The Cameraman / Spite Marriage

[00:00:01] Blank Check with Griffin and David, Blank Check with Griffin and David Don't know what to say or to expect All you need to know is that the name of the show is Blank Check Okay, and then I held up an intertitle that said podcast.

[00:00:29] Alright, that was pretty good. Fine, we finally did it. So you were out, you were out of stuff. We finally did that joke. I wasn't out of it! That's the joke everyone's been waiting for me to make. Yeah, we finally did it.

[00:00:37] Six weeks, I wasn't out of it. I was saving that. You're out of stuff. I'm not out of stuff! You're out of juice. Watch me, I could fucking do it right now. You're like, remember that tech company that was like, we made like a great juice pressing machine?

[00:00:50] Juicero? Juicero, and then people were like, just squeeze it with my hand bro. I just get the packets, and I squeeze it with my hand. I am no mere Juicero machine. No, of course not. How dare I imply that? I never was. Watch me, I could do this.

[00:01:02] You must always podcast forward, never backward. But I didn't want to do that. No, you wanted to hold up a little intertitle that said podcast. Yeah, and it was funny and everyone loved it and they cheered. It was the thing they were waiting for for six weeks.

[00:01:12] I can't hear anything you're saying right now, because people are cheering too loud. Thank you. And like, Joaquin Phoenix is sort of, he's holding his thumb like this, you know? He's like, yeah, yeah, they're all like, yes! Thumbs up! Fred Heschinger, the new Joaquin Phoenix? Is that who?

[00:01:27] Yeah. Barry dropped out? Barry dropped out. Can I say something? What? I'm kind of pro that. I like Barry Keegan. It's maybe, he's like signing on to every project. I maybe am worried about Jude Law syndrome with this guy. Oh, sure.

[00:01:46] You know what I mean? Where it's just like, how about you do one to two movies a year? Rather than be like the weirdo in three movies or four movies every year. Yeah, Fred Heschinger, also a blankie. Is he? Yeah. A listener. Hello! Right, in favor of that.

[00:02:00] But yes, yes. I mean, Ben is a scowling, like, why does he listen? Great question. I don't know, something wrong with him? Did he hit his head? Very hard? Yes, unfortunately. Oh, so he's resting in bed. I just like the idea that hitting your head makes you stupid.

[00:02:18] Yeah, oh no, always funny. Right, and you forget your name. Barry Keegan's also a very, very specific performer. Like, there's no one like him. That's the thing. That's the thing. You're putting a whole dollop of anchovies into the dish. I love anchovies!

[00:02:35] A lot of range. He can apply himself in very different ways. Yes, yes. But he's not like Jude Law where it was such an obvious gimme of, like, just slot him into everything. Let's have him do everything. Sure, sure. Right? Yeah. And with all respect to Keegan,

[00:02:49] I think we all agree Joker was a bit of a bust. There are things he should maybe not do. I can't be mad at him for that because... I can hear you. He didn't have the time or, you know, the necessary runway to do something...

[00:03:04] Like, to where I'm like, oh, this is what he came up with? Correct. But also, like, that's what he came up with? Yes. Anyway. Hi Fred! Hi Fred. Come on, blank check. This has been the key... Feel better. Feel better. Sorry about your head. Sleep well.

[00:03:20] Please text me Kraven, uh, Goss. Yeah, he's playing the chameleon. He's in Kraven. He's playing the chameleon. Listen. This has been an episode of the Keegan cast. Keegan cast. And now, welcome to Blank Check with Griffin and David. I'm Griffin. Hi David. So fast.

[00:03:35] So fast it almost was... You could... Almost couldn't hear it. Exactly. I'm Griffin and then hold up title card. Funny. Uh, this is a podcast about filmographies. Directors who have massive success early on in their careers and are given a series of blank checks

[00:03:50] to make whatever crazy passion projects they want. And sometimes those checks clear and sometimes they bounce baby. And this is a mini-series on the films of Buster Keaton. It's called Podcast Junior and today we've gotten to our last episode. This series has been focused on

[00:04:06] the ten features that Buster Keaton made under Buster Keaton Productions. His independent run financed by Mr. Skank. Joe Skank. That took him from total independence to sort of, uh, uh, supervised independence under Metro as part of Skank's position there. Yeah. To now finally these final two episodes

[00:04:28] uh, are going to track his move to MGM. Yes. The two films he directed for MGM before he was then just pushed into being a star. We slot you in where we like you. Right. Right. Right. Right. And his final two silent films, correct? Correct.

[00:04:44] Like after this he is in Talkies. Yes. Right? Yes. Yes. Yes. These are his two final... His final... These are his silent, cyanide comedies. Uh-huh. And uh, all those, Spite Marriage, is him dipping a little bit of a toe into sound. Now right off the bat,

[00:05:05] Ben has said he thinks that both of these movies stink. Producer Ben. He didn't like them. I walked in here, Griffin. Yeah. On time, of course. 10 AM. Okay. Uh, great job by me. I want... Let me just say this for the record. Uh-huh. Okay. Alright. Alright. Uh-oh.

[00:05:21] Go ahead. Go ahead and say it. I beat you here. I had a track record. I think I... I think it was maybe three or four... Six. Wow, he had the number. He was gonna... He was trying with I think. I can confirm. It was six.

[00:05:35] It was six. Yeah. It was six. Yeah. And I happened to fall back asleep. Oh! So now... So wait. So the running total is what? Like 412 to six? Correct. But I'm saying... It's like you're the fucking Washington General's Washington General's. You get a couple baskets and you're like

[00:05:52] Keep it fresh! The General's on a streak here! I'm just... Look, I moved. I live two blocks away from the studio. We're just getting their buckets of glitter. I'm walking distance. I'm saying we might start evening out. We just have to do the show for another eight years.

[00:06:03] You've moved closer. You've moved closer. We do the show for another eight years. It might even out. Yeah, you've actually moved closer. Although you've usually lived closer to our studio. But not since we moved to this. This is the closest I have ever lived.

[00:06:13] Oh, you live very close now. I live very close. So close that we really can't be disclosing where this is. Nope. Ben cut some references out of previous episodes. Did he? Okay. Yep. Yeah, but I walk in. Yeah. Ben's finishing up Spite Marriage. Okay.

[00:06:29] And he's just like, blech! And I was with him on... I was like, yeah, you know, Spite Marriage. Not great. You don't really like my flair. No. Yeah. But then you revealed you didn't like either of these films. No. I think Cameraman's a little masterpiece. He loves Cameraman.

[00:06:40] I was relieved to see you agreed with him. Listen, there's fun stuff in it. Yeah. And I understand that in Buster's case, he's not the only one who's had fun. I'm not the only one. I'm not the only one. There's a lot in it. Yeah.

[00:06:49] And I understand that in Buster movies, he's kind of hitting very similar stories. Yes. Sure. You mean types, character types. You don't like his character type in this movie? I just was not in the mood to deal with smug bullies. Ben, can we talk about it on mic?

[00:07:07] Yeah, we should. Let's talk about it. So Ben is also... He's steamed. Okay. He's grouchy. Mad. He got basically upsold on a fancy steak by a waiter at a hip New York restaurant. I'm sorry. Corner bar. I'm sorry.

[00:07:24] So he's pissed off, I think, about all smug sort of... Thinking they're better than you. ...upper cross guys. They're above you. Because he basically... You're a damn rube. ...was at this cool-ass place, and the waiter was like, well, the cut of beef you really want is the special.

[00:07:40] And he didn't disclose that the special was... How much it cost. Mucho dinero. Way too much for what I got. Was this last night? Yeah! So I watched this movie, Cameraman, first this morning. Yeah. And it's like this bully jerking around Buster, and I just got so pissed.

[00:07:59] I want to break this down for a second. Please do. Every one of these movies has some smug bully who fucks with Buster. Yeah, there's always a rich guy or an alpha guy. Right. His problem wasn't... You know, if you said, I hate a cameraman,

[00:08:14] but in my defense, yesterday, some fucking bewildered cameraman fucked with me on my walk home. I could understand this movie hitting a nerve. It was like really specific. Right, you're supposed to relate to Buster in this movie. The point is you're supposed to hate this smug bully.

[00:08:28] I know. And you're going, I'm too triggered by the smug bully because a waiter got me to buy a more expensive steak last night. Yes! Fair enough. It makes sense. Okay. Look, I'll say this. Yeah. I sympathize. I think Ben is the wronged party. Sure.

[00:08:47] This steak that he got, and yes, it was for the whole table. It's not like he was personally given this steak, but still, I checked the price on it. It's a lot of money. Yeah. If you're a waiter, even if you've been told,

[00:08:59] like, oh, you know, don't say that. It's gauche to say the numbers out loud. You might just want to say, but it's an expensive item. But this is a high end, you know, just so that you can give the opportunity for the person to be like,

[00:09:13] how much is it? For what I paid for it, it should have been the fucking opening of Flintstones. You wanted them to destabilize the table when they dropped it off? You wanted to take it over for what I paid. Yeah, I mean. You wanted a dinosaur leg. Correct!

[00:09:28] Funny, funny, funny. Look, I know this podcast has already become a 25% syndication of old Doughboy's bits. Sure. We just rerun old Doughboy's bits by us describing them and saying they were good. And now I'm doing one from the episode you and I were on, David. Yes.

[00:09:47] Wait, which was the Eataly episode? Which episode was the bit? It's not even a bit. This is just, here's a fucking incredible waiter who got a great ass tip that night, okay? We're at Eataly, we're trying to order a lot of stuff.

[00:10:01] I'm with Mitch and Weiger for the Doughboy's podcast in LA at the Eataly, David ate at the New York one. And Mitch was like, it's truffle season, we should try something with truffles on it, right? And we were trying to balance out dishes

[00:10:14] and there was like, we were going to get a pasta and then there was a steak you could add truffles onto. And we tried to order that. And our waiter said, you know, the surcharge on the truffles is itself more expensive

[00:10:31] than this pasta that has truffles on it. So if you get the truffle pasta instead of that pasta and get the steak minus the truffles, you're saving money. Right. So here's the thing, Griff. That's how a fucking server should... Here's the thing, and Ben's going to tell you.

[00:10:49] Yeah. But I think his waiter kind of tried to pull that trick of like, look, this extra, it pays for itself in sides. Yeah. You know, he was trying to kind of do the like... The sides? He's like, it comes with fries and a salad.

[00:11:02] He's like, I mean, it's a good deal. Right. He said it was a good deal. This guy just sounds dishonest. Should we say how much the steak was? Yeah, we could say how much it was. Yeah, we're not going to be saying. Everyone will unsubscribe. Listen, Ben...

[00:11:18] He didn't want the fancy steak, he got the fancy steak. And now, so if there's any fancy men... Sure. Who are pulling on over... Running MGM, being gatekeepers. Well, so you don't like that part of it either. You don't like the actual behind-the-scenes narrative. And we're...

[00:11:33] It's also, it's the story set in the city, so I really can relate. I could really put myself... Sure. But you're the buster in this story. Correct. Just trying to have a damn steak. Okay. Which is fine. It's fine. Listen, Buzzer Keaton said, signing up with MGM,

[00:11:50] signing up with MGM was the greatest mistake of his entire career. It was the thing that kind of killed him. Absolutely, he is convinced as... It's not like he was completely swindled here. Like his, you know, his business was in decline.

[00:12:07] Like he was, he kind of needed a raft to jump to. This is my question. What other options did he really have at this moment? Let me look at the dossier here, but yes. Okay, look. I ask this rhetorically. Buzzer is, of course, making feature films independently. Yes.

[00:12:24] They're getting distributed by whoever, but like, you know, by Metro or MGM or whatever, you know, and UA eventually. But the key basically is that... He makes them himself. And he has his own company. He has his regular crew. He's sort of an autonomous unit. But...

[00:12:40] Hands the movies over to Skank. But the films he makes are not produced efficiently, and they are not cheap. No. It's not like he is the reliable old Buster Keaton machine just pumping out movies at X price. Right. And they're going to make Y price.

[00:12:54] Like some of them are hits, some of them are less so. Yes. Some of them are made for an okay budget. Some of them cost too much money or take too long to make. And he's constantly trying to push the medium on technical levels.

[00:13:05] He's trying to constantly come up with things that people haven't seen before. He's increasingly looking for a sense of verisimilitude that does not come easily or cheaply. Yes. And on top of that, his basic process is like 60% pre-planned, 40% improvised.

[00:13:19] Which is a nightmare to the person writing the checks. Yeah. Because they go like, I have no idea what the fuck this is even going to end up being. It's hard to come up with a shooting schedule. It's hard to have an actual budget going in.

