Buster Keaton
Buster Keaton
"I always want the audience to out-guess me, and then I double-cross them."
Birth name:
Joseph Frank Keaton
Born:
4th October 1895, Piqua, Kansas, USA
Died:
1st February 1966, Los Angeles, California, USA
Years active:
1917 - 1966
Early life on the stage
Joseph Frank Keaton was born in Piqua, Kansas, on 4th October 1895, to Joseph and Myra Keaton, vaudevillians with the Cutler Mohawks travelling show. He earned the nickname ‘Buster’ after a member of the troupe—probably the English-born manager George A. Pardey—exclaimed after seeing the six-or seven-month-old* tot emerge unscathed from a fall down a flight of stairs, “Gee whiz! He’s a regular buster!” (Keaton’s claim that escapologist Harry Houdini came up with the name has been proven false).
Joseph Keaton incorporated his son into their act when Buster was little more than a babe in arms, crooning a comical “go-to-sleep-baby” song to him on stage. Around the turn of the century, the Keatons’ fortunes rocketed when Joe Keaton changed the name of the act to The Three Keatons and made his five-year-old son a permanent member. Buster made his New York debut at Proctor’s 125th Street Theatre on 11th March 1901, followed by a stint at Tony Pastor’s. “The tiny comedian is perfectly at ease in his work, natural, finished, and artistic,” praised the New York Clipper. Much of the act comprised Joe throwing his son around the stage—Myra even sewed a suitcase handle into Buster’s costume to facilitate launching him across the boards—which meant staying one step ahead of law enforcement as the work permit he had secured for his son allowed speaking on stage only. But the rewards far outweighed the risks as far as Joe was concerned: the act earned $225 a week. Keaton later estimated that their living expenses—including Joe’s voracious appetite for alcohol—amounted to little more than $100 a week, allowing Myra to save around $120 a week.
However, the law finally caught up with Joe Keaton in 1907, and he was hauled up before a judge for contravening the terms of his son’s stage permit. Rather than jeopardise scheduled dates in Mobile, Alabama, Joe jumped bail and was fined $75 in his absence. His vow to keep the act out of New York until Buster was sixteen years old, meant more dates in smaller towns and smaller payments.
By 1915, the twenty-year-old Buster was growing too heavy for Joe to sling around the stage, and the 1915-16 season proved to be their last. When theatre manager Martin Beck relegated the act to the opening slot at B. F. Keith’s Palace, Joe stewed over the ‘insult’ for a while, then saw red. Beck fled, but the damage had been done. Effectively blacklisted by the Keith-Orpheum circuit, Joe signed with Joseph M. Schenck, the booking manager for the smaller Marcus Loew Enterprises, and a man who would figure large in Buster’s life. Joe’s volatile temper began to manifest itself on stage, with surrogate becoming a surrogate for the loathed Martin Beck. By December 1916, Buster had had enough, and told his mother he was breaking up the act. The following month, having left Joe in Los Angeles, Myra settled in Detroit and Buster departed for New York, planning to make it on his own.
Teaming with Arbuckle
In March 1917, while rehearsing for a musical revue called The Passing Show, Keaton ran into either Joe Schenck, Loew’s former booking manager, who was now producing movies, in Times Square, New York, or Lou Anger, a former vaudevillian now working as a theatrical agent**. Anger handled Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle, who had recently signed to make a series of two-reel comedies for Schenck, and suggested Keaton team up with the roly-poly comic. Arbuckle had seen and liked Keaton on stage, and so, on 19th March 1917, they began shooting Keaton’s first film, The Butcher Boy. From the very first shot, Keaton wore the porkpie hat that would become his trademark—although he was yet to adopt his equally famous ‘Stone Face.’ On this momentous day, Keaton also met Natalie Talmadge, Lou Anger’s assistant and sister to the actresses Constance and Norma Talmadge, who a few months earlier had become Joe Schenck’s wife.
Keaton was immediately enamoured with the movies, and Arbuckle was an invaluable mentor. The Butcher Boy was an instant hit; audiences were impatient for the next movie featuring the new comic duo. Supported by Arbuckle’s nephew, Al St. John, and actress Alice Lake, the duo made a further five movies in New York before relocating to California to take advantage of the better climate. Natalie Talmadge, with whom Keaton had grown close, also travelled East.
