The Cohen Film Collection is performing a valuable service in providing lovingly restored transfers of the films of Buster Keaton, the perpetually sad-faced genius of silent comedy whose best efforts exhibit remarkable elegance. This fourth installment in the series includes two features from his golden period that may not match acknowledged masterpieces like Sherlock Jr., The General, and Steamboat Bill Jr., but are still very amusing.
In Go West (1925), Keaton plays Friendless, a vagabond who leaves his Indiana hometown penniless and hops a train he thinks is heading to New York but winds up instead out west, where despite his total lack of experience he is hired on a cattle ranch. Emulating Androcles, he removes a rock from the hoof of a cow called Brown Eyes, and the animal becomes devoted to him, and he to her. When the herd is rounded up for transport to slaughter, he tries to buy Brown Eyes.
(One of the slyest jokes comes when during a card game another player uses the cliché “Smile when you say that, mister” and Keaton, known as The Great Stone Face for his continually deadpan expression, is physically unable to comply.)
Ultimately he stows away in the cattle car and, after helping to repel an attack on the train, releases the cows into the streets of Los Angeles, donning a red devil's costume to lead them to the stockyards. The grateful rancher offers Friendless anything he desires, but instead of asking for the hand of his daughter, he chooses Brown Eyes.
In College (1927), Keaton is Ronald, a bookish lad who loses his girlfriend Mary because he despises sports. Following her to Clayton College, he tries to win her back by ignoring his studies to become an athlete. While proving totally inept at baseball and track, he finally gets onto the rowing team, which—despite the coach’s effort to bounce him—wins. Ronald must then rescue Mary from his rival, a jock who has kidnapped her, in an extended exhibition of his athletic skill.
In both films Keaton shows his unique grace in slapstick physical humor—gamely doing stunts that often led to serious injury—and his willingness to work unhurriedly, letting the gags gradually develop rather than rushing things.
Some viewers might be upset by a sketch in College in which Ronald, trying to earn some money, answers a sign for “colored waiters” and appears in blackface, but otherwise, both movies are suitable across the age spectrum.
Extras include an hour-long audio recording of Keaton pitching a script for the Wagon Train TV series (warning: the sound quality is poor) and Go West, a 12-minute 1923 short in Hal Roach’s Dippy Doo Dads animal series, in which a rich man kicks out his lazy son, who heads west to seek his fortune. All the roles are played by chimps or dogs, mostly wearing clothes; young children may be amused by it. Recommended for the Keaton features.