[00:13:31] So, MGM is looking at that and says, well, you're going to make movies for us and they're going to cost about $250,000. Like we're going to put you in a budget category. They say to him, you will be the third highest paid person on our payroll at our studio.

[00:13:49] You're a star. In our star system, right? You'll be the third highest paid person we have. But it's kind of classic. It feels like such an echo of how these studio execs still talk today. Where they were like, we at MGM can solve the Buster Keaton problem.

[00:14:06] If Buster comes to us, his budgets will be smaller and he'll make four movies a year. They were just so confident that they could get this guy on rails, right? This is easy. We can control him. We control him and the quality will stay good

[00:14:18] and people will like the movies. We'll just tell him to be cheaper and more structured and work faster. So, they are saying to him... Just like the writers love of work. We'll get them to end the strike because they'll be so tired of not... They love being underpaid.

[00:14:34] They like making money. They love working. I don't even know if they like making money. I think that's a lie. They may not. They may not. It's very gauche to make money. Oh, it sucks. Yeah, and what do you spend it on? Some fucking shitty steak? Yeah, exactly.

[00:14:46] I should mention it did come with steak sauce. House steak sauce. Okay, so you made your money back. You're right. Because he went off and sold that thing on the street, right? You took the steak sauce. You flipped it, right? This is house steak sauce. Yeah.

[00:14:59] So, they're saying you're going to make movies around a quarter of a million dollars and you're going to make four a year. Not two a year, which is what you're currently doing. However, Buster moves into MGM and then MGM or him or whoever,

[00:15:15] someone realizes four a year is unrealistic. Right. And so they're like, Let's keep the same output. Let's go to two a year, but if you're going to do two a year, your budgets are going to go down. So, you're going to have to make these quite cheaply

[00:15:28] and yeah, you can keep some of your crew, but not all of them. You know, essentially it's just kind of like, Look, the great days for you are over. You don't get to just do whatever you want with whoever you want for how long you think you need.

[00:15:43] They want to streamline. They want to automate it a little bit and a big part of it is there's going to be oversight now. You don't just go off and do whatever the fuck you feel like, you know? Which at a certain point, one wonders,

[00:15:58] What did MGM even want? I mean, but they probably, like you say, it's like, what do you mean? We're smart. We can fix this. But it's not just the entertainment industry. You just read these stories constantly of there's a company that is successful, right? Right.

[00:16:13] And then a much larger company buys the company and goes, We think we can reduce costs. We think we can reduce costs, increase profits, up sales. We see a lot of inefficiency here, but you are still Buster Keaton, so we can still make money off of you. Right.

[00:16:26] They go, We can just make this cheaper and more profitable and then within a year they go, Suddenly this is not making money for us. And you're like, Well this was working before you entered the picture. Even if it didn't work every single time. It wasn't totally working.

[00:16:38] It evens out. But the other thing of course with Buster is, even if he hadn't gone to MGM, Yes. The talkies are coming. Totally. Everything's about to change. Like who knows what would have a way to do it? This is my big question, is just like,

[00:16:50] he needed to go to a studio at this point. Most likely. Right? Skank was not re-upping. Yeah, no. Unless he could find some other rich guy to, you know, literally front him money in exchange for the hopes of profit. Right. Yeah, obviously. Unlikely.

[00:17:06] What he should have done was, and he was never much of a businessman, he should have done what Chaplin had done 10 years earlier. He needed to form a United Artists. Right. Or, you know, stick with the existing United Artists and, you know, but I, look,

[00:17:22] I don't live in 1928. I don't either. I don't know what the landscape is or whatever. Look, he was a mogul and he also didn't think of himself as an artist. He thought of himself as a worker. But then again,

[00:17:34] he was always trying stuff and taking it to the next level. Oh, totally. It's a fascinating dichotomy with him. But I don't know if he would have been in a better position going to any other studio. It's hard to say. I'm not knowledgeable enough. I have no idea.

[00:17:46] Obviously MGM is sort of the king studio then. And really is for the next 30 years. Yeah. But certainly in the days of Louis Mayer. I kind of think this, a variation of this fate would have befallen him at this point. Now, there's some other issues.

[00:18:00] He doesn't play well with others really. He doesn't want to live on the lot. Right. So he moves into like a bungalow that's kind of off the lot. Right. Doesn't go into the studio. He doesn't interact with Louis Mayer.

[00:18:12] Which they put their foot down and said like you're moving into a fucking dressing room. Everything he tried to do was basically like I'm living off campus. Right. Right. He's like sort of like I'm not part of this community.

[00:18:23] He just was such an independently minded guy and he liked his own crew and whatever. And he said. But you know then you're not going to get what you want if you're not rubbing the shoulders of the fancy man.

[00:18:32] So I think he just immediately set the wrong tone with them. You know? And he goes like here's how it works. You give me my unit. Have a payroll of guys. I have my cameraman. I have my gag writers. I have my prop makers.

[00:18:46] And we're just working on stuff constantly. And they're like that's not how this works. You work with our guys we have under employ. You're sharing resources across the studio. Sure. So Irving Thalberg who is the Lunderkind head of production at MGM. He's only in his early 20s. Yes.

[00:19:03] You know he's you can read about him. It is an incredible tale. He is put in charge of Keaton. Set up his first movie please. His first proposal is a sort of Charles Lindbergh-esque story of a pilot doing a transatlantic flight with a fading burlesque beauty queen.

[00:19:21] They wanted Marie Dressler. So you know Buster doesn't like that story. Kind of likes the idea of working with Marie Dressler. Pitches a story back that's like Steamboat Bill Jr. Except she's like the raggedy old aunt rather than the mean uncle character. Okay. I mean not mean uncle.

[00:19:42] The you know grizzled dad. Yeah. Yeah. Right. So they're in a war set it on like a wagon train and again I'm like Buster the weakling. Sure. Buster the you know sort of silly boy. And we're going across the prairie. You know and stuff happens.

[00:19:59] Thalberg thinks about it. Keaton kind of knows he's not into it. Yeah. Okay. So then they have a new idea. Okay. What if instead of let's go back to that sort of idea but what if he's a cameraman instead of like a pilot.

[00:20:14] And it's the original concept was still going to have a transatlantic flight. Yes. Wasn't there also a whole thing where he got involved with the mob. There was sort of a mistaken identity thing.

[00:20:25] I mean yeah everything I was reading was that they kind of were pitching a lot right plot to him and he was sort of like and this is early gangsters and Keaton keeps being like no like throwing stuff all that out of here. Right.

[00:20:40] We have to strip this down. Right. Because his whole thing was just like you know I'm now working with guys who have no experience in comedy who think they can tell me what's going to be funny.

[00:20:50] They think they know what sounds like a funny set up for Buster Keaton movie. And I know in practical reality you want this thing as streamlined as possible. You want as little narrative fat as possible. You want room to discover gags.

[00:21:03] I'm going to read this Buster quote to you because it is so devastatingly good. Thalberg was a fine judge of light comedy and farce. Appreciated good slapstick whenever he saw it on screen. No truck driver ever guffawed louder at my better sight gags than that fragile intellectual

[00:21:18] boy genius. That's Thalberg. Yeah. Nevertheless he lacked the true low comedy mind which is sort of what you're saying. Right. Like any man who must concern himself with mass production he was seeking a pattern a

[00:21:30] format slapstick comedy has a format but you know he's basically just like he doesn't understand it's like math. Yes. You know the simplicity of that you see the geometry of how the thing is going to work

[00:21:42] which is look it's there are very few executives you know high level studio people who are genuinely creative and even fewer who are funny and understand how comedy works. But they make the most money in every area. And so they're obviously indispensable people indispensable.

[00:22:02] But eventually whatever this all gets hammered into the cameraman is the idea. And so they do start working on drafts of the script and all these MGM creme de la creme writers come in and Keaton is basically like 22 people at one point like we're weighing

[00:22:20] on a script right and they would keep complicating the plot gangsters Salvation Army street bands Tammany Hall politicians longshoremen and kind of like the sound of this one lady gem thieves. Cool. Maybe bring in one lady gem thief. Yes.

[00:22:36] But and then the executives look it's the classic day. Oh too many kids chefs in the soup you know or whatever. I think the difference for me is that cameraman feels like him trying so hard to stand his

[00:22:51] ground in the face of all this meddling that what comes out of it is like such a simple streamlined focused movie because he really has to fight for what he wants and like narrow

[00:23:06] in on his vision whereas and you know not to jump ahead but it's a relative success. It is well received. The movie actually MGM likes it. And I think he goes great. So I've proven myself. They'll give me more leash on the next one.

[00:23:21] And instead they tighten the leash and the second he feels the leash tighten on spite marriage it's like he's done right. It's just you just feel that he just gives up and you know and then it goes on to his

[00:23:32] MGM talkie career after this where it's just like the light is kind of gone from his eyes drinking more. He's not creatively involved. Yes. To skip ahead here but by now Edward Sedgwick is the director they assign him for these

[00:23:45] two films who's a guy who comes from a very similar background to him was also part of a vaudeville act with his family growing up has been on stage since he was a child transition

[00:23:56] of being behind the scenes is kind of a Roscoe Arbuckle type physically is much taller and bigger than him. They also both loved it. They were both baseball. Yes. They bonded over that. So there's like this beauty where you're like this feels like for all these years where

[00:24:13] even skank would assign him some new director who he would always fight with and push out. He's finally got a guy to kind of share the chair with who he really is simpatico with and who gets it and isn't fighting you know. Yeah I think they didn't mind.

[00:24:29] They shot it in New York. I think that was complicated. There's a week of New York shooting and then I think sound stages were in L.A. Right. But I think yeah they enjoyed a five day New York.

[00:24:42] Where there's parades all the time in those days every day. Dude you know how in New York there's if you walk up Broadway sort of from Wall Street there's this like there are these plaques kind of like Hollywood Walk of Fame style of every

[00:24:57] ticker tape parade there ever was. The parade walk of fame. And like there's there's like an embedded plaque in the sidewalk for every single ticker tape parade like in ascending order. Okay. And I loved it. I used to walk out.

[00:25:10] I forget what there's a name for what the avenues of the Avenue of Heroes or what. They used to fucking throw one of those every other week. Yeah. Because at a certain point you hit like the 80s and then it's basically like did a team win a championship.

[00:25:22] They got a ticker tape parade. Sure. That's it. You know it used to be like I don't know some guy like did a great job cleaning a building and they'd be like ah come on. But also you have so much ticker tape we got to get rid of.

[00:25:33] No one had a Roku. What else were you going to do. Exactly. You can't just fucking stay home and binge. Never have I ever. And so we got another parade. Great. That gives me something. It's just so funny. Like there were there were like seven a year. Yeah.

[00:25:48] Now it's like basically just like the New York Giants. Yeah. Oh that. Okay. So ticker tape is the printout from the stock from the stock ticker. They had all this fucking paper. They had to get rid of it somehow. So you know they rip it up.

[00:26:02] The president of Tunisia. Confetti. Yeah. So if the president of Tunisia came this year. Yeah. We just kind of be like yeah sure. Bathrooms are over there buddy. 1961 it was like clear the street. We should set a standard. There will be no cars. We should set a standard.

[00:26:16] We should start throwing a ticker tape parade every time we release a new episode. We gave the New York Mets a ticker tape parade for entering the National League in 1962. They hadn't even played a game yet. Yeah they could use all the encouragement they could get.

[00:26:29] Why not send them off in good fashion. I swear to God. Have a good season. They used to like if someone like took a shit without needing to wipe they would throw them a ticker.

[00:26:40] Anyway look I support all ticker tape raids to be clear I support the president of Tunisia unless he was bad. Let me check click on him. An interesting anecdote. This is a long Wikipedia page. I don't know if I can weigh in.

[00:26:55] Buster was still so fucking famous and iconic at this moment. Of course. He's sort of like right at the bell curve where his fame is about. He's a national name. Yes. Chaplin and Harold Lloyd as I point out in the past both have characters who involved

[00:27:16] a sort of disguise. Their persona on screen did not look like them in daily life. Yes. Harold Lloyd when he took the glasses off and showed it was like a Clark Kent Superman say with Chaplin you're of course Chaplin has a fucking mustache.

[00:27:28] He doesn't have the mustache on. He doesn't have the mustache on. Dyes his hair and all this shit. Right. He would put the bowler hat on his feet. You know it was a completely different vibe. Two bowler hats or one both feet in one hat.