In June 1917, two months after the United States declared war on Germany, Keaton registered for the draft, but was not called up for service until 8th July 1918 after a two-week delay to complete filming of The Cook (1918), his twelfth short with Arbuckle. He was assigned to the 159th Infantry, Company C, and shipped to France, where he saw no action but developed a serious ear infection from sleeping on draughty floors that left him with impaired hearing.
Following the end of hostilities, Keaton returned to Los Angeles on 6th May 1919 and was back at work with Arbuckle the following month. For a while, the close friends lived together in a beachside house and enjoyed a hectic social life. Things had changed in the ten months that Keaton had been away, however; Molly Malone had replaced Alice Lake, who had moved on to features, something Arbuckle was also keen to do, and Jack Coogan joined the team, replacing Al St. John, who had struck out on his own.
Solo career
Keaton began work on his first solo short, The High Sign, in mid-January 1920. “I’ve never known anyone to laugh more than he,” wrote his co-star, Bartine Burkett. “In fact, when we were shooting, he spoiled many a scene by cracking up with laughter.” Keaton, however, was dissatisfied with the finished film, and it was shelved, not being released until April 1921.
His next film was the feature-length The Saphead, based on a stage play, The New Henrietta, which formed the basis of the early Douglas Fairbanks feature, The Lamb (1915). Shortly after filming was complete, Keaton signed a new contract with Metro Pictures to make eight two-reel comedies within one year at a wage of $1,000 a week and 25% of the profits. Keaton’s first solo release was One Week (1920), in which he played a newlywed husband endeavouring to build a new house over the course of seven days. After a slow rollout to major cities, it proved to be a major hit with audiences. The release of The Saphead on 18th October 1920, cemented Keaton’s position as a major screen comic in his own right.
Keaton’s reputation grew through 1921 with a string of enormous successes: The Haunted House, The High Sign, The Boat—all were hits with audiences that clamoured for more. But while Keaton’s standing rocketed, that of Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle, his friend and mentor, disintegrated in September 1921 with the Virginia Rappe scandal. Keaton was one of the few friends who stood by the disgraced comic when he was blacklisted by the industry.
A broken ankle that took five months to heal set Keaton back a little, and to fill the gap, Metro released the shelved The High Sign (1921). One upside to his injury was that it gave him time to renew his courtship of Natalie Talmadge, whom he hadn’t seen for two years. After much press speculation, the couple were married on 31st May 1921.
Keaton returned to filmmaking as soon as he could, although his injured ankle meant he wasn’t ready to perform his usual physical stunts. This limitation was the inspiration for The Play House, in which he played all the audience members, the stage performers and the entire orchestra. By now, critics were comparing Keaton to that other genius of silent comedy, Charlie Chaplin.
Although Keaton’s first solo role, The Saphead (1921), was a feature, he concentrated on producing shorts until the release of Three Ages (1923), which he also directed. This film marked the beginning of the peak period of Keaton’s creativity. In quick succession, he produced a sequence of films that have become silent comedy classics, including Our Hospitality (1923), Sherlock Jr. (1924), Seven Chances (1925), The General (1926), and Steamboat Bill Jr. (1928).
Although it has since come to be regarded as one of Keaton’s finest achievements, The General (1926) was not well received. Because it was released so soon after The Big Parade (1925), King Vidor’s stark examination of the horrors of the Great War, critics felt that to make a comedy out of a conflict in which men lost their lives was in poor taste. College (1927), Keaton’s next feature, also met with mixed reviews. Studio manager Harry Brand had forced director James W. Horne on Keaton, whom he found to be unsatisfactory, and also tried pressuring the star into controlling costs. Keaton was also angered by Brand’s ‘Supervised by’ credit in the film’s opening titles. But when he complained to Joe Schenck and insisted there would be no more supervisors on a Buster Keaton picture, Schenck countered by saying the star wouldn’t be making any more pictures. Keaton’s films, it turned out, weren’t making enough profit to satisfy Schenck or United Artists.
