Top Five Educational Shorts: Buster Keaton

These aren’t “educational shorts,” by the way.  They’re talking shorts made by Educational Pictures in the mid-to-late ‘30s, after Buster Keaton was fired by MGM.  Like with the Columbia shorts I already reviewed, they’re quick and cheap, but some of them are really funny and Buster is marvelous.  Here are my top picks.

The Gold Ghost (1934)

A typical Buster dandy skips town after being rejected by his girl; he settles in a ghost town, where he takes up the post of sheriff just in time for a big boom when gold is rediscovered in the area.  It’s a nice Bustery plot with some fun ghost town gags and a great final shoot-out that really lets Buster shine.

Hayseed Romance (1935)

Here, Buster moves in with a pretty girl and her short-tempered aunt, answering a want ad for a husband, but he immediately regrets it when he realizes which one placed the ad.  There’s a long bedtime sequence that’s just to die for, and Buster and the girl he likes are way too cute together.

Grand Slam Opera (1936)

This one’s probably the funniest of the bunch.  It features Buster taking part in a radio talent show (unfortunately, juggling isn’t really made for a radio audience.)  There are two incredible dances that are hilarious (and impressive!) in different ways, and the short also adapts the “Anvil Chorus” gag that Buster first performed back in his vaudeville days.  It’s still sometimes staggering how think how wonderfully funny he was.

Blue Blazes (1936)

In this short, Buster is a disaster of a fireman who’s relocated to a small-town firehouse after one too many screw-ups.  He naturally gets off to a colossally bad start, but it’s terrific to watch him eventually make good in a very Busterish fashion, and I could pull a muscle laughing at his ridiculous attempts to get into a burning building.

The Chemist (1936)

While Grand Slam Opera is funnier, this one might be my favorite of the bunch.  In it, Buster plays a hapless scientist who, having finally gotten his big break after inventing a noiseless explosive, is kidnapped by a trio of bank robbers looking to blow safes inconspicuously.  Buster is in fine resourceful form – he gets to do lots of creative quick thinking, there are some good chase scenes, and one gag features the best use of sound that I’ve seen in any Buster Keaton talkie.  Great fun all around.