Fifteen visual essays, illustrated with clips and stills and written by various Keaton experts, including Jack Dragga, Ken Gordon, David Kalat, Bruce Lawton, Steve Massa, Ben Model, David B. Pearson, R. Emmet Sweeney, and Patricia Eliot Tobias make up the most fascinating parts of the set, excluding the films themselves, of course. Each runs a few minutes, but they’re very insightful into how Buster made the films, his techniques of comedy, the backgrounds of the actors who worked with him, and more. Don’t ignore these.
Get an insight into how Keaton experimented with gag construction with a series of brief alternate/deleted shots from The Goat, The Blacksmith, Day Dreams and The Balloonatic, and an alternate title sequence from Cops.
The Men Who Would Be Buster is a collection of clips from slapstick films influenced by Keaton's work, including the complete film Only Me (1929, starring Lupino Lane, which is an elaboration upon The Playhouse), a lengthy excerpt of Be Reasonable (1921, starring Billy Bevan, an elaboration of the police chase from The Goat, and it may or may not have influenced Keaton in Cops, which was released 3 months later), excerpts from White Wings with Stan Laurel and Oh Baby! with Charley Chase. There’s always room for Stan Laurel and Charley Chase!
You can enjoy learning about Keaton even when you’re not watching the DVDs. That’s when you read the eight-page booklet with an essay by Jeffrey Vance, author of Buster Keaton Remembered.
Four visual essays on the films' locations by Silent Echoes author John Bengtson are ones I‘ve probably watched more than the films themselves. This is another fascinating look at Keaton’s world during the filming of these classic shorts. Rare views of his studio and various locations around Los Angeles show us his world as no fan of the day ever got to see it.
Character Studies (ca. 1925) - A gag film starring Carter De Haven, with cameos by Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, Rudolph Valentino and others. This interesting little film is nothing more than a performer supposedly demonstrating how realistically he can imitate the great movie stars of the day. The joke is clearly a series of cameos by the stars themselves.
Seeing Stars (excerpts) - A 1922 film featuring cameos by Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, and others improvising little gags for the camera. Filmed at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, this formal dinner honoring the Screen Actors Guild also features Thomas H. Ince and Jackie Coogan.
