BUSTER KEATON - THE COMPLETE SHORT FILMS: Full Specs, Clip From Upcoming Masters Of Cinema Blu-ray Set
Eureka! Entertainment will be bringing 32 Buster Keaton shorts to Blu-ray for the very first time in the UK, when its four-disc Buster Keaton - The Complete Short Films 1917 - 1923 comes to the Masters Of Cinema on 18 July. That's over 740 minutes of classic silent comedy...
"...capturing Keaton’s first steps in front of a camera, charting his early association with ex-Keystone Kop Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle through to starring in, headlining, and directing his own box office smash hits. Using Chaplin’s old Hollywood studios in 1920, Keaton’s sophisticated technical inventiveness coupled with his haunted-yet-handsome ‘Stone Face’ persona, created a succession of the most timeless, classic comedy shorts ever realised."
Featured across the four discs will be newly restored 1080p presentations of:
THE BUTCHER BOY (1917), THE ROUGH HOUSE (1917), HIS WEDDING NIGHT (1917), OH, DOCTOR! (1917), CONEY ISLAND (1917), OUT WEST (1918), THE BELL BOY (1918), MOONSHINE (1918), GOOD NIGHT NURSE (1918), THE COOK(1918), BACKSTAGE (1919), THE HAYSEED (1919), THE GARAGE (1919), THE “HIGH SIGN” (1920/21), ONE WEEK (1920), CONVICT 13 (1920), THE SCARECROW (1920), NEIGHBORS (1920), THE HAUNTED HOUSE (1921), HARD LUCK (1921), THE GOAT (1921), THE PLAYHOUSE (1921), THE BOAT (1921), THE PALEFACE (1922), COPS (1922), MY WIFE’S RELATIONS (1922), THE BLACKSMITH (1922), THE FROZEN NORTH (1922), DAYDREAMS(1922), THE ELECTRIC HOUSE (1922), THE BALLOONATIC (1923), THE LOVE NEST (1923).
The set is also packed with special features, including multiple scores on selected shorts, audio commentaries by Joseph McBride on The ‘High Sign’, One Week, Convict 13, The Playhouse, The Boat and Cops; a newly discovered version of The Blacksmith containing four minutes of previously unseen footage; alternate endings for Coney Island and My Wife’s Relations; That’s Some Buster, a new exclusive video essay by critic and filmmaker David Cairns; An introduction by preservationist Serge Bromberg; The Art of Buster Keaton, actor Pierre Étaix discusses Keaton’s style; Audio recording of Keaton at a party in 1962; Life with Buster Keaton (1951, excerpt) - Keaton re-enacts Roscoe Arbuckle’s “Salomé dance”, first performed in The Cook.
There's also a whopping 184-page book containing a roundtable discussion on Keaton by critics Brad Stevens, Jean-Pierre Coursodon and Dan Sallitt; a new essay and detailed notes on each film by Jeffrey Vance, author of Buster Keaton Remembered; a new essay by Serge Bromberg on the two versions of The Blacksmith and other discoveries; the words of Keaton, and archival imagery.
Check out a clip of the climactic scene from One Week below.