[00:27:38] Both feet in one hat. He'd hop around. Yep he'd hop around or he'd slide. They go to film a couple days in New York and Cedric was like it was impossible. Yes. Hey Keaton. Yeah. People were yelling it from the windows. And you're not.

[00:27:52] Again like you said there's no Roku. Yes. People are bored. Right. They're like, oh, there's no TV. There's no sound. Right. They're not fucking up the takes with the sound, but they're reacting so what they're like swarming him. They're fucking up the shots. Right.

[00:28:06] And they were like, there was no way for him to disguise himself. He's Buster Keaton all the time. That's exactly what he looks like. Can I tell you something? Yes. Yesterday I got out of the subway. All your troubles for some. I suppose so.

[00:28:19] I get on a bike and I'm biking through Park Slope home. Okay. Brooklyn neighborhood. And I'm going up a street and then I see, oh, there's a film crew on this street. But the lanes not closed. I keep going. Pete Davidson, America's funniest man. Of course. Of course.

[00:28:39] America's most beloved comedian. Yeah. Is shooting something in front of an ice cream truck. Is it an ad? Sure. You know, who knows what it is. But it's Pete Davidson. Just him. Okay. A guy with a camera. Okay. And I will admit somewhat embarrassingly.

[00:28:54] And as I biked by, I went, hey, Pete. Just because I thought it was funny to do that. Wow. Usually I don't care about celebrities at all. But I was just kind of like, this is funny. And I also knew I was moving.

[00:29:05] So I would really just whiz by. Yeah. So I said, hey, Pete, you know, look who I don't know. He looked like Pete Davidson. Regular. Yeah, exactly. Like Pete Davidson. Yep. You know, it's kind of hot.

[00:29:18] He's kind of hot, but also you're kind of like, are you sick? Yeah. That's right. Davidson. Or do you have Lyme disease? Uh, first, first season of. I'm totally fine, obviously. Yeah. The first season of The Tick. Yeah. We filmed a lot in the streets of New York.

[00:29:37] Yeah. Filming in New York is expensive and difficult, but we thought like, we thought good production value, whatever. Right. It does look cool. Yeah. Season two, folks might notice there is almost, there's very little exterior work and where

[00:29:51] there is exterior work is in very kind of desolate, far out areas. Season two mostly you're in the base, you know, headquarters. Right. And when we were like outdoors, we were like under a bridge or in like an alley or something.

[00:30:02] And it was because we would film so much in the streets of Harlem in the first season and takes would get fucked up by people walking by and going, hey, tick. I do it. Yeah. It was that though. It's exactly what you said.

[00:30:16] Like people would just bike by and they go like, hey, tick looking good. And the show had not aired yet. It was just people knew the iconography from the past versions. It's a cartoon.

[00:30:23] But it was like we're filming episode two where no one should know that he exists. Right. And the amount of takes that were blown by that, it was insane how often it would happen. And you can't even be like, hey, don't do that. Guys already gone. Yeah.

[00:30:36] Biked off. Immediately. Just a bunch of fucking David Sims going, hey, pick. They're filming Law and Order on my street recently. And I was so tempted. It was like an early morning shoot.

[00:30:46] I was so tempted before leaving the house for the day to just have the Law and Order theme blasting out the window on a loop, on repeat, and just ruin their shoot. Yeah, that's funny. There was one time I saw when Jerry Orbach was still on the show.

[00:31:05] He was filming a scene and a bunch of kids rode their bikes in front of the camera and then stopped and went, yo, you're the guy from Law and Order. And he went, ha ha, yes I am. And it was the most charming thing I've ever...

[00:31:21] He responded with sort of Lumiere-esque. As he should. He's the greatest of them all. Yes I am. He might be the greatest New Yorker. He has a block named after him, which I think is deserved. Jerry Orbach way? Yeah, probably. It's usually a way.

[00:31:34] It's up in Hell's Kitchen. I've talked about my fucking brother's Jerry Orbach bit. Yes, we can't talk about this. We have to talk about the camera. We're not going to. It exists in the archives. All right. Yes. When Harold Boyd removed his glasses, he melted into a crowd.

[00:31:47] Buster Keaton, that old stone face, everyone wanted a piece of it. Then they go to LA, they shoot for 33 days. MGM is hopeful that that will be chill. But you know, Buster's not used to their kind of thing.

[00:32:04] As he says, you had to requisition a toothpick and triplicate. Everyone's hassling me. It seems like it's just a little stressful. A lot of clashes with the studio. Yeah, but I think this one's a little bit of a like pressure creating diamonds thing

[00:32:22] where it's like he had it in him one time to fight against this to get what he wanted. But went way over schedule. But maybe the most iconic sequence in this movie, I would say, is the changing room sequence, right? He's stuck. It's simple sequence.

[00:32:40] He's stuck in a changing room with a big fella. He's a little fella. They keep bumping into each other. He reuses this in What No Beer I referenced in What No Beer? I'm sorry, in What No Beer?

[00:32:53] He redoes this exact sequence in a voting booth, a polling booth. And I even feel like later in his career when he's doing a lot of TV segments and things like this, this became one of his routines. I'm trapped in a tiny space with another guy.

[00:33:07] But this one, yes, is incredible. And it's like an absolute. Why wouldn't we just do this? It was invented on the spot by Keaton and Sedgwick. And a couple of writers, Clyde Bruckman and Lou Lifton. Classic Keaton writers.

[00:33:19] So like some of this stuff they're coming up with on the day. This is what I love about this movie is it feels like it does not have the big sequences.

[00:33:27] It does not have the big movements of his other films in the same kind of way, by and large. It's just sort of ingenuity of in every very basic low stakes situation. What's the funniest thing I come up with right now? They were hoping the film would cost $250.

[00:33:42] It ends up costing $362. So you know, not perfect. It makes about $750? It made $800,000 worldwide. More money in foreign markets. So he's turning into a bit of a Sly Stallone. Yes. But you're getting less of that money back probably.

[00:34:02] Wasn't a bomb, but the profits were not huge for MGM. Thalberg did think it was hilarious. Thalberg in the years after would screen this to his comedy writers to say, here is a perfectly structured comedy. Study this.

[00:34:17] So he used it as a teaching tool so much they wore out the print they had. And this was a big one that was considered lost for a while. Yes, this was an actual lost film, especially because MGM had this huge fire that destroyed

[00:34:33] a lot of their films in the 50s. And this was one of the films presumed to be lost then. And then there was a combination of they ended up finding a print in France. A damaged print in France and then another higher quality print somewhere else.

[00:34:46] And over the years they've combined prints. They put them together. It was incomplete for a while. Now I think we pretty much have all of it. But the other wild thing is there was about eight reels, seven.

[00:34:56] The best print I think they found in France was missing one segment. And it was because they had repurposed it for some like MGM package film. When they did that, they literally took that section out. Sure. Why not? Yeah. Don't bother copying it.

[00:35:13] Who's going to watch this whole fucking thing again? Yeah. So the cameraman. Yes. Buster is at the beginning of the film a tintype photographer and he has a crush on his secretary who works for MGM. The setup is so simple.

[00:35:27] You start with really exciting newsreel photographers on the front lines of the war. Right. And they're showing this is the kind of photography we're used to seeing play before our pictures. Our A pictures. Right.

[00:35:42] You go then there is another type of cameraman and here he has this lowly guy in the middle of the street asking for a dime to take someone's portrait. Right. On essentially a tin ashtray. Right. He catches the eyes of a pretty woman.

[00:35:55] I think it's another thing I like about this movie. And I will admit a lot of my fondest moments. This was the as I think I said in our first episode. This was the activator movie for me. Right.

[00:36:06] This was the one I caught on TCM that turned me on to Buster. So it holds a soft spot in my heart because it's the one that made him click for me. Sorry I said it's stunning. No, it's fine.

[00:36:15] I don't think it's the best one but I think it's obviously his last great movie. Yes. And I do think it's in the top tier. Now I have and I'm sure you have not. I've not seen like his educational shorts that he made later.

[00:36:27] I've seen some of them. I know. I haven't seen everything he's done but I've watched. That's really all. He did a few like weird European. He did a run at Columbia. He did a run the educational picture shorts. I mean what there's like.

[00:36:43] But the Columbia ones he's never a director and rarely a writer. Yes. The yeah the educational shorts those are shorts obviously. The Railroaders his final thing which he did for Canada. It was a campaign to promote their own railroads. Right. Their train lines.

[00:37:00] And that one's actually really fun. He's very old but he's still got his ingenuity. And it's called The Railroaders. It's like 30 minutes or whatever. Then there's an amazing one hour documentary called like Buster Keaton rides again that is watching the process of him generating bits.

[00:37:18] And I highly recommend watching that. It was it was just re-released on Blu-ray. Yeah. But I think it's out there on the Internet. But yeah OK. But wait the cameraman. So he wants to impress this lady. So he buys a film camera for all his money.

[00:37:32] He will he sees her in the crowd. Who is she follows after she finds out she's the secretary at a newsreel company. MGM. It's MGM. It's MGM. There's this smug asshole type of guy who'd upcharge you on a steak. Right.

[00:37:46] A smug asshole with a big rib eye on a platter. Yes. Which with fries and steak sauce. Yeah. And Burpees. Right. But you're basically making a profit at that point. And look the ice in this water ain't free but we're giving it to you for free.

[00:37:59] I mean I guess I got some bread. And they were willing they were willing to lift the chair tax right. Because usually they charge for. They paid for those chairs Ben. Yeah. No the chair tax is built in. Magic those chairs out of existence. Yeah. Yeah. Right.

[00:38:14] I mean yes. Right. Do they include air conditioning on your on your check at the end of the. Was the AC on? The AC was not on. It was kind of a cool night. It was a cool night. Sure. Sure. Kind of in the 50s. Yeah.

[00:38:27] I mean I guess the first is a courtesy fee and that they were sort of nice. It doesn't sound like you were that nice. They weren't at all. OK. All right. All right. So there's a there's a meanie. Yeah.

[00:38:38] But but here's a thing I love about this movie. She's immediately pretty charmed by him. Right. Yes. There isn't the sort of challenge. She's encouraging. She likes him. She's giving him tips the whole movie.

[00:38:50] There's this feeling of unlike a lot of the Buster movies where there's sort of an ultimatum thrown at him. The other guy really wedges himself in the center. There's some authority figure a father a boss of you know the girl's father whatever it

[00:39:03] is that demands that he do a thing to prove himself or in the worst Buster movies I think it is the woman demands the thing and it makes the female character less likable when she's that much of a status obsessed sort of you know what have you. Right.

[00:39:17] I like in this that she is kind of immediately charmed by him and he just feels like at first I should do this to impress her and then I think he really kind of likes it.

[00:39:28] He's doing this out of the joy of doing this the discovery of doing this. I think this movie is in so many ways Buster making a film about his relationship to filmmaking

[00:39:38] the discovery of it you know and his experimentation with what you can do as a medium and every time he fucks up she kind of pulls him over and goes like do this. Right. Right. I'm giving you the inside track. I'm helping you out.

[00:39:52] I think she's really sweet. She's very sweet. I think you know what Buster does. Buster is not good. No his job. He fucks everything up. He's always double exposed. I mean look also it's hard 20s film camera shit like this is very technical but we've

[00:40:06] been doing this mini series now for six weeks. Right sure. Yes. Yes. Absolutely. Breaking down. How do you pull off these insane shots. How do you do it right. You have this sequence where he comes back with his first role he shot and they screen

[00:40:19] it in the screening room for the head of the m.g.m. newsreel company and they all laugh at how bad it is. And everything you're showing is basically one of the tricks that Buster has used to create one of his most famous sequences.

[00:40:32] It's a lot of double exposure stuff and things like that. It's double exposure. It's things being cranked backwards. Right? Yeah, right. But of course, but anyhow, you shoot a newsreel. Not just the facts, Jack. But this is what I'm saying. The vaguely kind of like autobiographical memoir-y quality

[00:40:48] to the film is it's sort of like all those special effects in the early days, the pre-digital days of film came about basically by people discovering things by accident. They would mess stuff up and you're right.

[00:40:59] Wait a second. That's a weird effect. Interesting. If you fuck it up on purpose, if you don't let this part of the image get exposed, right? I do think there's something here to like this character is more hapless than the actual Buster Keaton, the director. But it's like

[00:41:15] he's by hook by crook, by mistake and by chance, learning the mechanics of what a camera can do. I also think I'm trying to win Ben over on this movie. He's very fun toting the camera

[00:41:29] like, you know, he it just it just lends to like hapless, you know, harried Buster, right? That he's got this big fucking thing he's lugging around on his back. You know, you're with him like he's he's a good, hardworking boy who doesn't know what he's doing. Yeah.