Signing with MGM
In a move that would mark the end of Keaton’s creative freedom, he ignored the advice of fellow comics Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd and followed that of Joe Schenck by signing with MGM on 26th January 1928. Under the terms of his contract, he was to make four pictures a year under strict supervision. The drop in quality of his subsequent films was almost immediate. “These guys didn’t realize—they still don’t realize—that the best comedies are simple,” Keaton later complained. “I said, ‘I’d like to do something with a drunk and a fat lady and a kid. Get ‘em for me.’ At my studio they would have the characters I wanted in 10 minutes. But not MGM. You had to requisition a toothpick in triplicate. I just stood there, and everybody is hassling.”
Keaton found shooting Free and Easy (1930), his first talking picture, a miserable experience. Filming was repeatedly delayed while cast and crew waited for dialogue to be written; the need to wait for another actor to finish speaking before he could deliver his own lines meant pacing was off, and the need for absolute quiet on set ruined the atmosphere. Left with nothing to do for long stretches, Keaton would drink alone in his off-site bungalow. With his marriage to Natalie failing and his career in trouble, he turned increasingly to alcohol for solace.
Things only worsened in 1931. Kathleen Key, a small-time actress, tried blackmailing Keaton for reasons unknown to the tune of $25,000. Keaton refused to pay more than $5,000, which provoked the actress into physically assaulting him and shattering the windows of his dressing room. The incident caused a sensation in the press, and to avoid further adverse publicity, MGM forced Keaton to pay Key $10,000 she had demanded, claiming he had broken her jaw. The incident spelled the beginning of the end for Keaton’s marriage.
*Or eighteen-month-old; accounts differ.
** Keaton gave different versions of the encounter at various times in his life.
Buster Keaton in Sherlock Jr (1924)
Decline
The success of Parlor, Bedroom and Bath (1931) provided a brief respite, but its follow-up, Sidewalks of New York (1931) was so poor that Louis B. Mayer fired its writers, Jules White and Zion Myers. Keaton’s drinking grew worse. MGM teamed him with Jimmy Durante, but both men knew they weren’t right for each other and their films failed. The prospect of playing Otto Kringelein, the terminally ill bookkeeper in MGM’s extravagant ensemble piece Grand Hotel (1932), briefly lifted Keaton’s spirits, but the part eventually went to Lionel Barrymore. Then, on 8th August 1932, Natalie successfully sued for divorce and was awarded custody of their two children.
Speak Easily (1932), another collaboration with Jimmy Durante, proved to be a hit, but made MGM only $33,000 profit. With Keaton growing increasingly unreliable, the studio began building up Durante as the major star; What, No Beer? (1933) their next film together, weighted the film heavily in his favour. Once again, Keaton caused expensive delays when he returned from a holiday in Agua Caliente too unwell to work. He had gone there with Mae Scriven, a nurse employed to keep him sober. The couple claimed they had married while in Mexico, although the local judge denied any knowledge of their supposed union. Rumours persisted that Scriven used alcohol to control her new husband.
What, No Beer? was a bomb, and immediately after filming was complete, Keaton received a bluntly worded letter from the studio: “You are hereby notified that for good and sufficient cause we hereby terminate the contract with you dated October 5, 1932.” When he was able to rouse himself from his bottle-of-whisky-a-day stupor, Keaton was dismayed to find he was virtually unemployable in Hollywood.
Determined to get his life back on track, he stopped drinking and strove to make a go of a three-picture deal he had signed with Aubrey M. Kennedy, but the arrangement collapsed amidst Keaton’s allegations of misrepresentation by the producer. The episode persuaded him to find an agent, and he engaged the services of Leo Morrison, who also handled Spencer Tracy and John Wayne, then a mere B-movie actor. In 1934, Morrison clinched a deal for Keaton to make two-reel comedies for the small independent outfit Educational Films at a wage of $5,000 per film.
