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Buster Keaton runs a sporting goods shop by day and theatre by night, but
the theatre is in rather dire straits. They might be able to afford poster ads,
but are unable to pay someone to paste them up ... so Buster and his
assistant do it themselves .... to the worst possible results, as not only do
they fail to hang up one single poster, they also push over and squash an
innocent passer-by with it. Later that night, at the premiere of the new
play, everything goes wrong that can go wrong, from problemswith the artificial
snow to faulty or non-existent props ... all highllighted when a couple of
bankrobbers on the run from the law run through the scenery. Only when Buster
rather accidently catches them, he can save the evening ... with the reward
money he gets for their capture. Another day another play - but now Buster
has problems with his leading lady Imogene ... or rather her husband who is
convinced his wife is cheating on him (she isn't), and he even buys a gun to
shoot the rat in Buster's store - but what they both don't know is that
Buster might be the rat when he later that day meets up with Imogene for
rehearsals, which her husband interprets rather differently and chases him
off ... with Buster leaving his money for setting up the show behind. But upon
returning for the money, Buster is almost shot ... The night of the premiere,
Imogene agrees to bring Buster his money ... but her hubby is still convinced
that she and Buster have an affair, and with his gun in hand royally ruins
Buster's live performance of the balcony scene of Romeo and Juliet ... Buster
Keaton was one of the leading slapstick comedians of the silent era, but with
the arrival of sound, his career was pretty much put to an early halt for a
variety of reasons (heavy alcoholism, Irving Thalberg, the end of the slapstick
comedy era, ...). But when Buster started to appear on tv in the late 1940's,
he (and others) realized there was still demand for his style of comedy after
all, so he was eventually given his own show, The Buster Keaton Show (and
later Life with Buster Keaton for national syndication),
where Buster would recreate many of his old gags and routines for a fresh
audience. The film The Misadventures of Buster Keaton is pretty much a
few episodes of Life with Buster Keaton pieced together to be shown cinematically. Regarding
it from its mere production values, the show is (naturally) nowhere near the quality of
Buster's silent classics, but Buster would still prove he had expert timing and
could pull off a stunt or 2 rather admirably. So the film is not what
Buster will be remembered by ... but it's not bad either.
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