[00:41:46] And it's a fire truck. You know, he goes to the baseball game. This is how comedic. Well, we're not going to breeze through these things that quickly. Oh, I'm so sorry. This is how

[00:41:54] comedically resourceful he is, though, is he's just like, if I have to carry this camera with me in every scene, I will find something funny to do with it. OK, well, then the tripod's

[00:42:03] got three legs. Yes, it's long. It's heavy. You know, anytime he's trying to talk to someone gets tangled in something. That's what I'm saying. Right. Yeah, exactly. Right. Right. OK, well, come on. The first thing is the fire. Right. That's the yes. The warehouse

[00:42:16] is on fire or whatever. Yeah. And so, you know, come on. Let's talk about some of these scenes. Right. Yeah. But the joke there is that just he rides the fire truck home. Right.

[00:42:26] Correct. He misses it. Good job. He fucks it up. Yeah. Right. The baseball scene is really sweet because this is also like him. He he gets there the wrong day. It's an away game.

[00:42:36] Yes. He shows up to an empty Yankee Stadium. It is. I was about to say, what's the Yankee Stadium? Yeah. Old Yankee Stadium. Right. I mean, this is one of the only. Oh, yeah. Because now. Right. Well, there's been three, I believe. OK. Stadiums. Yes. I think this

[00:42:50] is old. This is the house that Ruth built. This is. Yeah. No, he he just there's no one there decides to play baseball by himself. It is a thing that I think the other Buster Keaton characters don't necessarily ever display, which is this guy has creativity.

[00:43:10] Right. Right. This is the story of like an artist being active. Just a chump. Right. He will try to find right. The sort of hard way around it or whatever. But there's some

[00:43:21] combination of he is doing this for his own amusement. Right. But then also he's like trying to find something worthwhile to film. Right. And here is this like incredibly well observed pantomime of every player in a baseball game. And he's just doing it all. And it's trying

[00:43:38] to catch people stealing bases. It's also just clever. Way to use the location like it just looks cool. I just think there's something very kind of sweet and poetic to it. I will say this. Were you watching the Criterion release of this? How did you watch this film?

[00:43:54] No, I rented it on iTunes. Oh, you do. OK. So then I'll say this is a Criterion disc of this that has Spite Marriage as a special feature. The iTunes version of it. I don't

[00:44:04] understand. I don't know why this happened. This is these two films are the only Buster Silence that are not in the public domain because they're actually owned by MGM. Right. And they're also it's they're not a hundred years old. 28 or 29. Yeah, they're 28. This

[00:44:19] is 28 maybe Spite Marriage. Yeah. So there is a Criterion disc. Correct. That is that is copyrighted by Warner Brothers. Previously, it was on a DVD that was part of the Turner Classic Movie Presents series. That one had the score that I believe is now on the iTunes

[00:44:35] version. I had a very nice score. I love that score so fucking much. It's by a guy named Arthur Freed, who was part of Frank Zappa's band, Ben, and has in later years and did

[00:44:44] a lot of production and has in later years done a handful of silent film scores. And this one is so good and for whatever reason is not on the Criterion release. And the Criterion release score is good and it's a full orchestral score. But there's something very charming

[00:44:58] and kind of like bittersweet and a little lonely about that score. And I do think there's something to like the baseball game, the isolation of it, the loneliness of it, but also the

[00:45:10] sweetness of just like this this guy who lives in his own head. It feels like you're watching Buster Keaton generate material. Yeah. This character without having aspirations to be a performer, you know. Yeah. It's the same way he talks about how he'd come up with bits

[00:45:27] when he goes to a space and goes, What could we do in this environment? Here he is as an empty baseball field. What's he going to do? He's going to pretend to be every ball

[00:45:33] player. And the idea is that in post it will all come together to look like an actual baseball game. Cut it together. I mean, here's a guy pitching. Here's a guy running in a suit.

[00:45:47] There doesn't make any sense. There's no audience like they're never going to cry. It's not going to work. But he's just trying. It's like he's in the wrong medium in a way. Right.

[00:45:55] Like it's like your job is to document what's going on. Right. He doesn't think of things literally. The next sequence I've now there is a version of this on YouTube that I found

[00:46:07] is him showing the footage to the people at MGM. And I do love the gag of like the street scene with like a bat. Yes. But this is what I'm saying. It's like this beautiful. No,

[00:46:19] it's like that's kind of a great special effect. Right. And then there's the person jumping from the pool onto the diving board. Yes. And then there's reverse quadruple footage of cars or whatever where he's like, I don't know, done the lenses wrong. These but these

[00:46:34] are all tricks we have seen him employ purposefully. You know, him doing the baseball game is like him doing the playhouse short where he's everyone on stage and then, you know, he's discouraged. He's everyone in the rooms laugh. They're all laughing. They're all having a laugh.

[00:46:48] But she's there. Yeah. And she's encouraging. You got to crank forward. Yeah, exactly. She's like, look, you tried. Yeah. A lot of people wouldn't try. Right. And she, you know, she's he wants to ask her out and she's like, got a date basically. But he's she's still

[00:47:04] like call me. Right. And then you have the whole sequence where he's like, smashing open the wall looking for money and stuff like that. Right. He's got the piggy bank he can

[00:47:14] open. Right. Right. Right. He tries to hold it up against the wall and hammer it in and it just gets stuck in the wall. But then you also have she she calls right downstairs. Yes.

[00:47:28] There's like one goes down the staircases that crazy. She's got this insane Wes Anderson like dollhouse or flight. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Which is a classic Buster thing where he's like, here's what we're going to do. Build for real stories. Yeah. Expose. It looks

[00:47:45] cool but it is believable. Ten seconds of non comedic footage like it's longer than that because the whole bit is that he like runs downstairs. He keeps overshooting and he goes like he gets so much momentum in his running that he keeps on missing the flight

[00:48:03] the gag and then going to the roof and then walking up the roof. Yes. Like stairs. That's I think it's incredibly good but it's also it's like it is an expensive gag. You have

[00:48:13] to build an insane set to make this work because he understands it's only funny if it's continuous. The second you have to cut every time he goes up a new floor it's not going to work. It just

[00:48:24] seems very stressful back then though. Yeah. Having to wait by the phone. Oh a nightmare. So much better. It would be like at the store like three blocks away. You know. Yes. Well

[00:48:34] and then he finally picks up the phone. It's her saying her day canceled. She could hang out. He doesn't even listen to the end of her sentence. Right. He just runs across. So

[00:48:42] by the time she's done with the sentence he's behind her and he says sorry I'm late. Right. Which is funny. That's funny. He's really sweet. So they of course have a nice afternoon date at the swimming pool. Yes. Right. First there's some business with the old ladies.

[00:48:55] Yes. Because she's at like a rooming house or whatever. Right. She's like a. What is it like an SRO or. Yeah. You know nice a nice young single woman. We can't forget the bus

[00:49:04] ride. Then they get on the bus. Right. Well and also all the other women are like fawning over him. So then this. What do you call it. What do you call this sort of old lady who

[00:49:14] looks over a lady's house. The matron. I think an old marm. The whole idea was like you know if you're a single young woman you got to be living in a proper place where you're

[00:49:25] not going to get into any trouble. Right. And they can't you know if there's a gentleman caller he'll come into the drawing room right and it'll all be formal. You know he's not

[00:49:33] going to like knock on your bedroom door. This just knock you up. It feels like to me the only Buster movie where they kind of acknowledge that he's hot. Yeah. You know what I'm saying.

[00:49:47] Like the fact I guess you're not to a silly degree. No no no. But like that ladies want He's so low status in his energy and he's so oblivious. But there's like when he makes

[00:49:56] like eye contact with the woman in the crowd she immediately catches him. Obviously in Seven Chances the ladies want Buster but they want his money for his money. Yeah I think in this there's this you know without him seeing cocky it's like this thing of like

[00:50:10] everyone is throwing themselves at him. Right. He only has eyes for. It's her name Sally. Yes. But yes they he ends up on the roof of the boss. Yeah. You got to you got bus business

[00:50:24] and then the swimming pool or what do we call this. You know the baths. Yes. Right. It's the city plunge right. Follows her into the ladies room. Big mistake renting a bathing suit. Terrible eyes. Right. I mean I don't know hygiene I guess was different then. Yeah

[00:50:45] yeah I mean look I don't know. Yeah I guess it was a bit of a luxury to own a bathing suit because it's like I don't I don't I don't know why. You know the sort of like

[00:50:56] sociology of like public bathing in the way it changed over is interesting because obviously man has gone in water since time immemorial. Yeah. But like then you know all that like the Victorian bathing machines you know about that where they would like build a house in

[00:51:12] the water. Okay. So you could like get in the water without anyone seeing you. That's insane. You know what I mean. Okay. Like so like obviously yes you may have to remove some clothes you're

[00:51:22] probably still wearing like a top to bottom brown you know like bathing suit but like no one has to see that because you're you're bathing house is on the water and has walls. A little cabana. Yes.

[00:51:33] Sort of weird. Okay. Insanity. But you know this is like you know he goes to these lockers where I guess it's just you know come one come all. So he gets in there and then another guy

[00:51:43] just sort of you know barges in with him. And Sedgwick wanted to play the guy in the dress. Sedgwick kind of looks like like when I see pictures of him he looks like this guy. More

[00:51:52] of a husky you know. He was like six foot one three hundred pounds. Right. And Buster said the guy needs to be the same height as me because he can be a little bit rough but if he's too much

[00:52:04] taller than me people are going to think the guy's going to knock me out. Right. This guy can't be like that much of a physical threat to me he can just seem a little bit tough. Look the guy's

[00:52:14] a little mean because Buster says this is my dressing room and the guy says shut up or it'll be your coffin. Yes. So he's he's going right to murder. But I also like that it's sort of. He's

[00:52:25] not even like I'll give you a black eye. No no. Your final resting place is this fucking dressing room. I think this guy was like he was the locations manager. He was a crew member. OK. He was not a performer. Sure. He was a crew member. And

[00:52:43] the thing I like is that it's just sort of this like stereotype of a New Yorker where he's like excuse me I'm already in here and the guy sort of has the attitude of like yeah

[00:52:51] well I walked in here and I'm too busy to get out of here. You just got to fucking live with it. Buster's doing all the finesse comedy. This guy's just you know elbows and you know.

[00:53:01] That's what's remarkable about it is like he just told the guy undress and I will do comedy around you. But then of course they're getting their clothing items like kind of like getting on

[00:53:10] his back is that is one of the funniest parts. It's so good. Yes. I mean obviously like I said I do think this is like the whole thing with these Buster movies is I'd seen some of them

[00:53:22] and others I would be like well I know about that. You know that. Like you know like the the avalanche or things like that you know and like this one. Yes. This the changing room is

[00:53:33] kind of the most famous. And once he reuses this for the rest of his once again I'll just want to shout out Buster. Great bod. Total cutie. This is the scene. This is the scene where he starts to

[00:53:44] pull up his tank top and you're like fucking no shit he was shredded. The guy was working like crazy and was like doing all this athletic stuff. But I think usually he tries to hide it

[00:53:54] and you look at this and you're like he's like built like fucking spider man. He is like zero body fat. You probably could spider man. Maybe a great. Oh my god. 1940s Buster

[00:54:05] King. Should we bring back this kind of bathing suit like the dude in the kind of rest the old timey wrestler you know jumpsuit kind of thing like suspenders. David if you ever see me on

[00:54:15] the beach I'm wearing fucking this. No one's ever seen my nipples. Why not. They suck. Get him out. Now. I'll wear I'll go shirtless with pasties on that. So just start. That is a very disturbing

[00:54:29] chicken cutlets and then you know we're in the baths. Yeah there's the thing where he swims like kind of onto the platform you get in on. So he's kind of swimming in place. That's pretty funny.

[00:54:44] Yes. These bats are pretty cool. They have like a fountain. Yeah. You know yeah. Kind of fancy bath. They're trying to play catch and there's this group of fucking jerks. Oh a bunch of steak

[00:54:56] sellers who are like look at this little guy. Yeah I mean it's just like him. I'm going to catch the ball. Yeah. This is my girl. They're trying to play catch and they these guys keep like you

[00:55:07] know getting in the way. This is my girl now. Right. There's some diving. That's slamming his fist and angry really. You know really good diving. So I'm supposed to be annoyed by them

[00:55:18] Ben. This is the whole point. It's very effective. But Buster's like let me do a really good dive for you. And she's like like begging him not to. She's at this point I think gets the deal with

[00:55:30] him and is like don't do this. This is what I like. I like that she gets it. She gets him and she's like you don't need to do anything to impress me. He's sort of it's this is like

[00:55:41] the one movie where he doesn't understand he's already won. Right. Right. Like she wants to go on a date with him. She's charmed by him. She likes him. He's he's winding himself up to prove

[00:55:51] a point that doesn't need to be proven at this point. But he does this overly extreme dive. He dives so hard that it knocks all of his clothes off and then he's he it's a little risky. He's

[00:56:03] searching for his bathing suit. You can't see anything but you can tell he's he's nude under the water. It's well done where he he dives in. You see his body go down suit. The suit rise up.