Keaton once again found himself with a degree of creative input, and his first effort for the studio, The Gold Ghost, won favour with critics and audiences. When its follow-up, Allez Oop, proved just as successful, Educational signed him for a further four shorts, and the first of these, Palooka from Paducah, saw The Three Keatons reunited as a family of moonshiners. In the midst of this newfound success, however, Keaton filed for voluntary bankruptcy, citing debts of more than $300,000. He was in France at the time, shooting a feature called Le Roi des Champs-Élysées.
In autumn 1935, Mae sued for divorce, claiming she found Keaton in bed with society hostess Leah Clampett Sewell during a 4th July gathering at Sewell’s Beverly Hills home. While also trying to sue Sewell $200,000 for ‘wilfully and wrongly’ enticing her husband away from her, Mae cleaned out her and Keaton’s joint bank accounts and absconded with his beloved St. Bernard, Elmer. When Natalie Talmadge read that Mae was pursuing her ex-husband for maintenance, she increased legal pressure on him to make payments for their two children. The stress sent him on an alcoholic binge which ended with a bout of pneumonia. When he refused to go to hospital, he was admitted to the psychiatric ward of the Sawtelle National Military Home for his own safety.
He recovered quickly, and despite still drinking heavily, completed the two-reel comedy Grand Slam Opera for Educational. The following month, he dried out once more. He later recounted how, after returning home from the clinic, he ended a walk around the 18-hole golf course near his home by sinking two Manhattans in the clubhouse. He didn’t touch another drop for five years.
By 1937, the market for short films was shrinking, and, unable to afford to pay Keaton $5,000 for each picture, Educational Films didn’t renew his contract. Needing money to meet his maintenance payments, Keaton accepted a position as director with MGM’s shorts department. In September 1938, after eighteen months during which he directed only three one-reel shorts, he joined Sol Wurtzel’s B-picture unit at 20th Century-Fox to write material for the studio’s Jones Family series. That job lasted only a few months before he moved once again, this time to Columbia Pictures’ shorts department. There his first short, Pest from the West—essentially a remake of his unsuccessful 1936 feature, The Invader. At the same time, he worked as a writer for the Marx Brothers at MGM, providing material for At the Circus (1939) and Go West (1940).
From the late 1930s, with his reputation partially restored, Keaton began to win small supporting roles. He played himself in Darryl Zanuck’s Hollywood Cavalcade (1939), a nostalgic look back at Hollywood’s early years. Around this time, he became friendly with twenty-one-year-old Eleanor Norris, a dancer for MGM, and they married on 30th May 1940. Then, unaccountably, and after five years of sobriety, Keaton fell off the wagon. His sister, Louise, had to accompany him on the set of Li’l Abner (1940) to make sure he didn’t drink. Despite this, Eleanor proved to be a stabilising influence in his life, and they remained a couple until his death.
Demoralised by the poor quality of the two-reelers he churned out for Columbia, Keaton vowed to make no more shorts after completing She’s Oil Mine in 1941. After a period of inactivity during 1942, he approached Eddie Mannix, who hired him as a gag writer at MGM. He worked uncredited on the weak Laurel and Hardy comedy, Nothing But Trouble (1944) and the Red Skelton vehicle Bathing Beauty (1944), co-starring Esther Williams, and Abbott and Costello’s Lost in a Harem (1944). He earned only $100 a week writing at MGM, but for his brief appearance as a bus driver in Universal’s San Diego, I Love You (1944) he was paid $1,000 for one day’s work. Ernie Pagano and Michael Fessier, the producers of that movie, also gave him small roles in That’s the Spirit (1945) and That Night With You (1945).
In July 1946, MGM granted Keaton an extended leave of absence to travel to Mexico and star in his first feature in ten years. The film, El Moderno Barba Azul (aka Boom in the Moon and The Modern Bluebeard), an extremely low-budget production financed by Alexander Salkind, who later produced the Christopher Reeve Superman movies, arguably proved to be the creative nadir of Keaton’s career. A year later, he was among several longtime employees whose contracts were terminated. After a self-pitying spell on the booze, he travelled to France with his wife to devise and star in a headline routine at Cirque Médrano in Paris to commemorate the show’s fiftieth anniversary. A law forbidding foreigners from taking more than half their earnings out of the country meant he and Eleanor had to live in the opulent George V just to spend half of his $3,500 weekly wage.
