It's October 4th, so we have no choice but to pay tribute to Buster Keaton on his birthday.
Buster Keaton's half century in movies and TV remains quite remarkable and encompasses everything from Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle in ROUGH HOUSE and Chaplin's LIMELIGHT to THE TWILIGHT ZONE.
The diehard film buffs at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog regard Buster Keaton as the greatest movie comedian, filmmaker and gag writer of all, a singular comic genius.
At the turn of the 20th century in The Three Keatons, Buster was a vaudeville star, as the acrobatic little kid who got thrashed repeatedly in crowd-pleasing mayhem onstage.
Buster began his movie career in a series of short subjects for Comique Productions as a supporting player with slapstick comedian Roscoe Arbuckle, the rotund yet extremely agile star of Mack Sennett's Keystone.
After Paramount Pictures signed the aforementioned Roscoe Arbuckle to headline feature films, Buster inherited the big guy's studio and would launch his own starring series.
Buster assembled a staff of top comedy writers, including Jean Havez and Clyde Bruckman.
The Buster Keaton Productions team would go on to produce short subjects, followed by features.
The transition from independent producer to star for MGM in 1928 would be disastrous, but at first, in silents, such good movies as The Cameraman resulted, even with a Buster Keaton who was no longer directing and producing.
He would end up more as an MGM contract player than the exceptional comedy creator and director he was in silents.
The Cameraman is the one Keaton starring vehicle that combines the big budget gloss of MGM with Buster's inventive ideas and storytelling prowess.
Buster ultimately transitioned from one of his best films, The Cameraman to a series in which he was teamed with wisecracking Jimmy Durante. While we love both Buster and Schnozzola, the teaming doesn't do justice to either comedian.
While Buster's MGM talkies were not masterpieces as his silent features were, some were at least decent enough and entertaining.
For some reason, the powers that were at MGM had the notion that presenting Buster as an idiot, rather than the low-key yet resourceful fellow from such silents as The General, meant surefire laughs.
Would assume from this inexplicable approach that Irving Thalberg, a man with frequently extremely accurate instincts about entertainment, was not involved directly with Buster's MGM features other than The Cameraman.
Buster enters this excerpt from the 1932 MGM feature The Passionate Plumber at 6:29.
Even the worst of the MGM features, What! No Beer? (1933), has its moments, regardless of how baked Buster looks throughout.
Buster transitioned to starring in 2-reelers for Educational Pictures in 1934.
In Educational Pictures' 1920's heydey, such comedians as Al St. John, Lupino Lane and Lloyd Hamilton starred in series.
While Harry Langdon made very good Educational Pictures sound comedies (The Big Flash, Knight Duty) in 1932-1933, by the time Buster arrived there, the company was on the downside.
That said, there is something impressive about Buster making very entertaining comedy shorts on miniscule budgets and extremely tight shooting schedules.
After starring in 16 short subjects for Educational, Buster moved on to the Columbia Shorts Department.
In general, the less said about the Buster Columbias, the better.
The best of the lot, The Pest From The West, presents a condensed version of Buster's 1934 feature Le roi des Champs-Élysées.
There are very funny bits throughout and excellent work by the Columbia Shorts Department stock company (Lorna Gray in particular).
While Buster's performances and physical comedy are very good and some of the 2-reelers are okay, the only comics who truly fit Jules White's slam-bang slapstick format at Columbia remain The Three Stooges.
This year's National Silent Movie Day is on Monday, September 29.
Indeed, the looming end of fall and unwelcome beginning of winter means National Silent Movie Day. The following promo's misinformation - my responses include what do you mean silent movie overacting? ever seen Buster Keaton or Lloyd Hamilton? have you heard of Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Drew? WTF? - and what sounds like a bogus AI narrator leaves a great deal to be desired, but at least this video tepidly expresses enthusiasm for silent films.
So, on this truly saturnine Saturday in godawful 2025, let's jump the gun and celebrate National Silent Movie Day with cool classic comedies!
As we're suckers for comedy films at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog, only always, here's yet another favorite movie comedian, the aforementioned and original Lloyd "Ham" Hamilton!
We go for Buster Keaton as enthusiastically as sci-fi aficionados go for Star Trek and Star Wars!
Charley Chase is a perennial favorite.
The recent release of Chase's 1927 silents on Blu-ray is a comedy treasure trove.
And then there's Laurel & Hardy. . .
Our favorite of all movie comedy teams!
Stan and Babe will soon be on a much awaited Blu-ray, Laurel & Hardy, Year Three: The Newly Restored 1929 Silents.
And then there's our favorite comedienne of silents and early talkies, the winsome, witty and frequently hilarious Marion Davies. She did amazing, hilarious work in silents - how William Randolph Hearst didn't comprehend that Marion was a gifted comedienne, we'll never know.
We love When Knighthood Was In Flower, Show People and The Patsy!
Of course, we also love cartoons and there were some terrific silents, well before Disney's emergence in 1925-1927.