[00:56:15] You see him come out. There's clear like water in his eyes. He swims over like dog paddles over to the edge and then you see the suit floating in the background. He tries to get a leg up to

[00:56:25] get out and then he's like oh yeah I can't do this. You know. And basically it's how do I get out of this pool without becoming a sex offender. Right. That's the bit then. Well Buster

[00:56:34] you know maybe you shouldn't have done a fancy dive. Maybe you shouldn't have done a fancy dive. Plus your girlfriend is so cute. Yeah she's very cute. So she's like I think she's great in this

[00:56:43] too. I do too. And I she's really good. I like the fact that like I think they have the actress's name. The actress's name is Marceline Day. And she is she was a bathing beauty. She was. Yes

[00:56:59] she. Well let's see. She was one of the baby stars. OK. Another one of these promotional campaigns for cuties. Was that a Mack Sennett thing? It was the Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers. It was sort of an it girl adjacent thing and included the baby stars

[00:57:16] included like Joan Crawford Mary Astor Janet Gaynor like big big future names. My favorite babies. So like being in that would boost your would boost your cred. And then she was in a movie called London after midnight midnight which is a classic Lon Chaney movie that is lost.

[00:57:35] That's where I made you look up the monster design that's like fucking insane. It's too insane. It's creepy. Yeah. Creepy as shit. She also did The Jazz Age. I think it's a pretty big Douglas

[00:57:48] Fairbanks movie back then. But you know at a certain point you know she lived till she was 91 years old. I think they have just by the nature of this story and the fact that she's you know

[00:58:04] sort of into him from the beginning they have more kind of conventional romantic comedy chemistry in this than he often does with his women who are sort of at a pedestal that he's running to

[00:58:14] try to reach. You know I like that you get to spend time with the two of them actually hitting it off. All right. So they get out of there. She's like let's go to the beach. But then there's this whole

[00:58:28] business with the mean guy shows up. Yes. In the car. And he's like I'll drive you home. And then he puts Buster in this like bitch seat as it like torrential downpour. And then it starts. I mean

[00:58:44] he barely lets him get a seat. Oh he's driving in the trunk essentially. This like tiny bits of just like you know you see him sit in the in the bitch seat right. And then it cuts to the car finally

[00:58:55] pulling up to its resting place. Now there's a storm. You see him there. He's flooded. He takes his cap off and he's trying to scoop the water out with his hat. It's pretty funny. Yeah. Pretty

[00:59:06] funny stuff. You know they're there. You know they're inside high and dry. And he's trying to know he's trying to back in on her. He's trying to. Right. He's trying to hone in. He's trying to

[00:59:19] get Buster out of the way. Buster's all wet. She goes upstairs. Is he doomed. There's this thing also Griff where we keep seeing the street cop. Oh my God. Who's sort of like making faces at Buster.

[00:59:33] Yeah. So what's the vibe with the street cop. Well I think it's like you set up one specific sort of authority figure. This guy who's just kind of like that guy's up to no good. I have my eye

[00:59:45] on. He like recurs in scene after scene. Yeah I like him. I think it's a dynamic. But it's sort of like versus something like Harry Gribbon. Yes he was a big big. I did 140 films

[00:59:58] and you know 20 years. Yeah. It's always the same thing. Yeah. Stock company player. So the street cop hassle. No I like I'm saying versus something like cops the short which is obviously a

[01:00:10] masterpiece but turns like the cops into like an amorphous or a body. Right. Yes I like centralizing around like one guy who's always going to be the guy on the corner who's always looking at him

[01:00:20] askance check in to see if he's goofy. Yeah. So Buster doesn't have the disproving dad the boss in this film you know at MGM is not as much of a villain as usually he has a couple antagonists

[01:00:37] right there's the romantic rival but then there's also some elder statesman figure some parental figure. Yeah. And I feel like the cop is filling that role in this the guy who's

[01:00:47] just constantly judging him looking to catch him in the act. But Buster is he goes back to the MGM. Yeah they first dismiss him but then they send him to cover a celebration in Chinatown.

[01:01:00] Well she gets the tip off. Yeah. Right. Right. She they're like beat it and she's like I heard there's something happening in Chinatown that you could go film and he's like OK something's

[01:01:10] going to happen I'm not going to fuck it up. Then he immediately puts the camera through the door window which is yes but and then there's this whole crazy like well like David what happens

[01:01:20] before this when he's trying to position himself. Yes. There was an organ grinder which I think was always like it seems like this was always in the pitches for every day like and there's a bit with

[01:01:32] a monkey. Yeah right. You know like you know Tallbrick is like and when does the monkey come in. Yes an organ grinder monkey right. Monkeys are funny which he conceded to. It's the same

[01:01:41] thing I like about Go West. He's really good with animals. Yeah. And monkey look the monkeys in the little sailors monkey monkey cute monkey always funny but you feel bad but also it's it's it's

[01:01:53] fun to see. Yeah. The Viola Davis thing I always invoke about like you know no actor is more interesting than watching a cat because you can't totally read what they're doing but there's something fascinating going on every minute. Sure. It's Buster acts with the sort of behavioral

[01:02:11] subtlety of watching a wild animal that you cannot totally read. And so when you watch him act with an animal be it a cow or a monkey you do feel like they're on the exact same page you know.

[01:02:23] But also I mean this monkey I assume probably you know done 40 pictures. Oh yeah. This monkey was caught the monkey lights a cigarette and is like oh god. This monkey was the fourth highest paid star at MGM at the time. But the organ grinder sort of running this

[01:02:39] con. Yes. Of hey fell over you crushed my monkey you have to pay me for the dead monkey. Right. The cop makes him pay and then immediately the monkey springs back to life and now the monkey

[01:02:48] like his AC his assistant camera. The monkey is so cute. And then you just got so many good little gags here. I mean this whole like war breaks out right. The Tong War which is a real

[01:03:01] thing. Yes. Rival factions in Chinatown would sometimes erupt into you know crazy you know fighting especially in San Francisco. This is the biggest sequence where you have this parade that turns into like an all out street war. But you have him at the sidelines cranking his camera and

[01:03:20] then the monkey pulls up next to him with a gatling gun and start shooting the gatling gun in perfect timing with him so that it looks like he's firing out of the camera. Right. And then he has to stop

[01:03:32] the monkey from shooting at people. There's just this one crazy shot where he cuts to the wide of the street. Yes. And it's like people are shooting from every window scattering and running around

[01:03:42] and you know it's just impressive. But there's he also he goes up to the elevated platform where they're sort of scaffolding. Right. And then the piece of the scaffolding falls over and so it

[01:03:51] sort of turns into like a makeshift crane shot where he's like craning down into the action. It's this thing where suddenly like he's getting the most incredible footage possible. He's right there. And for once like nature is helping him. The environment is helping him. And his mishaps

[01:04:10] are not. You know there are only help things as well. Right. It's like it's suddenly like the power of cinema is like on his side. Yeah. You think he's killing it. He goes back. He's so excited.

[01:04:21] It opens up the camera. There's nothing in it. Yes. He fucked up. He forgot to load the film right. She gets in trouble for tipping him off because then it none of the other professional cameraman

[01:04:35] got there in time. She gave him the exclusive tip off and now she's also in trouble. They have one last shot. It's frustrating to fuck up. Yes. And it's this you know right. You know it's the boat stuff. Right. That's the final. That's the

[01:04:52] final sequence. Well the asshole goes boating with her. Yes. And he capsizes the boats like an idiot boating. Right. Going to show boating. Truly. Truly. So he smashes into Buster's rowboat capsizes Buster rescues her right. But then actually it's going around in circles. Yes. And she's like

[01:05:13] drowning in the center swims away. He swims away like a fucking coward. He's a cocks. Then Buster goes rescues her brings her back to the beach goes to get some supplies. Yeah. He runs to the drug

[01:05:23] store. Yes. And and then he comes up the villain the CAD. Yes. Pretends he rescued her but. But. The monkey was filming the whole time. The monkey there learned how to crank the camera.

[01:05:36] Good shit. Is filming the entire time. And then it turns out like all the footage is there right. The monkey swapped the reel. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. So they actually have everything. They have everything. So Buster is a success and there's evidence of his girlfriend's boyfriend

[01:05:53] being an asshole. Right. Which he goes and screens they're like this is the greatest footage we've ever seen. And this guy sucks. And then he gets a fucking ticker tape parade because they gave those

[01:06:03] at New York was easy with ticker tape parade. Well well well well it's actually not for him. It's for this is what I think this is so much of my love of this movie as I find this adding

[01:06:13] so poetic. Go off on the ending. Buster so rarely wins in his movies. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Well you know sometimes he gets to you know turn into a gravestone with his wife.

[01:06:27] I think even when he usually wins in that like things are going to be OK for. Yes. Yes. But it feels like there's there's a bit of indignity in the win or he's often maybe not like aware

[01:06:40] of how things have worked out. He still seems oblivious you know. Right. Or you know he wins by like the skin of his teeth but everything still feels a little on edge. The guy is still

[01:06:50] a little bit under the boot of society. Right. This ending is one of the only times where like it feels like he gets to feel good about himself in any movie and it still is him being oblivious

[01:07:04] and misunderstanding. But for once in a way that actually makes him happy. Right. Right. She tells him we watched your footage. It's unbelievable. Also I know this guy's a fucking jerk now because

[01:07:16] he's already by the way he he hands it in. He goes he fucking pawns off his camera again. Right. Goes back to the tin type. He's thrown in the towel. He thinks he's over. Yeah. And she comes

[01:07:30] in finds him is like they think it's the best footage they ever seen. You won't believe the reception they're going to throw for you. Right. So he then thinks suddenly ticker Tate start flying

[01:07:42] around him. This must be for me. Drums. This is the reception she's talking about. They're so happy with me. They're throwing a parade for me. And he starts like you see his posture change as he walks

[01:07:52] down the street with her and he starts like waving sort of like magnanimously to the crowd. Right. And then you cut back and realize it's Charles Lindbergh. Right. Which of course the original

[01:08:03] pitch for this movie was a Charlie Lindbergh thing. Right. And instead it's a movie in which he basically gets to reap the rewards in his mind. Right. Of Charles Lindbergh. He gets to feel like

[01:08:13] Lindbergh for a moment. Yeah. It's nice. I think this movie is great. I'm not like fucking steak haws over here. And it's just I hate that the world is set up where there's just always going to be.

[01:08:26] I think you're busted out these. You watch a lot of them in a short period of time. And also it's like that's like they're always going to have the little bit of the Bible like man

[01:08:36] you know the world's always against usually against you. It's something I just to stick out. Look it's obviously as if it needs to be said the reason I love Buster Keaton so much is

[01:08:45] this is just how I feel all the time. I know. It's not hard to see how you identify with this boy. Yes I definitely get it right. So I'm just like these movies are all my world view for sure.

[01:08:58] These are all like the indignities of life you know the small tiny indignities of any given moment and that it's always it's always going to be kind of the most ridiculous scenario plays out.

[01:09:11] Yeah. That doesn't work in your favor. Correct. It's frustrating because it feels I mean obviously it's exaggerated. Yeah. The movies but. But you look for these tiny little moments. Things kind

[01:09:22] of do happen like you look for these tiny little moments of grace and I think the parade is one of them and there's it's it's rare that he I don't know I just think it's rare that he has a positive

[01:09:35] misinterpretation of a situation. Sure. And especially for that to be the note the movie ends on spite marriage. He box office game. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Shush. The monkeys name game was Josephine. Hey nice name famous monkey. They always are. She was like the crystal of her day

[01:09:56] had an illustrious career. Yeah. Yes a very famous monkey. The most famous monkey in motion pictures lived to a grand old age of at least 35 because there's a picture of her celebrating her

[01:10:06] 35th birthday. Okay. Number one this movie opens at number 10 on the charts. Okay. So number one at the box office Griffin is a drama. Okay. A nautical or you know aquatic drama. Mutiny on

[01:10:24] the Bounty? No. Good guess. It's a William K. Howard film starring Victor McLaughlin and it is called The River Pirate. Oh okay. Sounds pretty fun. Yeah that sounds cool. Okay number two at the

[01:10:36] box office Griffin and this is the first time I can do this. The best picture winner from the year before. The first winner of Best Picture. Wings. It's the film Wings with Clarabelle of course. Yes.