By now, Keaton was practically living from job to job: a consultant on A Southern Yankee (1948); uncredited writing work on Neptune’s Daughter (1949) and Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949); a supporting role in the Judy Garland musical In the Good Old Summertime (1949); an even smaller role in Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard (1950), playing one of the three ‘wax works’, faded stars from the silent era playing cards with the deluded Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson). Sliding into his seat between Swanson, H. B. Warner and Anna Q. Nilsson, Keaton was heard to mutter, “Wax works is right.”
Later years and death
His fortunes revived following the publication of the September 5th 1949 issue of Time magazine, which carried an eighteen-page essay by James Agee venerating the stars of “Comedy’s Greatest Era”. Keaton featured prominently alongside Chaplin, Lloyd, and Harry Langdon. Renewed interest in Keaton, who was the only one of the article’s subjects then active, resulted in him finding new fans through the medium of television. While he continued work occasionally in pictures—including a part in Limelight (1952), which saw him teamed for the first and only time with fellow silent comic legend Charlie Chaplin—Keaton worked steadily in TV throughout the 1950s and into the ‘60s.
In 1957, to coincide with the release of The Buster Keaton Story, in which Donald O’Connor played him, Keaton was the subject of the popular TV show This is Your Life. Two years later, he received an honorary Academy Award “for his unique talents which brought immortal comedies to the screen.”
The following year, he returned once more to MGM, where he appeared in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1960). Another notable return to the big screen came in 1963 with a cameo role in Stanley Kramer’s riotous comedy It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Keaton worked steadily throughout the 1960s, enjoying his renewed popularity despite his failing health.
In 1965, he appeared in The Railrodder, travelling across Canada on a railcar for the National Film Board of Canada. That same year, he also appeared in Samuel Beckett’s Film and had a lead role in Richard Lester’s big-budget historical comedy, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.
Working on the picture seemed to aggravate Keaton’s chronic bronchitis. On a flight home from Canada, where he had filmed an industrial short for John Sebert, he struggled to breathe and needed oxygen. X-rays revealed he had lung cancer and had only three months to live at most. Doctors recommended Eleanor tell her husband it was simply a particularly bad case of bronchitis. By late January, the cancer had spread to Keaton’s brain. He died on 1st February 1966.
Sources: Early Buster Keaton, Lisa Stein Haven; Buster Keaton: A Filmmaker’s Life, James Curtis; Keaton, Rudi Blesh; Buster Keaton: Cut to the Chase, Marion Meade.
Buster Keaton Filmography