We especially enjoy Earl Hurd's Bobby Bumps series.
Earl Hurd's animation of Bobby Bumps was way ahead of the curve in the World War I era.
As always, we're suckers for the Fleischer Studio, Out Of The Inkwell and the subsequent Inkwell Imps!
With an enthusiastic binge-watching of Fleischer cartoons and a shout-out to Mr. Chaplin in the following clip, we say Happy National Silent Movie Day two days early!
For further celebration of National Silent Movie Day, we shall check out what Fritzi Kramer at Movies Silently will be posting; she has been doing outstanding work for many years now, as has Lea Stans at Silent-ology.
Don’t know what Imogen Sara Smith is working on these days; might be upcoming books on silents, might be a deep dive into pre-Code cinema or articles for NOIR CITY magazine. She ranks high atop the list of the best of the best film historians and remains the only author to wrote about both Charley Chase and Charley Bowers.
Another terrific author and film historian, Ben Model, has an excellent new book, The Silent Film Universe.
We at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog are enjoying this book immensely; by all means, read it to celebrate National Silent Movie Day. Excellent work, Ben!
As big fans of Jay Ward and Bill Scott, we've posted about Jay Ward Productions on many occasions.
On the natal anniversary of Jay Ward, we're thrilled and delighted to spotlight his studio's creative, imaginative, satiric and funny animated shows again!
The great Jay Ward was born in San Francisco on September 20, 1920.
First and foremost, the gang here insists that readers purchase The Moose That Roared painstakingly researched and entertainingly written history of Jay Ward Productions by character actor-voice artist-impressionist and film/radio/animation historian Keith Scott.
The Jay Ward Productions legacy of hilarious cartoons began in Berkeley back in the late 1940's with CRUSADER RABBIT, produced by Jay and written in mass quantities by Alex Anderson, nephew of Terrytoons producer Paul Terry.
Alex Anderson, who wrote a gazillion episodes of Crusader Rabbit elaborates:
After a few pilots that didn't sell, most interestingly The Watts Gnu Show, the next Jay Ward series on TV was. . .
Rocky & His Friends!
At first the series was Rocky & His Friends - Adventures of Bullwinkle & Rocky with Fractured Fairy Tales or Aesop & Son and Peabody's Improbable History.
It would subsequently air in the early 1960's on Sunday prime time as The Bullwinkle Show.
Of the Jay Ward Productions, especially love Fractured Fairy Tales and the incredible roster of character actors/voice talents - Bill Scott, June Foray, Paul Frees, Bill Conrad, Daws Butler, Edward Everett Horton, Hans Conried, Charlie Ruggles, Walter Tetley, Hal Smith, Chris Allen and more.
Are we fans of Fractured Fairy Tales here? Yes. Let's watch a slew of them!
Also enjoy the cousin to the Fractured Fairy Tales series, Aesop & Son.
Also incredibly funny: Peabody’s Improbable History!
Another favorite is Dudley Do Right.
Especially love the long unaired "Stokey The Bear" episode.
Even the lesser-known Jay Ward Productions series, such as Hoppity Hooper, are frequently wonderful, in large part due to the incredible voice talents (Bill Scott, June Foray, Paul Frees, Bill Conrad, Daws Butler, Edward Everett Horton, Charlie Ruggles, Walter Tetley) and the consistently brilliant comedy writing by the talented team of writers: Lloyd Turner, Allen Burns, Chris Hayward, Chris Jenkyns, Jim Critchfield and George Atkins.
Hans Conried, fresh off his stretch as a frequent guest on Ernie Kovacs' surreal take on game shows Take A Good Look, was Fractured Flickers' very reluctant host. Fractured Flickers featured incredibly funny voice acting throughout by Jay Ward regulars Bill Scott, June Foray and Paul Frees.
In this cartoon buff's opinion, the last outstanding animated series made for television until The Simpsons debuted as segments on The Tracey Ullman Show was George Of The Jungle.
The befuddled apeman, Tom Slick and Super Chicken always get this avid Jay Ward aficionado ROFL.
After George Of The Jungle, the Jay Ward Studio made numerous commercials and a few pilots.
The last was RAH RAH WOOZY in 1980. Imagine how much more fun Saturday morning would have been had the networks bought the Jay Ward pilots (especially Fang The Wonder Dog) and they were the rare non-Filmation or non-HB series then.
How do we finish a Jay Ward tribute? Hmmmm . . . with Amber Jones’ documentary on Jay’s co-producer, head writer, colleague and pal Bill Scott, the voice of numerous Jay Ward characters!
Is it great to see blazing animation and film history luminaries from Mark Evanier to Mark Kausler to Keith Scott to Frank Welker to Will Ryan, Corey Burton, Frank Welker, Billy West, June Foray, Daws Butler, Jay Ward, Skip Craig, Jymn Magon, Brian Cummings and more? Yes! Is the writer of this blog pleased to be in the credits? Yes!