[01:10:50] And very young Gary Cooper is in that film among others Charles Rogers. Charles Rogers past and future guest? No in fact Buddy Rogers was his nickname and in the late 20s and early 30s he

[01:11:04] was known as quote America's boyfriend. The only truly silent film to win Best Picture. Correct. Obviously Sunrise also wins most unique and artistic picture that year and there's some people who say that really should be considered the best picture the first best picture winner

[01:11:20] because Wings actually won outstanding production. Right. And Wings if you've seen it it's a bit long but it does have these incredible like flying sequences. It's such an impressive movie. Yes but those titles feel representative of what they were awarding. That having said Sunrise rips so

[01:11:37] fucking well Sunrise Sunrise is one of the greatest movies ever made. Amazing. Yeah and Wings is like an interesting artifact. An impressive achievement. Yeah a historical document. Yeah. So that's Wings

[01:11:48] number two it's been in the box office for about a year. Big ass hit. Okay big old hit. Number three at the box office is an Ernst Lubitsch film. 1928. Mainly silent although it does have some

[01:12:01] talking sequences. It's a biography of Emperor Paul of Russia and it stars Emil Jannings. Fairly well known actor. Yes. Oscar winner who did a lot of like Murnau movies. But is

[01:12:17] The Last Laugh. Right. That is a movie but this movie is The Patriot. That wasn't my guess. I'm saying that's his most famous starring role. Oh yes. The Last Command is a movie he won an Oscar

[01:12:30] for. Uh huh. You know he did a lot of whatever. Last Laughs a great movie. Yeah it's very good. Yeah. I haven't seen all these fucking 20s movies. What do you want from me? I don't know. But I

[01:12:41] don't know. It looks like a movie where he's in like big makeup and cool. Yeah good good ass but it's Lubitsch. I know I should watch it. I'm a silent Lubitsch is a big blind spot for me.

[01:12:50] I wouldn't call that a big blind spot. Big ass blind spot. Okay number four. A silent drama. Joseph von Sternberg. Another you know giant. Yes. Of early cinema. Starring but this is not a Dietrich movie. It's George Bancroft and Betty Compton. Okay.

[01:13:09] The title refers to a location. Is it Docks of New York? The Docks of New York. Hey now I've seen that one. There you go. Is it good? Yeah it's fucking rules. It sounds pretty good. Yeah.

[01:13:19] It's also a tight 76. Yeah. I should check it out. I'd love to see it. Uh Variety of course called it a corking picture. It is. I think I should start busting that in my reviews. Yeah. Hey

[01:13:31] this is Dungeon Dragons. It's corking. When when Michael Phillips goes on film spotting he always uses the terms that we're finding in Buster reviews of the era which I love. Michael Phillips

[01:13:44] in a way that feels earned will call movies a pip. Yeah. Or a corker. Pip is good. I like that. What can I say this one's uh it's a corker. Number five another silent drama. Uh-huh.

[01:13:57] Uh Dorothy McHale. Okay. Ralph Forbes. I don't know. I don't know. It's set in the horse racing world. Uh it's called Watcher Go. It's called The Whip. Oh because you're all right. Some other

[01:14:14] films you've got a Joan Crawford movie called Our Dancing Daughters which is about the loosening of youth morals. Oh launch the career of Joan Crawford. You've got a John Barrymore movie called The Tempest. Oh no sorry just called Tempest. Uh-huh. Which is a Russian drama you

[01:14:31] know historical drama. Uh you have a pre-code horror movie the second talkie horror movie released by Warner Brothers following Lights of New York which is an old classic called The Terror. Oh with Boris Karloff? No. Huh. Not with Boris Karloff so whatever maybe there's. I'm curious

[01:14:50] what the terror is. Um and he also made a movie called The Terror. Might have it's a pretty good title. And then you've got a drama called Lilac Time. I had the Boris Karloff Terrorist from

[01:15:01] fucking 1963. That's what Jack Nicholson. What was I talking about? The Terror. Oh I know that. I've heard of that one with. Yeah. Yeah. Um English Manor House or Stalked by Mysterious

[01:15:10] Killer No One Is the Terror. I don't know. Sounds fucking cool. All right so obviously I would say the jewel of these movies that we were talking about this week is The Cameraman. I think spite

[01:15:18] marriage just doesn't quite come together. I agree it's got good stuff in it but. It's got some bits. It does feel like he's losing some life force. You feel the defeat in this one. Yeah. I

[01:15:35] think this setup is pretty good even if it's not necessarily a perfect buster setup. It's one of these things I've seen people say this as we do these episodes but just like man there are so

[01:15:48] many silent comedies with really good premises that studio should be remaking now because they're not these sacred texts. Right. And they're just good comedy setups. And this is one where I was

[01:15:59] like this is a good fucking comedy set of premise and then I realized basically marry me the J. Lowe Owen Wilson version is a less acidic version of this premise. But Buster is a sort of hapless

[01:16:12] man. He's a dry cleaner. He's a dry cleaner. He has a crush on an actress. A star. He goes to see her show every single night. He dresses up like a fancy gentleman. Brings flowers has a top hat.

[01:16:23] Yes but it's all an act. She is in love with her co-star in the show. Yes Lionel Benmore. Yes. Good name. Is a parody of Lionel Benmore. Take off on. He instead goes for another young woman

[01:16:38] and out of I think I think for the newer younger lady to get a little bit of a blonder. Yes. The new starlet and she out of spite to earn her his jealousy in her mind

[01:16:54] decides to marry this man who is constantly hovering around first guy she sees the guy she assumes so she yeah it is kind of clear similar to marry me because she even has like a manager

[01:17:05] who's like this is a terrible idea. You know like you know she has handlers right who think it's a bad idea. Right. Marry me has the weird element. Look I watch marry me on a plane and it's a

[01:17:14] perfect plane movie. Yeah. Marry me is not look there means fine. Yeah. It's just that I just there. I'm just like there's no way these people have sex. No. That's my whole problem. They just

[01:17:26] did not have they had kind of cute friend chemistry of cute friend but they just did not have any romantic chemistry. No like and J.Lo can have chemistry with a lot of people. She's you know

[01:17:35] she's pretty charming. Yes she can. And Owen Wilson is more of a specific vibe these days. Maybe always has been. Yeah. But yeah they just were an odd match. Yes. But there's also the weird

[01:17:46] thing in that premise which is like he doesn't even know her stuff really. He gets dragged to the concert by his daughter and his best friend Sarah Silverman. Oh yes. And he's holding the sign

[01:17:59] by accident. Right. Like he gets past the marry me sign. Right. It's like a complete sort of chance thing whereas what I think is kind of fun in this premise is Buster is her biggest fan. Yes. He is

[01:18:11] getting what in his mind is his greatest dream. Right. And then it immediately turns out to be like much more intense than he could ever imagine because it's a spite marriage. It's a spite

[01:18:21] marriage and he is but a pawn in a game he doesn't quite understand. Let me give you a little context. Little context. MGM's biggest note after Cameraman is this movie needs to be cheap. Yeah.

[01:18:33] No more overruns my friend. So they finalize a big script. Yes. Thalberg is very you know involved. Apparently the first draft had a cannibal Hilton on it and they wanted the same fucking ending as

[01:18:48] now as Navigator. Yeah. Except I think yeah yeah exactly. It was the same. It was even the final crazy. I know. I mean obviously this movie has a boat and stuff like I can see that they're

[01:18:59] thinking like oh the boat runs aground on an island but it's just the same fucking ending as The Navigator. And so another one of these things where you're just like minute 50 he runs

[01:19:07] out of spite marriage premise. What happens now. I don't know we go to a boat I do both bits. Right. Like it just felt like when Buster was like out of ideas he would get in a boat. For sure. A boat

[01:19:18] or a train. And he's like I can get 20 minutes out of this. There was a fight over the bridal suite sequence. We can talk about that. That's the best sequence in the movie. They wanted to cut it out

[01:19:27] and Buster said he talked like a Dutch oven to save that scene. I'm not really sure what that means. That is what I think of as a Dutch oven. Right. But I don't think Buster filled a bed with his

[01:19:40] farts to win over Irving Thalberg. He walked into Irving Thalberg's office and went. Or maybe he was like I have farted so much in this blanket wrapped around me if you don't keep the scene all wrong. Exactly. All right. But he did fight for it. There's lots of

[01:20:00] you know frustration at this point between Buster and the executives. Thalberg loved the cameraman. It's not like they don't like the final product. Right. So Keaton is like I fucking prove

[01:20:11] my point but they won't give me my control back. Yeah. But there's I mean you know we've covered stuff like this before but I just always think about that quote Sam Raimi says about working on

[01:20:21] the Spider-Man movies where he's like I never thought I'd get hired for it. Yeah. They hired me for it. I never thought they'd let me do what I want. They let me do what I wanted. Then the

[01:20:29] sequel comes around. They give me even more leash. They let me do exactly what I want. The movie's even more well received. And then the third movie comes around and they're like OK we got some rules

[01:20:38] for you. Suddenly even though they appreciate what he did and it worked I think when the stakes get higher people then start to want to be able to claim credit. There's and there's money and you

[01:20:50] know more money more problems. Yeah. A certain Notorious B.I.G. once told us. Yeah it's also look this is the fucking problem with like studio executives. Not Notorious B.I.G. because he's on

[01:20:58] Space Jam and New Legacy. Of course. Talking about Notorious B.I.G. And we all remember that's the funniest thing to ever happen. Buster wishes he could have come up with something that day. I mean

[01:21:06] look I'm just amazed that Notorious B.I.G. has not shown up in other WB projects. They should start slotting. Yeah exactly. Algae Rhythm should start fucking put him in every season a true detective

[01:21:16] retrofitting him into everything. He's you know he's in a big fight with Zazz Lab and he's been relegated to Nat Geo. And I can't do these jokes that Nat Geo is a Disney movie anyway. Look one

[01:21:28] other thing that's happening is there's a lot of gossip because Buster's on the MGM lot now and apparently he's flirting with the ladies because his marriage is on the rocks. This he says it's

[01:21:40] all you know guff. It's all made up. These gossip columnists you know they just like to they'd like to say he's flirting with ladies but by most accounts the leading lady in this film he sort

[01:21:51] of has not enough affair with for the next day. Correct. Dorothy Sebastian is her name. They they certainly had a long thing. Yes. This is also the movie where his drinking starts to really

[01:22:05] take hold. But no the other thing we haven't mentioned is he initially was like let's do a sound movie. This is the thing I always thought down to it'll have a sync track it'll have some

[01:22:18] sound effect. I had always incorrectly thought that MGM was the one pushing sound on him and in fact he said I want to make my first sound picture. And they said no a because sound was so new and MGM

[01:22:30] was kind of slowest in the sound race. They were because they were the creakiest most conservative classical. Yeah right. Right. This newfangled modern toy we don't need this thing. They basically

[01:22:40] had they said it was a fat. They said it was a no end. Yes. Crazy. Yes. They they had like one sound kit. So they were like first of all someone else claimed it. Sure. There's only one sound

[01:22:54] movie at any given point in time. Right. And two you know I think internally they were like the last thing we need is to get Buster Keaton another toy to fidget with. Don't add anything

[01:23:06] that makes this film more complicated. So the concession was in post we can have a synchronized soundtrack with sound effects and music. You can use those to your advantage. He was never really

[01:23:16] going to use dialogue anyway but he wanted to be getting the sound live. I think I have to imagine for him a he's such a technology nut right that I think he was interested in it. But I also have to

[01:23:29] imagine that part of it was I need to keep up with the times if I'm going to fight for slapstick comedy to survive. I need to also let's Ben's got a slapstick. I need to also try to let this thing

[01:23:46] evolve to the new media. Yes. And as I said like look people have still done this in a talky era. Sure. He wanted to be there. You think we should still call movies talkies. Yeah I do like I'm

[01:23:59] gonna go see the new talky Batman and the Wasp quantumania. They do talk in it. It's like a 12 reeler. The most grueling part of the shoot the yacht sequence apparently at one point Buster fell

[01:24:12] in the water. OK. Came out looking happy and they were like the water's freezing. Are you OK. And he said oh I always cover myself with goose grease when I have water. Goose grease. Fuck that is

[01:24:26] produced like keeps the heat in. Wow. Lord knows what he was putting on his body. Yeah. May have literally been goose fat for all I know. But I think generally the shoot was not that complicated.