The Butcher Boy (1917), 30m, [a], Roscoe Arbuckle, Al St. John, Josephine Stevens; The Rough House (1917), 23m, [a], Roscoe Arbuckle, Al St. John, Alice Lake; His Wedding Night (1917), 16m, [a], Roscoe Arbuckle, Alice Mann, Al St. John; Oh Doctor! (1917), 23m [a], Roscoe Arbuckle, Alice Mann, Al St. John; Fatty in Coney Island (1917), 25m, [a], Roscoe Arbuckle, Alice Mann, Al St. John; A Country Hero (1917), 25m, [a], Roscoe Arbuckle, Al St. John, Alice Lake; Out West (1918), 26m, [a], Roscoe Arbuckle, Al St. John, Alice Lake; The Bell Boy (1918), 25m, [a], Roscoe Arbuckle, Al St. John, Alice Lake; Moonshine (1918), 22m, [a], Roscoe Arbuckle, Al St. John, Alice Lake; Good Night, Nurse (1918), 20m, [a], Roscoe Arbuckle, Al St. John, Alice Lake; The Cook (1918), 22m, [a], Roscoe Arbuckle, Al St. John, Alice Lake; Back Stage (1919), 26m, [a], Roscoe Arbuckle, Al St. John, Molly Malone; The Hayseed (1919), 24m, [a], Roscoe Arbuckle, Molly Malone, Jack Coogan; The Garage (1920), 23m, [a], Roscoe Arbuckle, Harry McCoy, Molly Malone; The High Sign (1921), 21m, [a,w,d], Bartine Burkett, Ingram B. “Cupid” Pickett, Al St. John; The Saphead (1920), 1h 17m, [a], William H. Crane, Odette Tyler, Carol Holloway; One Week (1920), 25m, [a,w,d], Sybil Seely, Joe Roberts; Convict 13 (1920), 20m, [a,w,d], Sybil Seely, Joe Roberts, Joe Keaton; The Scarecrow (1920), 19m, [a,w,d], Sybil Seely, Joe Roberts, Joe Keaton; Neighbors (1920), 18m, [a,w,d], Virginia Fox, Joe Roberts, Joe Keaton; The Haunted House (1921), 21m, [a,w,d], Virginia Fox, Joe Roberts, Edward F. Cline; Hard Luck (1921), 22m, [a,w,d], Virginia Fox, Joe Roberts, Bull Montana; The Goat (1921), 23m, [a,w,d], Virginia Fox, Joe Roberts, Edward F. Cline; The Play House (1921), 22m, [a,w,d], Virginia Fox, Joe Roberts; The Boat (1921), 25m, [a,w,d], Sybil Seely, Edward F. Cline; The Paleface (1922), 20m, [a,w,d], Virginia Fox, Joe Roberts; Seeing Stars (1922), [a], Charlie Chaplin, Norma Talmadge, Constance Talmadge; Cops (1922), 18m, [a,w,d], Virginia Fox, Joe Roberts, Edward F. Cline; My Wife's Relations (1922), 24m, [a,w,d], Kate Price, Joe Roberts, Monte Collins; The Blacksmith (1922), 22m, [a,w,d], Virginia Fox, Joe Roberts; The Frozen North (1922), 17m, [a,w,d], Sybil Seely, Joe Roberts, Bonnie Hill; The Electric House (1922), 23m, [a,w,d], Virginia Fox, Joe Roberts; Day Dreams (1922), 19m, [a,w,d], Renée Adorée, Joe Roberts, Edward F. Cline; The Love Nest (1923), [a,w,d], Joe Roberts; The Balloonatic (1923), 22m, [a,w,d], Phyllis Haver; Three Ages (1923) 1h 3m, (a,d), Margaret Leahy, Wallace Beery, Lillian Lawrence; Our Hospitality (1923), 1h 5m, (a,d) Natalie Talmadge, Joe Roberts, Ralph Bushman; Sherlock Jr. (1924), 45m, (a,d) Kathryn McGuire, Joe Keaton, Ward Crane; The Navigator (1924) 59m, (a,d) Kathryn McGuire, Frederick Vroom, Clarence Burton; Seven Chances (1925), 56m, (a,d) T. Roy Barnes, Snitz Edwards, Ruth Dwyer; Go West (1925), 1h 23m,(a,w,d) Howard Truesdale, Kathleen Myers, Ray Thompson; The Iron Mule (1925), 13m, (a - uncredited), Al St. John, George Davis, Glen Cavender; Battling Butler (1926), 1h 17m, [a,d], Sally O’Neil, Snitz Edwards, Walter James; The General (1926), 1h 18m, [a,w,d], Marion Mack, Glen Cavender, Jim Farley; College (1927), 1h 6m, [a], Anne Cornwall, Flora Bramley, Harold Goodwin; Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928), 1h 10m, [a], Ernest Torrence, Marion Byron, Tom Lewis; The Cameraman (1928), 1h 16m, [a], Marceline Day, Harold Goodwin, Sidney Bracey; Spite Marriage (1929), 1h 16m, [a], Dorothy Sebastian, Edward Earle, Leila