This is an atrocious short film with the appallingly awful pair of untalented so-called comics Elsie Ames and Matt McHugh. Both have slim filmographies, which is no surprise. How the two found work at all considering how obnoxious they are makes one wonder. Keaton tries his best, but he is overwhelmed by the pair and the poor direction of Jules White combined with the terrible sound effects. It is just a lost cause.
5 Reviews
The Battle Behind the Scenes
boblipton16 March 2006
Looking at a Jules White-directed Keaton short, one can almost see them battling behind the scenes, White a proponent of smashing things and slapping people, and Buster trying for elaboration. Given that they shot these shorts on a three-day schedule, there is a lot of cheating going on, mostly through undercranking the camera to get Buster through one of his falls. Yet this is a highly entertaining short, particularly in the first half, as Buster fights with his ex-wife's trunk for some of his trademark falls. Even Elsie Ames gets some excellent pratfalls in.
Buster also gets to do some real acting here, and people who think of him as stone-faced do not really watch him. He shows an enormous range of emotion even though he doesn't smile. In many of the Jules White shorts, he seems mentally deficient, but here he is, struggling to make the best of a bad situation: his ex-wife's alimony means that he and his new wife are suffering, so he comes up with the idea of having his ex-wife move in, which will save on the living expenses. It's a crack-brained idea, but Buster perseveres. Yes, there are many crude Jules White touches, but it's a Buster Keaton movie and he and the audience win in the end. Give this one a try.
Buster also gets to do some real acting here, and people who think of him as stone-faced do not really watch him. He shows an enormous range of emotion even though he doesn't smile. In many of the Jules White shorts, he seems mentally deficient, but here he is, struggling to make the best of a bad situation: his ex-wife's alimony means that he and his new wife are suffering, so he comes up with the idea of having his ex-wife move in, which will save on the living expenses. It's a crack-brained idea, but Buster perseveres. Yes, there are many crude Jules White touches, but it's a Buster Keaton movie and he and the audience win in the end. Give this one a try.
Fair
Michael_Elliott7 March 2008
Ex Marks the Spot (1940)
** (out of 4)
In order to get out of paying alimony, Buster Keaton allows his ex and her new boyfriend to move into his home but all hell breaks loose. This here's another Columbia short that manages to get a few laughs but there's not too many here and this is certainly far from Keaton's classic work. This film (and the previous one) were directed by Jules White, which might explain the Three Stooges like humor that just doesn't work with the silent legend.
Available in Columbia's Buster Keaton set.
** (out of 4)
In order to get out of paying alimony, Buster Keaton allows his ex and her new boyfriend to move into his home but all hell breaks loose. This here's another Columbia short that manages to get a few laughs but there's not too many here and this is certainly far from Keaton's classic work. This film (and the previous one) were directed by Jules White, which might explain the Three Stooges like humor that just doesn't work with the silent legend.
Available in Columbia's Buster Keaton set.
Dreadful from start to finish--and to make things worse, it isn't even funny!
planktonrules7 February 2009
Warning: Spoilers
In the late 1930s and early 1940s, the great Buster Keaton was out of work and in desperate need for money so he made a string of forgettable short films for Columbia Pictures. Although he was a comic genius during the silent era, his career in sound movies was mostly horrible due to the industry's unwillingness to simply let him do what he did best and they insisted in trying to force him into uncomfortable molds that just didn't work. Sadly, because Keaton was lousy with money, he was so hard up for cash and unwilling to balk with the studios that he made some dreadful film and TV appearances that probably made him ashamed to look in the mirror. This is a stark contrast to Chaplin and Lloyd who made far fewer sound films but chose them much better. Plus, they knew when to walk away and retain much of their dignity. This is particularly true of Harold Lloyd, who never would have appeared in American-International movies such as BEACH BLANKET BINGO or a particularly wretched episode of "The Twilight Zone" like Keaton did.
As for the Columbia shorts, they were directed and produced by Jules White who was also responsible for the Three Stooges shorts. This is very, very obvious when you watch the Keaton shorts as the plots look indiscernible from the Stooges' films--with the same gags, sound effects and style. In fact, in some cases, Keaton does the same plots the Stooges had first done and this isn't surprising. That's because Columbia OFTEN repeated plots and many of the Stooges' later shorts for the studio are remakes of their earlier films! While Stooges die-hards might excuse this and think ALL of their films are gems, this is definitely NOT true--the remakes are definite duds. As for Keaton fans (and I am definitely one--having seen more of his silent films than practically anyone on the planet), they will also usually admit that his sound films were pretty poor and the Columbia films were at best passable entertainment. Plus, the Stooges' style is a horrible thing to try to fit the great Keaton into. It's akin to putting Greta Garbo in a Marx Brothers film!!!