[01:24:40] No it did go over budget but it cost 282. So it was cheaper than the cameraman. Yes. And on though it got decent reviews and did totally fine. Yeah. Box office you know again not I think maybe

[01:24:57] not quite the spectacular hit they want from their new star contract guy. No. And after this they just promptly say here's the deal. You are an actor in our stable. That's right. We are slotting you in

[01:25:09] where we want to. I think. Yeah I think that you know the best stuff in the movie is the sort of early days of their marriage. I mean stuff like obviously the sequence of him getting her into bed

[01:25:24] when she's drunk. Anything where she sort of makes herself a handful and he is trying to account for her. You know it's it's fun to see the woman in a Buster Keaton picture be this high status and be

[01:25:38] kind of the stinker be the dilemma. Yeah yeah yeah. I think that stuff has a little bit of juice. Yeah she's kind of mean to him. She is despite marriage I guess. I mean yeah. It's a great title.

[01:25:53] It's kind of a funny title. Yeah. And she ends up on the boat and that's fine. Yeah. We don't need to know why. No no. But it is you do you feel like OK he's he's really just going back to the old

[01:26:06] reliables here. Well let's say what if somebody you know there's the whole sequence on stage where he's like in costume as a soldier. That part's fun. Right. Because it's funny. Right. He's seen the

[01:26:19] show so many times that he can sub in. Right. Yeah. And you know he's got the silly beard on. Yeah. It's kind of funny. What else. What else happens when you scrub. I'm scrubbing. Yeah. Scrubbing.

[01:26:33] There's them. It is the nice thing about doing movies is you can just fucking have it up on your screen scrub through and remind yourself of the things it takes her to dinner. That is when

[01:26:42] the sound effects do not work at all. The laughing. It's psychotic. Yes. It made me feel like I was having a mental breakdown and I kind of am. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. She gets like too drunk at dinner

[01:26:56] and there's a lot of hijinks there and then they just end up on a boat. Yeah. It is kind of all over. Yeah. Well he hops into a cab. Yes. That drops him at the docks. Yeah. That and that's how

[01:27:10] he ends up on the boat. But because the guy was shooting at I do also know this movie has more title cards like there's more dialogue. There's more sort of like banter. Yeah. I don't know if

[01:27:22] that you know is just how the times were changing. Yeah. I mean like 45 minutes in the Barrymore figure tells him she's marrying you to make me angry. Right. They get in a fight. Yeah. At that

[01:27:36] point. And that's honestly like when he gets like forced into like he drives his car the cabin to the ocean and then like a boat picks him up. Yeah. And then she's on the boat. Yeah. And as is the

[01:27:49] the jerky guy Ben Moore. Right. Then it just becomes a different movie. And it's a boat movie. You know there's a whole thing with sales. There's a whole thing with like a flooding room

[01:27:57] where he has to get the water out of the room. Yeah. And it ends with a bunch of bonks. Yeah. There's a bit with a chef. There's this whole sort of like set that has like a staircase

[01:28:11] that I feel like I wanted more from. I want more more hijinks from all of this. I you know it's a tiny little thing but I like the little dog he has the sad eyed dog that looks kind of like him

[01:28:24] a little toy. He does this sort of little puppetry routine with. It's possible it was just kind of like also a little busted out but I do just think it's not as clean. No premise for some reason.

[01:28:38] And so you know it's it this is this is him getting everything taken away from him. You know this is him kind of giving up. There's just not not enough juice. No not enough juice. No. And

[01:28:53] you know he the movies he makes after this at MGM as we said there are three Durante comedies what no beer is the end of the run. There's sidewalks of New York free and easy. I mean

[01:29:05] there's like a whole run. Sure. About eight of them. I think the MGM talkie pictures that come after this most of them are hits. He remains hits but thinkable without really remaining very

[01:29:18] relevant. I think he just well let me hear we have some context on this sort of like the fall out of this movie. Yeah. MGM one one problem is of course sound comes in. So suddenly all of

[01:29:31] Keaton's movies make less money generally. Right. Like he's just old news. I mean this is you can this happens to everybody. Whatever idea MGM had for him pumping out films crashes into that and

[01:29:44] just doesn't work like so he can't he's not making movies the only movie he makes in 1930 is this film Hollywood Review which is just like every MGM contract player that is like the scene in Babylon where they have doing singing in the rain is from this. Yes. And

[01:30:02] Buster's one of the guys in singing the rain and then they basically give him one segment to do a slapstick routine does a princess Raja routine. Whatever that is. Sure. You know Thalberg at a

[01:30:11] certain point steps aside like as his overseer. He's doing other stuff. And that is a point that this new guy called Winegarten comes in. He's just he's the one who's like you are now an actor.

[01:30:24] Yeah. So yeah free and easy like you said a movie called Doughboys. Yes. Doughboys is kind of fun. I assume that's sort of a war comedy. I'd argue that's the best of the talkies. I've definitely

[01:30:36] seen the poster where he has the like the helmet like you know he looked where he's yes boy. I've never seen the movie obviously. And he's Spoon Nation in that movie I think ultimately that's

[01:30:46] the side he's fighting. Right. He's not he's not in the burger. He's not in the burger brigade. But you know you just read these accounts of like Cedric and people who are just like

[01:30:55] you just saw him on set sulking right and drinking drinking himself to sleep. He would drink a full bottle of whiskey. You don't want to do that every night. FYI. Yes. Drink yourself to sleep. If

[01:31:07] you're drinking yourself to sleep maybe evaluate what you're doing there. Yeah. I think you get a better rest. Oh sure sure sure. Right. Yeah of course you're right. And you wake up feeling

[01:31:16] great. Yes. You wake up feeling so good. And you don't need more the next day. No. The nadir for him is Sidewalks of New York. Right. That one he just said everything about this was a fucking

[01:31:26] turkey. I saw it on paper. I mean this thing of him understanding like I've been studying audiences my entire life. Right. It's in my fucking setup doesn't make sense. Right. He's like the sub

[01:31:37] doesn't work. People aren't going to buy into it. Execs are trying to pitch him on what's funny and he just was like I can't fight this thing. I can't fight City Hall. I know this thing is

[01:31:46] going to suck. There's nothing I can do to prevent it. Yeah. I think Sidewalk of New York leads into the Durante run basically. He pisses everyone off so much that Louie Mayer is like fine fuck you.

[01:31:57] You are now second banana to Jimmy Durante. Durante is the plot driver in the movies and he's kind of like the dumb best friend. Right. And when making what no beer. Yes. He ironically a movie about

[01:32:10] prohibition. Right. He gets so shit face that he like falls asleep on set one night and like you know it's when the film wraps production MGM fires. It is it is the first time his alcohol gets in the

[01:32:22] way of his ability to shoot a day. Yes. So he he gets fired. The story is even kind of worse in that he like stays up all night drinking cannot get to sleep then he's so tired he's like drinking

[01:32:39] a bunch of coffee and nothing's jolting him awake. And he's like I've tried every like caffeine and stimulant maybe I should have another beer. So then he has a beer on top of it in the morning

[01:32:50] and he passes out and they cannot wake him up. He's there in his dressing room. That is the final straw. Right. That is. And they they ride that movie out his contract is fired. And because

[01:33:02] of that rep that he's built up for himself no one else wants him. Yeah. No other studio. He goes to all of them. They don't want him. So he starts making the educational pictures shorts. Yes.

[01:33:12] Make 16 of them. He obviously has more control but the budgets are low. Yeah. Have you you've seen some of those. Yeah. You said yeah. They're they're OK. I mean it's him back to doing it's

[01:33:24] the form of what he should be doing but he's kind of broken at this point. He's really in a in a valley because he doesn't meet Eleanor Keaton until after this. And Eleanor Keaton who's his final wife

[01:33:35] who he's with until his death is the one who kind of brings him back to life. In 37 he goes back to MGM as a gag man. Yeah. Works with the Marx Brothers works with Aberdeen Costello and Laurel and Hardy

[01:33:47] biggest collaborators Red Red Skelton. Yes. I don't know very well but Red Skelton apparently remade the cameraman as a film called Watch the Birdie. Yes. He also remade Spite Marriage. He

[01:33:57] remade both of these movies called I Doed It. Yes. It's it's a why a great title. No it's a wild thing that there's a 10 year arc of him getting signed to MGM being one of their biggest stars

[01:34:09] bottoming out going to like a fifth rate company making a bunch of shorts and within that same tenure period comes back is writing gags for 100 dollars like a week for MGM to let other people

[01:34:23] remake his films. Remake his movies worse. Yes. Right. And by all accounts he was sort of like I think he was sad but he like in a deep existential way just about his life. He was

[01:34:36] stable. He was stable and he also was just like look I never had an ego about this. I like that I'm just actually getting to write gags again. Right. I think to a certain degree he preferred

[01:34:47] this to the end of his run starring in movies for MGM because it's like they're just slotting me in I don't get to be funny. He prefers getting to sit down and come up with comedy and comedy

[01:34:59] and hand it to someone else than having someone give him shitty jokes that he has to let die on screen. He goes to Columbia does some two wheelers for them. Some people say his best sound work is

[01:35:13] done there even though those are also minor. Yeah. Then he turns into old Keaton. That's when he's in the in the good old summertime in limelight. He's in Sunset Boulevard for a minute you know

[01:35:24] where he's in the poker game right where he's like this sort of venerable figure at this point doing small supporting work. But the other thing is I think around the 1950s his films start getting

[01:35:36] seriously re-evaluated. There's a real serious reappraisal. He gets sort of like lashed onto by the critical yes and he's also on TV a lot. Yes it's look this is the whole thing. Yeah TV needs

[01:35:54] TV needs stuff. Yes brand new. He can play to a live audience. He had a Buster Keaton comedy show he had two different shows and then something called the Buster Keaton show both of which

[01:36:02] have really good shit in them. I bet they do. You can find a lot of it online. There's also a Donald O'Connor starring biopic that film is dog shit. Yes that I think is very accurate

[01:36:12] inaccurate. I would say you're missing the in part of accurate. He also wins an honorary Academy Award does end of the 50s. They give it to him before they give it to Chaplin right. That's a fair question. And I David Sims yeah host of Blank Check co-host.

[01:36:30] I'm going to find the answer for you right now by clicking here and looking at the answer which is you are correct. Thank you. Because that was one Chaplin won an Academy Honorary Award in 1972.

[01:36:44] That that's the big thing is that even though Chaplin sort of stayed relevant for longer in terms of his current work Buster started being taken more seriously sooner. Yeah. In sort of film

[01:36:57] history. And this is the period where he he remarries not a spite marriage not a spite marriage a marriage of true love. But he also he would do like television commercials. There's a great Buster Keaton Alka-Seltzer commercial. He did. Yeah yeah. Also some industrial films. Yes.

[01:37:18] Now all of this might sound sort of depressing for a guy who was at one time one of the greatest living artists in film right. Yeah. But there's something to the simplicity of in his final years

[01:37:29] being able to like TV commercials gave him an audience but it also was just this format that allowed him to just be like you have a minute come up with something funny you know people

[01:37:41] started giving him a little more space to in less prestigious frameworks just do his thing. And it felt like there was an appreciation he died I think feeling value right. He died quite

[01:37:56] suddenly of lung cancer. His last film is a funny thing happened on the way to the forum which is actually a lot of fun and funny in that. Yeah I haven't seen it since I was a kid but and you know

[01:38:08] uh is is celebrated as a legend on death. It's not like he's a forgotten star you know. And then in 2023 Blank Check did a miniseries called Podcast Junior the final indignity. Um two things to do.

[01:38:22] Yeah first is the box office came for Spite Marriage of course. So wait when did that film come out? Spite Marriage came out in March 1929. Okay. And so is it even on the charts here?

[01:38:38] No not so we'll just do when it came out. Okay. Uh sad of course that it's not even on the charts but uh number one at the box office is another Clara Bow picture. Okay it's not it. No it's

[01:38:52] neither it nor uh Wings. Okay. Uh it is about a fun thing you could do with her and it's of course that's it's her first talkie and it's the uh one of the only films um directed by a woman

[01:39:08] in that era. What woman might have directed? A fun thing you could do with her? Yeah I don't know it's a terrible clue but it's directed by come on who's a woman who might have directed Clara Bow?

[01:39:17] Is it uh Arsner? Dorothy Arsner the great Dorothy Arsner. Uh it's Clara Bow and Frederick March who had a great long career. It's called A Day in the Park. It's called The Wild Party. Oh oh sure.

