General Nuisance

I hadn't thought it possible for anybody to put Buster Keaton into a film more inane and humiliating than "Free and Easy", but I stand corrected. I had to force myself to sit through this dreary dreck, in the mostly vain hope that Keaton would sooner or later give me something worth watching.

That one thing worth watching does show up in the middle of an otherwise grim song-and-dance routine with Elsie Ames. Alas, the moment ends quickly, and we're back to Buster playing somebody so clueless he makes Rain Man look as canny as a Mafia don.

I can't fathom what it is about this film that makes people pick it out as one of the better (or perhaps less dismal) of the Columbia shorts. "Mooching Through Georgia" is actually fun, and "She's Oil Mine" and "The Taming of the Snood" are the others most likely to give Keaton fans something they can watch without being embarrassed for Buster. This one left a bad taste in my mouth.

I would guess that the dividing line between those who find it palatable and those who find it more of a cinematic emetic would be whether or not the viewer enjoys Three Stooges comedy. If you do, you'll probably like "General Nuisance". If not, spare yourself the ordeal.

This is not one of the high points of Buster's career. He seems to be used for his remaining marquee value here. Even the two falls from the car near the beginning of the movie do not seem to be performed by him -- when Buster fell, his entire body moved and reacted, like a a trout struggling to not be drawn in by the universe. No, that's a stuntman taking the fall, competently but with no flair, and that makes this a waste of time. Far better to watch him doing little comic bits in big movies.

This is, in short, far more of a Jules White comedy than a Buster Keaton comedy. Although the print on the new Keaton at Columbia set is far better than any more generally available, this is a short only for completists.

"General Nuisance" is raucous stuff -- complete with a honk-whistle comedy soundtrack -- compared to Buster Keaton's own preferred style, but it's actually pretty good. It also features a daft and charming song and dance act from Keaton and comedienne Elsie Ames, in which the performers demonstrate alternate grace (there are moments when Keaton is stunning) and grotesquerie, in a take-off of different styles of dance that ends in a highly unusual percussion routine!

The scene in which an indignant Keaton mutely resists the medical officer's attempt to undress him is a development of the one used in "Doughboys"; but this is no detriment to enjoyment for viewers of the earlier film -- far from it, as we see a whole new set of gags, of which my favourite is perhaps the one where the two medics grapple with each other while an elusive Buster looks quizzically on. Likewise, the scene in which Dorothy struggles to transport Keaton's unconscious body is a freshly inventive variation on one of his favourite routines, originated in "Spite Marriage" and quoted many times -- but never in this form...

In addition to the interest of the reworked material -- entertainment value actually heightened by acquaintance with the original, since expectation is constantly surprised! -- there is a good deal of fast and furious new action, with never a dull moment and very few gags that fall flat. Perhaps some of the most memorable moments are Keaton's various creative attempts at injury and his unusual use of a leg in plaster when confronted with an axe-wielding lunatic (not to mention his prudent stowing of the axe...); but others are worthy of note. This is broad-brush comedy, but it's not half bad.

For some reason, Jules White had paired Buster Keaton with Elsie Ames in 6 of the 10 shorts he made at Columbia Pictures. Ames was a bizarre burlesque dancer/comedienne who had worked at the studio's shorts department, as well as her husband Nick Arno (who has a small role in this short as an army doctor). Essentially, Buster is a millionaire who is smitten with an army nurse (Dorothy Appleby) and does everything he can to get hurt on the premises so Appleby can treat him, but he's constantly running into her friend (Ames). On the plus, there is an outlandish amount of slapstick in this, including a song-and-dance number between Buster, Elsie, and a stack of spitoons.

General Nuisance (1941)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Columbia short with Buster Keaton playing a man who falls for a girl but she's only interested in men in the Army so Keaton joins with plenty of gags to follow. I had heard the Columbia Keaton films were pretty bad but this one here was pleasant enough, although it's certainly a long way from The General. There's plenty of nice one-liners from Keaton and he's good at the old time slapstick but there's plenty of more violent humor, ala The Three Stooges, that Keaton really can't pull off.