movie world

Eureka continue their run of triple-film box-sets featuring (and usually directed by) Buster Keaton With volume 3. As before, the selection is a bit random, picking titles from throughout his fruitful pre-MGM period, when he made most of his best features.

In this fine box-set, you'll find the films Our Hospitality (1923) starring Keaton, Joe Roberts and Natalie Talmadge. Keaton directed the film alongside John G. Blystone. Go West (1925) starring Keaton (who also directed), Kathleen Myers, Howard Truesdale and Ray Thompson. The third film is College (1927) which stars Keaton, Anne Cornwall, Harold Goodwin and directed by Keaton alongside James W. Horne. All three films were produced by Joseph M. Schench and are presented here in fabulous quality.

3 x BD50 | 1080p AVC | 222 min | 123.8 Gb + 3% rec
Language: English Intertitles
Subtitles: none
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance, Sport, Thriller, Western

Our Hospitality is a spoof of the Hatfield and McCoy feud changed into an almost Romeo and Juliet story.
William McKay (Keaton) journeys to the South to inherit the family shack. On the way he befriends Virginia (Talmadge, then Mrs Keaton) and receives an invite to dinner at her plush family home. Neither of them are aware that their families are engaged in a murderous, cross-generational feud. By the time William turns up for dinner, Virginia’s father and brothers know his identity and must juggle good ol’ Southern hospitality and homicidal vengeance.

Extras:
• Audio Commentary by silent film historian Rob Farr
• "Hospitality" early workprint version of "Our Hospitality" (50:09, with optional audio commentary by Keaton expert Polly Rose)
• "Making Comedy Beautiful" video essay by Patricia Eliot Tobias (26:08)
• Stills Gallery

Go West sees luckless drifter Friendless (Keaton) take a job as a cowboy on a ranch. He befriends a cow (Brown Eyes) and sets out to rescue her from her slaughterhouse fate. Keaton looks completely lugubrious in this one: he can’t even smile when a man with a gun orders him to. The finale is a surreal 300 cow rampage through downtown Los Angeles, with Keaton dressed as a red devil at the head of the invasion, followed by cops and cows.

Extras:
• Audio Commentary by film historians Joel Goss and Bruce Lawton
• "A Window on Keaton" video essay by David Cairns (28:20)
• "Go West: Filming Locations" video essay by John Bengtson (16:27)
• "Go West" 1923 comedy short directed by Len Powers, produced by Hal Roach (11:58)
• Still Gallery

College sees bookworm Ronald (Keaton) try to win his college sweetheart by becoming a jock. There is an extended stadium-set athletics sequence that’s like Triumph of the Will meets Revenge of the Nerds. There’s also a boat race sequence in which Ronald features as both coxswain and human rudder.

Extras:
• "Silent Echoes" video essay by John Bengtson (9:55)
• "The Railrodder" 1965 short produced by the National Film Board of Canada and starring Buster Keaton in one of his final film roles (24:50, with optional audio commentary with director Gerald Potterton and cameraman David De Volpi)
• "Buster Keaton Rides Again" 1965 documentary feature produced concurrently with, the filming of "The Railrodder" (55:31, with optional audio recording of a post-screening Q&A with The Railrodder director Gerald Potterton, and David De Volpi)
• "College" Stills Gallery
• "The Railrodder" Stills Gallery