Buster Keaton Collection

Legendary silent-screen comic Buster Keaton had fallen on hard times when he accepted a 1939 offer from Columbia Pictures to star in a series of two-reel comedy shorts for low pay (as film historian Ed Watz points out in the 25-minute bonus featurette “Buster Keaton: From Silents to Shorts,” Keaton accepted the work because—quite simply—he needed the money). The 10 shorts in the two-disc Buster Keaton Collection set don't showcase the Great Stone Face at his best (for that you'd have to see his silent classics), but some are engaging (such as the Civil War spoof “Mooching Through Georgia” and “She's Oil Mine”) and each boasts at least a couple of laugh-out-loud sight gags. Without the control he'd enjoyed on his earlier films, Keaton was just another hired hand here, but he maintained some dignity by never straying too far from the persona he'd established 20 years before. In addition to Watz, the featurette gathers a handful of Keaton aficionados to provide background on the star's career—as well as octogenarian Adrian Booth Brian, Keaton's only surviving leading lady from the Columbia shorts—and includes dozens of rare photographs and well-chosen clips. Boasting uniformly good print quality on these 1939-1941 shorts, this collection is recommended for Keaton completists, but optional for others. (E. Hulse)