In this blog's numerous postings about Warner Brothers cartoons, it's amazing that this is the first post devoted to the one, the only, the peerless animator and director Robert McKimson (October 13, 1910 - September 27, 1977).
McKimson worked with Warner Brothers Animation directors Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, Frank Tashlin, Friz Freleng and Chuck Jones and had much to do with the transition of Bugs Bunny from the chortling buck-toothed grotesque of Porky's Hare Hunt (1938) to the Oscar-winning rabbit and comedy powerhouse that debuted in A Wild Hare (1940).
Robert McKimson goes back to the first Warner Brothers cartoons. His animation is all over those early Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies. Bob is the guy who was there at Warner Brothers Animation for the entire run, as Friz Freleng left for a brief time to direct Captain & The Kids cartoons for MGM.
After short stints with Walt Disney Productions and Romer Grey, Bob was cranking out animation for Hugh Harman and Rudy Ising when they were producing cartoons for Leon Schlesinger as independent producers in 1930-1933.
Shall, of course, be posting a slew of cartoons directed by Robert McKimson in today's post.
After all, he directed several of this writer's all-time favorite cartoons!
These include Hillbilly Hare, French Rarebit, What's Up, Doc? and Gorilla My Dreams.
The two Robert McKimson cartoons directed featuring Bobo the elephant rank high atop the list of favorites.
Love the lesser known albeit genuinely charming Hobo Bobo (1947).
Another classic cartoon we are particularly fond of is The Hole Idea (1955), which was animated as well as directed by Robert McKimson - and much enjoy Anthony's Animation Talk's take on this inventive Looney Tune.
The book by Robert McKimson, Jr. about Bob and his brothers Charles and Tom looks FANTASTIC, as well as a fitting tribute to the many contributions the McKimson brothers made to Warner Brothers cartoons.
Robert and ace film historians Michael Barrier, Jerry Beck, Mark Kausler and Mark Evanier all turn up in the documentary Behind The Tunes - Drawn to Life: The Art Of Robert McKimson.
Since he was on the same staff with Tex Avery, Frank Tashlin, Bob Clampett, Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng - and at one point animated for all of them, to some extent Robert McKimson's directorial efforts receive short shrift, as do the WB cartoons helmed by Arthur Davis; both developed an original spin on the Termite Terrace style. The Robert McKimson cartoons emphasize personality animation in a unique way, different from his contemporaries, Jones and Freleng.
No doubt Bob Clampett knew very well the incredible, creative and original animation Robert McKimson, Rod Scribner, Manny Gould, Bill Melendez, Izzy Ellis, John Carey, Norm McCabe, etc. contributed to his directorial efforts.
Robert hit the ground running when he started directing cartoons with Daffy Doodles (1946) and followed it with a series of very funny cartoons featuring Daffy, Bugs Bunny and other WB characters.
In particular, we are big time aficionados of Grover Groundhog in One Meat Brawl (1946). He has tons of personality!
Bugs Bunny subbing for a sourpuss rabbit as the Easter Bunny always gets big laughs.
As does the Peter Lorre caricature in the following Daffy Duck cartoon, Birth of a Notion (1947).
And McKimson's spoof of The Honeymooners!
Loud-mouthed rooster Foghorn Leghorn, Bob's favorite Warner Bros. cartoon character, made his silver screen debut in Walky Talky Hawky (1946).
Always in a tit-for-tat reciprocal destruction bargain with a dumb barnyard hound (with a wiseguy voice by Mel Blanc), Foghorn Leghorn would be the popular character favored most by Robert McKimson's production crew. Here are just a few of the loud-mouthed rooster's 30 starring vehicles.
Ducking The Devil (1957) is a particularly hilarious Tasmanian Devil cartoon.
One of the funniest of the Robert McKimson directorial efforts from the studio's final year was Banty Raids (1963). The beatnik rooster is a hoot!
Thanks for the laughs, Bob, Chuck and Tom McKimson!
Also extend respectful Fred Astaire top hat tips to key McKimson brothers collaborators Manny Gould, Herman Cohen, Rod Scribner, Bill Melendez, Phil DeLara, John Carey, Izzy Ellis, Emery Hawkins, Ted Bonnicksen, Keith Darling, George Grandpre, Cornett Wood, Richard H. Thomas, Warren Foster, Tedd Pierce, Sid Marcus, Mel Blanc, Sara Berner, Bea Benaderet, Arthur Q. Bryan, June Foray, Stan Freberg, Carl Stalling, Milt Franklyn, Treg Brown, etc.
In closing, here's Rebel Rabbit, our favorite of the cartoons Robert McKimson directed and among the all-time best from Warner Brothers. And, yes, Daily Motion's policy of embedding ads before videos, while also not letting posters tweak with the embed code (NO AUTOPLAY, thank you very much), is annoying - just click through and then enjoy this fabulous cartoon.