Hyams; Hollywood Revue of 1929 (1929), 1h 56m, [a], Conrad Nagel, Jack Benny, Joan Crawford; Free and Easy (1930), 1h 33m, [a], Robert Montgomery, Anita Page, Trixie Friganza; Doughboys (1930), 1h 19m, [a], Sally Eilers, Cliff Edwards, Edward Brophy; Parlor, Bedroom and Bath (1931), 1h 17m, [a], Charlotte Greenwood, Reginald Denny, Cliff Edwards; The Stolen Jools (1931), 20m, [a], Wallace Beery, Joan Crawford, Stan Laurel; Wir schalten um auf Hollywood! (We Switch to Hollywood) (1931) [a] Paul Morgan, Ramon Novarro, Nora Gregor. German version of the unreleased March of Time); Sidewalks of New York (1931), 1h 14m, [a], Anita Page, Cliff Edwards, Frank Rowan; Buster Hat Nichts Zu Lachen (German version of Sidewalks of New York); Buster Millionnaire (French version of Sidewalks of New York); The Passionate Plumber (1932), 1h 13m, [a], Jimmy Durante, Irene Purcell, Polly Moran; Speak Easily (1932), 1h 33m, [a], Jimmy Durante, Thelma Todd, Hedda Hopper; What - No Beer? (1933), 1h 21m, [a], Jimmy Durante, Phyllis Barry, Roscoe Ates; The Gold Ghost (1934), 20m, [a], Warren Hymer, Dorothy Dix, Joe Young; Allez Oop (1934), 20m, [a], Dorothy Sebastian, George Lewis, Harry Myers; Le Roi des Champs-Élysées (1934), 1h 28m, [a], Paulette Dubost, Madeline Guitty, Lucien Callamand; The Invader (1935), 1h 24m, [a,w], Lupita Tovar, Esme Percy, Lyn Harding; Palooka from Paducah (1935), 19m, [a], Myra Keaton, Joe Keaton, Louise Keaton; One Run Elmer (1935), 21m, [a], Lona André, Harold Goodwin, Dewey Robinson; Hayseed Romance (1935), 19m, [a], Jane Jones, Dorothea Kent; Tars and Stripes (1935), 18m, [a], Vernon Dent, Dorothea Kent, Jack Shutta; The E-Flat Man (1935), 16m, [a], Dorothea Kent, Broderick O’Farrell, Charles McAvoy; The Timid Young Man (1935), 20m, [a], Lona André, Stanley J. Sandford, Kitty McHugh; La Fiesta de Santa Barbara (1935) 19m, Eduardo Durant’s Fiesta Orchestra and the Spanish Troubadors, Warner Baxter, Ralph Forbes; Three on a Limb (1936), 18m, [a], Lona André, Harold Goodwin, Grant Withers; Sunkist Stars at Palm Springs (1936), 20m Edmund Lowe, the Fanchonettes, Hollywood Ingénues; Grand Slam Opera (1936), 21m, [a,w], Diana Lewis, Harold Goodwin, John Ince; Blue Blazes (1936), 19m, [a], Marlyn Stuart, Donald MacBride, Earl Gilbert; The Chemist (1936), 20m, [a], Marlyn Stuart, Donald MacBride, Earl Gilbert; Mixed Magic (1936), 19m, [a], Eddie Lambert, Marlyn Stuart, Eddie Hall; Jail Bait (1937), 19m, [a], Harold Goodwin, Mathew Betz, Bud Jamison; Ditto (1937), 17m, [a], Gloria Brewster, Barbara Brewster, Harold Goodwin; Love Nest on Wheels (1937), 18m, [a], Myra Keaton, Al St. John, Lynton Brent; The Jones Family in Hollywood (1939), 61m, [w], Jed Prouty, Spring Byington, Ken Howell; Pest from the West (1939), 20m, [a] Lorna Gray, Gino Corrado, Richard Fiske; Mooching Through Georgia (1939), 19m, [a], Monty Collins, Jill Martin, Bud Jamison; Quick Millions (1939) 60m, [w], Jed Prouty, Spring Byington, Ken Howell; Hollywood Cavalcade (1939), 1h 36m, [a], Alice Faye, Don Ameche, J. Edward Bromberg; Nothing But Pleasure (1940), 17m, [a], Dorothy Appleby, Beatrice Blinn; Pardon My Berth Marks (1940), 18m, [a], Dorothy Appleby, Richard Fiske, Vernon Dent; The Taming of the Snood (1940), 17m, [a], Elsie Ames, Dorothy Appleby; The Spook Speaks (1940), 18m, [a], Elsie Ames, Don Beddoe, Dorothy Appleby; The Villain Still Pursued Her (1940), 1h 7m, [a], Hugh Herbert, Anita Louise, Richard Cromwell; Li’l Abner (1940), 78m, [a], Granville Owen, Martha O’Driscoll; Mona Ray; His Ex Marks the Spot (1940), 18m, [a], Elsie Ames, Matt McHugh, Dorothy Appleby; So You Won't Squawk? (1941), 16m, [a], Matt McHugh, Eddie Fetherston; General Nuisance (1941), 17m, [a], Elsie Ames, Dorothy Appleby, Monty Collins; She's Oil Mine (1941), 17m, [a], Elsie Ames, Monty Collins; Forever and a Day (1943), 1h 44m, [a], Victor McLaglen, Herbert Marshall, Ray Milland; San Diego, I Love You (1944), 1h 25m, [a], Jon Hall, Louise Allbritton, Edward Everett Horton; That's the Spirit (1945), 1h 33m, [a], Jack Oakie, Peggy Ryan, June Vincent; That Night with You (1945), 1h 24m, [a], Franchot Tone, Susanna Foster, Louise Allbritton; She Went to the Races (1945), 1h 26m, [a], James Craig, Frances Gifford, Ava Gardner; God's Country (1946), 1h 2m, [a], Robert Lowery, Helen Gilbert, William Farnum; El Moderno Barba Azul (1946), 1h 38m, [a], Angel Garasa, Virginia Serret, Fernando Soto; Un Duel À Mort (1947), 24m, [a], Antonin Berval; In the Good Old Summertime (1949), 1h 42m, [a], Judy Garland, Van Johnson, S.Z. Sakall; You’re My Everything (1949), 1h 34m, [a], Dan Dailey, Anne Baxter, Anne Revere; The Lovable Cheat (1949), 1h 14m, [a], Charles Ruggles, Peggy Ann Garner, Richard Ney; Sunset Boulevard (1950), 1h 50m, [a], William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim; Limelight (1952), 2h 23m, [a], Charlie Chaplin, Claire Bloom, Nigel Bruce; Paradise for Buster (1952), 38m, [a]; The Misadventures of Buster Keaton (1953), 1h 3m, [a], Marcia Mae Jones, Harold Goodwin, Eleanor Keaton; L’incantevole Nemica (1953), 1h 27m, [a], Silvana Pampanini, Robert Lamoreux, Carlo Campanini; Around the World in Eighty Days (1956), 2h 58m, [a], David Niven, Cantinflas, Robert Newton; The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1960), 1h 47m, [a], Eddie Hodges, Archie Moore, Tony Randall; The Devil to Pay (1960), 27m, [a], Ralph Dunne, Ruth Gilette, Marion Morris; The Home Owner (1962), 22m, [a]; Ten Girls Ago (1962), 1h 14m, [a], Bert Lahr, Eddie Foy Jr., Dion; It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), 2h 41m, [a], Spencer Tracy, Milton Berle, Ethel Merman; The Triumph of Lester Snapwell (1963), 21m, [a], Sigrid Nelsson, Nina Varela; There’s No Business Like No Business (1964), 15m, [a]; Film (1965), 17m, [a], James Karen, Nell Harrison, Susan Reed; Pajama Party (1964), 1h 25m, [a], Tommy Kirk, Annette Funicello, Elsa Lanchester; The Railrodder (1965), 25m, [a]; The Fall Guy (1965), 20m, [a], Bob Dahl; Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), 1h 38m, [a], Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello, Deborah Walley; How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (1965), 1h 30m, [a], Annette Funicello, Dwayne Hickman, Brian Donlevy; Sergeant Deadhead (1965), 1h 30m, [a], Frankie Avalon, Deborah Walley, Cesar Romero; War Italian Style (1967), 1h 36m, [a], Franco Franchi, Ciccio Ingrassia, Martha Hyer; A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966), 1h 37m, [a], Zero Mostel, Phil Silvers, Michael Crawford; The Scribe (1966), 29m, [a], Cecil Linder.