[01:39:31] Yeah um her talkie debut. Uh you know she of course is sort of like all the like John Gilbert supposedly had a high voice right? Yes. Later in life later in Hollywood history they're so like

[01:39:44] that wasn't the problem. No. His voice was fine. Clara Bow supposedly had a thick accent kind of like a New Yorky accent or whatever and that was the initial problem but it's like again it's later

[01:39:54] people like no that wasn't an issue it's just you know whatever. It's funny I do feel like that was more in theory that should have been more of an issue for Buster than it was but no one talks

[01:40:04] about it that way. Um yes. Because his voice was very much not what you would have expected but yet those talkie pictures did okay. Yeah and I believe the sequence in Babylon that is sort of the you

[01:40:16] know the college film that's being made is kind of going off of because Clara Bow really struggled with the microphones and they made like a sort of fish pole microphone so she could move around.

[01:40:26] Apparently the microphones kept exploding. Okay. A lot of problems back then. Okay number two. The best picture winner. The second best picture winner. The second best picture winner. The first talkie to win best picture. Yes. You just watched it. I did. It was a recent watch.

[01:40:42] It was one of your blind spots. I'm done. I'm done. But was this one that you just recently plugged? Yeah. Okay and does this one suck? Yeah it's an interesting it's mostly a technical.

[01:40:52] Give me the genre. Musical. Uh it's a Broadway melody. The Broadway melody. Yeah. Which is basically just kind of like a clip show of a lot of different numbers. Sure. Uh the Broadway melody

[01:41:04] is the uh best picture winner. Okay number three at the box office. Oh good name. It's uh let's see it's a maybe one of the modern studios should do that with like TikTok. Like they should

[01:41:15] make a movie that's just big budget remakes of the 100 most popular TikToks and put it together. That sounds like something like Algee Rhythm would suggest. The TikTok graffiti. All right. This is a Wallace Beery film. Okay it's not a Wallace Beery wrestling picture. Uh no it's

[01:41:31] not a wrestling picture I don't think. Uh it actually has the subtitle or the alternate title Tong War. Oh. Uh to to sort of draft off of the cameraman here. Yeah. So it's also kind

[01:41:42] of a gangster movie set in Chinatown. Okay so I'm guessing it's called Underworld Tong War. It's called. Residential Tong War. Chinatown Tong War. It's called Chinatown Nights. Oh okay. Not bad. Tong War. Uh number four at the box office is a silent romance. Okay. Uh starring

[01:42:01] Gary Cooper. Hmm. And directed by Victor Fleming. Good people. One of the most famous filmmakers who ever lived. Yes. Um about a man who heads out west in 1840 looking for adventure and meets a

[01:42:12] group of mountain men who take him into the mountains to trap beavers and cats. And then he meets a beautiful Mexican woman and they fall in love. I'm guessing. And he becomes torn between

[01:42:22] his love for her and his desire for traveling. Okay. I'm thank you for uh finishing because that's going to change my guess of the title. Here's one more thing. Yeah. This is a pre-code

[01:42:33] film. Okay. And you see Gary Cooper nude. Really? I think you just see his butt but he washes in a river. Oh wow. Yeah. Pretty cute. What if he flashes dick? Yeah there's a five minute unbroken shot of

[01:42:46] Gary Cooper's flaccid penis. I'm guessing. Swinging in the wind. I'm guessing this film is called Kiss Me or I'm Gonna Travel. It's called Wolf Song. Fuck. Kind of a cool name. Yeah. Uh number five at

[01:42:58] the box office uh it is a sports drama. Okay. Uh apparently John Wayne had a minor role in it. Which very young John Wayne. I don't know. This film is completely lost. Okay. Uh and it is about the kind

[01:43:16] of establishment you might visit in 1929 because alcohol is banned. The gym. It's called Speak Easy. Oh okay. Uh so that's the box office for that. And then now yeah I mean you know I think it's time

[01:43:30] for our buster list. I think so too. I don't think we have anything else to do. You know what we have to do? Order lunch. Oh. Because we got another episode to do. We do. We have to do a commentary.

[01:43:38] What do you want? I don't know. I'm hungry. Something fast. Zah. Let's do our rankings first. Yes. Okay. Uh Buster Keaton rankings. Yep. Do you want to go top to bottom or bottom to top? I always

[01:43:50] forget. Let's go bottom to top. Okay. David you go first. Okay. I have my list locked in. So 12 films here. Yeah. Number 12 I have College. Hmm yep. Number 11 I have Spite Marriage. Uh-huh. Number

[01:44:02] 10 I have Go West. Mm-hmm. We're in the good zone now though. Number nine I have Three Ages. Yeah. Number eight I have The Navigator. Mm-hmm. Seven Battling Butler. Mm-hmm. Six Our Hospitality. Mm-hmm. Now I feel like we're getting into the masterpiece zone. Yeah. Number five Steamboat Bill Jr.

[01:44:22] Number four Seven Chances. Mm-hmm. Number three The Cameraman. Mm-hmm. Number two The General. Mm-hmm. Sherlock Jr. Number one. Uh that's my list and I'm sticking to it unless you criticize it in which case I might fold like laundry. Um I mean you know it's the question of objective

[01:44:46] favorite versus go for your heart man. Objective best verse. Okay. I'm saying it's number 12 Spite Marriage. Wow. You have it all the way at the bottom. Yeah. It's Spite Marriage versus College right? I mean those are the two. So College at 11. Yeah. Okay. Battling Butler at 10. Okay. Oh

[01:45:06] pretty low. Go West at nine although I do think Go West deserves some credit. You like the cow. I like the cow a lot. I think you can't oversell how good the cow is in the movie. Okay. Number

[01:45:18] eight Three Ages. Yeah. Number seven The Navigator. Okay. Number six Seven Chances. Oh you have a little of them sure. Yeah. Number five Our Hospitality. Yeah. Now this is the question

[01:45:27] of where do I rank? The big four. Where do I rank the cameraman within this? I don't know. You can put it number one for all you want. I'm not gonna put it at number one. I'm going to put

[01:45:37] it at number three. So I'm gonna put the general at number four. Yeah. Cameraman at number three. Steamboat Bill Jr. Number two. Sherlock Jr. Number one. I love it. The juniors have them.

[01:45:49] I think we have fairly similar. Yeah but I think that top four is uh kind of impeccable. And then I think you know I think everything but College in Spite Marriage I highly recommend watching. Basically agree. And I think those are four complete as all.

[01:46:04] Yeah Three Ages is the only one where I would kind of be like that's more one you can get to once you've watched a lot of Buster and you kind of want to see him putting it together. But the

[01:46:13] good bits in it are unbelievable. You're not gonna watch it and and not enjoy it. We did a silent film star on blank check. We did. They said it couldn't be done. They did say it couldn't be done.

[01:46:26] The big wigs the fat cats. My voice is. Yeah. You're you're imposter syndrome. Yeah. Ben what's your favorite Buster. What is my favorite Buster. Damn. OK well point Dexter. That's funny. You feel him. That's funny. Better you really so steamed over this snake. It's just like a black

[01:46:52] cloud over your head. Fucking piss me off. No damn. I guess it's gonna have to be Sherlock. It's the best one. It's best. It's just perfect. There's other contenders but that feels

[01:47:07] like a perfect thing. Yeah. And I got to I got to experience that in a theater. Yeah that is cool with a crowd hot crowd too. They were laughing. Ben's wearing a gumbo shirt by the way. He is

[01:47:16] wearing a gumbo shirt. So our Buster series is done. Yeah. And you guys know what is next. We're going right into it. It's Park Chan. Look you guys voted for him. So here he is. People's

[01:47:28] champion. Yeah. After defeating Bong Joon-ho by one whole vote. Yeah. He will have a mini series starting in June and stretching all the way through the end of August. And hey here's the

[01:47:38] thing I don't like. Start in September. What are listeners on the Internet assuming that we're just going to go straight from Park Chan work in the Bong Joon-ho because he lost by one vote.

[01:47:47] This is a weird assumption you folks have made that they kind of dropped that a certain point. There was a moment though they're still getting some of that. They were like well you got to do

[01:47:55] both. I won't be doing. In fact in fact we don't got to do shit. And for any sleuths out there that look up the menu. Yeah it was expensive to begin with the restaurant. OK. Celebrating

[01:48:10] unfortunately bad Asian. We can't cut it out because it's like I know the arc of this episode has been realizing he starts it as I hate these snooty rich people and then realizing everyone's

[01:48:22] going to come away from this episode saying how much money did he spend on a look. You had been the villain in a buster. You went to you went to what is I would say a fancy restaurant in New York

[01:48:32] City and you yeah you got charged fancy fancy. You know I feel like you're the Buster Keaton character who tried to play high society and got hoisted by a big time. Yeah. All right well it's

[01:48:44] funny and relatable. Let's get something cheap for lunch. OK what do you want. I'll bring pizza dumplings. You better than dollar pizza dumpling sounds all right. One loaf of wonder bread

[01:48:58] beans. So big big can of communal can of beans with one. We'll just we'll set up a little fire in the middle here. Yeah. I got a P. OK. I know I had a lot of episodes that way but it's

[01:49:12] nonetheless true. Yeah. I'm sure there's anything else you want to say as we push Buster in terms of wrapping stuff up. No I hope you've all enjoyed watching these. It's been I have. It's been truly

[01:49:24] so heartening to me to see people watch these movies. I agree. I was worried that even if listeners stayed on they would stay on just to listen to us describe them and not actually watch

[01:49:33] them. And my favorite thing is seeing people go like oh I laughed watching this. I found it funny and when Ben and I saw Sherlock Junior you said to me Ben you were like there's this whole world

[01:49:45] of comedy I've just never opened myself up to. Yeah. And I'm way more open to silent movies as well as just dipping back more often and looking at classic film. And I just think as I've made

[01:49:57] this point probably too many times across the last six weeks I think you see the influence of these films these 12 movies we discussed ripple directly into our world today. You know the DNA of so much of commercial genre filmmaking is in the things that Buster sort of crystallized

[01:50:18] and especially our language of comedy. One of my favorite artists of all time. Right. And I think he's pretty good six out of ten. Him Fozzie Bear. Yeah. Anyone else. That was probably the two. Those two greatest comedic idols Buster and Fozzie. Thank you all for listening.

[01:50:36] Means a lot. Please remember to rate review and subscribe. Thank you to Marie Barty for our social media and helping to produce the show. Thank you to Joe Bone and Pat Rounds for

[01:50:46] our artwork. After some demand requests we made a shirt available of Pat's design that was so good for this mini series. Yes. Putting that out. There'll be a preorder window. Keep your eyes

[01:51:02] open for that. It's probably on for a little while now. Thank you to AJ McKean Alex Baron for our editing JJ Birch for our research. Lee Monk or mainly lean Montgomery and the Great American

[01:51:17] novel for our theme song go to blank check pod dot com for links to some real nerdy shit including our patrion blank check special features where we go through film series and other bonus stuff.

[01:51:28] If you haven't listened to the Dana Stevens shorts episode and you're ever going to give our patrion a shot even if only for one month I highly recommend that one. And we're finishing up

[01:51:38] our plan of the series right now getting ready to do People's Champion March Madness winner Ocean's Eleven which should be ring a ding ding a lot of fun. We also just want to remind people

[01:51:50] there's the free membership option on Patreon right now where you can sign up every 10 days. We unlock an episode from three years ago. We're unlocking all our 2020 Patreon content and all

[01:52:03] the 2019 content is unlocked at some point in the future. You'll be able to also get a private RSS feed for the free episodes. In the meantime, you can sign up get notifications all of that.

[01:52:14] We're in the middle of a toy story. We're in the middle of a toy story. Deep pandemic toy story. There's good stuff. Early lockdown toy story. There's good stuff. Yeah, sure. You want to hear me go off about four movies I'm almost sexually attracted to. A perverse obsession.

[01:52:32] What is he talking about? The Toy Story franchise. All right. Tune in next week for the beginning of Park Chamblom. Yep. We're doing his first two films. My Moon is the Sun's Dream and Trio

[01:52:43] which are very hard to find. Yes. So we're just kind of bundling them together. Right. And then after that they're all one movie per episode. We're back to singles. Yes. Yeah. Goodbye. Goodbye forever. And as always I'm holding up an intertitle card that says the end.

[01:53:08] There's not like these movies suck. Oh you didn't like Cameraman? No. Wow. Okay. I'm with you on Spite Marriage. I didn't like Cameraman though for a very personal. Save it for the mic. Yeah you got to save that for the mic. All right. You got a take here.