and comes across as racist and horribly dated more than other films which might show their African-American characters in servile positions or caricaturish mannerisms; those kinds of depictions aren't necessarily racist.
Some people don't find Roscoe's films funny or that well-aged because he doesn't really have an established screen persona and because some of his shorts jump around in terms of setting and plot without seeming rhyme or reason, and while I don't agree with them, that is a valid criticism. We can predict how other comedic actors of the era, like Charlie Chaplin or Laurel and Hardy, would react to any given situation and what they'd do to get out of trouble, save the day, get the girl, but, while funny and brilliant, Roscoe's reactions don't really follow that same kind of established character pattern. The characters he plays are usually shy, sneaky, inventive, nice guys, but his appeal is more of an everyman, someone you can relate to even if you wouldn't do some of the crazy things he does, and a comedian doesn't need to have a developed screen character, like never smiling or talking, going around in oversized clothes, or being a childlike man who overreacts to everything to establish rapport with the audience and make people root for him and feel sympathy towards him.
Summary of The Best Arbuckle/Keaton Collection
BEST ARBUCKLE & KEATON COLLECTION - DVD MovieSimilar DVD Movies
Buster Keaton: Interviews (Conversations with Filmmakers)University Press of Mississippi; Published: 2007-05-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $20.93
Price in other shops:
The Harold Lloyd Comedy Collection Vols. 1-3Release date: 2005-11-15; DVD
Best price: $169.00
Buster Keaton Collection (The Cameraman / Spite Marriage / Free & Easy)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2004-12-07; DVD
Best price: $26.86
Price in other shops:
The Art of Buster Keaton (The General / Sherlock, Jr. / Our Hospitality / The Navigator / Steamboat Bill Jr. / College / Three Ages / Battling Butler / Go West / The Saphead / Seven Chances / 21 Short Films)Kino International; Release date: 2001-11-20; DVD
Best price: $109.49
Price in other shops:
Buster Keaton - 65th Anniversary Collection (General Nuisance / His Ex Marks the Spot / Mooching Through Georgia / Nothing but Pleasure / Pardon My Berth Marks / Pest From the West / So You Won't Squawk / The Spook Speaks / The Taming of the Snood / She's Oil Mine)Sony; Release date: 2006-03-07; DVD
Best price: $88.99
Lost Keaton: Sixteen Comedy Shorts 1934-1937Kino International; Release date: 2010-07-06; DVD
Best price: $17.00
Price in other shops:
Buster Keaton - Short Films Collection: 1920 - 1923 (3-Disc Ultimate Edition)Release date: 2011-07-12; DVD
Best price: $20.32
Price in other shops:
Arbuckle and Keaton, Vol. 2Kino International; Release date: 2001-04-10; DVD
Best price: $59.99
The Forgotten Films of Roscoe "Fatty" ArbuckleRelease date: 2005-05-24; DVD
Best price: $10.09
Price in other shops:
Arbuckle and Keaton, Vol. 1Kino International; Release date: 2001-04-10; DVD
Best price: $82.47