This is probably one of the dumbest of the Columbia shorts that Keaton made. The plot is amazingly contrived and stupid--and simply makes no sense. Keaton is married to wife #2. They have a hard time making ends meet because Keaton has to pay a lot of alimony so they get the bright idea of inviting the ex-wife (Elsie Ames) to live with them instead of paying alimony(!?). Wife #1 turns out to be so obnoxious that you soon wonder why Keaton divorced her instead of killing her!! And, to make matters worse, she brings along her boyfriend to also live with them. This jerk does nothing but laugh like a moron and make a total nuisance of himself. There is nothing remotely funny about this odd pair--they are just jerks and this is yet another Keaton short that Ames helped ruin. How they think they can make a go of it with these cretins is beyond any sane person. Fortunately, the movie does end on a more positive note when they threaten to kill the pair unless they marry and get out--thus relieving Keaton from alimony payments. If only they'd threatened to kill them at the beginning of this film we might have been spared all this mess!
This is a film that frankly wasn't good enough to use in a Three Stooge's film--it's THAT bad! Don't say I didn't warn you!
As for the Columbia shorts, they were directed and produced by Jules White who was also responsible for the Three Stooges shorts. This is very, very obvious when you watch the Keaton shorts as the plots look indiscernible from the Stooges' films--with the same gags, sound effects and style. In fact, in some cases, Keaton does the same plots the Stooges had first done and this isn't surprising. That's because Columbia OFTEN repeated plots and many of the Stooges' later shorts for the studio are remakes of their earlier films! While Stooges die-hards might excuse this and think ALL of their films are gems, this is definitely NOT true--the remakes are definite duds. As for Keaton fans (and I am definitely one--having seen more of his silent films than practically anyone on the planet), they will also usually admit that his sound films were pretty poor and the Columbia films were at best passable entertainment. Plus, the Stooges' style is a horrible thing to try to fit the great Keaton into. It's akin to putting Greta Garbo in a Marx Brothers film!!!
This is probably one of the dumbest of the Columbia shorts that Keaton made. The plot is amazingly contrived and stupid--and simply makes no sense. Keaton is married to wife #2. They have a hard time making ends meet because Keaton has to pay a lot of alimony so they get the bright idea of inviting the ex-wife (Elsie Ames) to live with them instead of paying alimony(!?). Wife #1 turns out to be so obnoxious that you soon wonder why Keaton divorced her instead of killing her!! And, to make matters worse, she brings along her boyfriend to also live with them. This jerk does nothing but laugh like a moron and make a total nuisance of himself. There is nothing remotely funny about this odd pair--they are just jerks and this is yet another Keaton short that Ames helped ruin. How they think they can make a go of it with these cretins is beyond any sane person. Fortunately, the movie does end on a more positive note when they threaten to kill the pair unless they marry and get out--thus relieving Keaton from alimony payments. If only they'd threatened to kill them at the beginning of this film we might have been spared all this mess!
This is a film that frankly wasn't good enough to use in a Three Stooge's film--it's THAT bad! Don't say I didn't warn you!
Simply hilareous! Better than most of Keaton's classic silents!
weezeralfalfa15 December 2018
Warning: Spoilers
Sorry to disagree with most of you, but I lost count of the times I laughed out loud. It was directed by Jules White, who directed most, if not all, of The Three Stooges comedies. Thus, it's not surprising that this comedy looks like a blend of Keaton's and the Stooges styles. We might describe the screenplay as an extreme situation comedy........In detail, Buster's wife, played by Dolores Appleby, complains that nearly all of Buster's earnings goes toward paying his alimony. So, Buster gets the bright idea of asking his ex-wife (played by Elsie Ames) and her boyfriend: Matt McHugh, as Radcliffe) to come live with them, to much reduce the cost of supporting his ex-wife. Hopefully, eventually, they will marry, so Buster won't have to pay any more alimony. Well, with the right 4 people, this situation bristles with comedic possibilities, besides the fact that these 4 people would even consider such an arrangement. The other 3 actors were used to plying supporting roles in comedies. Here, McHugh often let forth a raucous belly laugh when things went wrong, and occasionally participated in the action. Dorothy(his wife) often served as the straight man, but sometimes joined in the action when she got mad enough. This happened when Elsie was hit on the head by the falling ironing board, due to Buster's action. Elsie thought it was Dorothy who was responsible, so slapped her. Dorothy slapped her back. This was the beginning of a cat fight that involved throwing dishes, a body slam by Dorothy, a cat fight on the floor, and Dorothy sitting on Elsie until she answered "yes" to Dorothy's question if she was going to marry Radcliffe very soon. Eventually, Dorothy put a hot iron on her butt, and Elsie gave in. They are married right there in Buster's apartment. Dorothy has a pistol in her hand to encourage the newly weds to move out pronto. But, she turns it on Buster when he unwisely voices his regret that they are leaving.......One thing I particularly like about this film as opposed to the typical Stooges films is the relative absence of slapping: only the incident between the women I described. See it at YouTube. Hope you enjoy it!
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