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Reviews
The Spook Speaks (1940)
Buster does his best in a typical Columbia "scare" comedy
Buster is a hapless temp, hired as caretaker at a magician's house. Of course the heavily gadgeted house plays all sorts of tricks on Buster for fifteen minutes. Buster's partner here is Elsie Ames, whose willingness to do rough, physical
comedy landed her leads in several Columbia shorts. (In this one she gets a
boxing glove in the face six times in a row.) This is a typical Columbia "spook" comedy with the usual quota of unsophisticated, tried-and-true laughs, but this kind of broad, scared-reaction comedy was better left to The Three Stooges.
Keaton goes through the motions and snares some laughs, but "The Spook Speaks" is not one of his shining achievements.
Pest from the West (1939)
One of Buster's best talkies
This is the first and indeed the best of Buster Keaton's ten Columbia shorts. Most of these suffer from Stooge-style slapstick and heavy-handed direction,
but this first effort is great fun to watch. (Buster himself liked this one best, according to the late Mrs. Keaton.) In this reworking of his 1936 feature "An Old Spanish Custom," Buster plays an international tourist who falls for a pretty senorita. But he has several run-ins with belligerent locals, each resulting in a hasty retreat, a quick change of costume, and Buster coming back for more.
Exhibitors and audiences loved this film in 1939, and it was the first Columbia two-reeler selected for re-release (in 1948). It's still a crowd-pleaser today; this writer attended a screening where the audience members didn't just applaud -- they cheered!
Down Memory Lane (1949)
Great moments from Sennett pix, framed by clever Steve Allen footage
This is a clever compilation of old Mack Sennett comedies, and it boasts two "firsts." It's the first feature-length comedy compilation, and it features the first screen appearance (1949) of the late Steve Allen, then a popular late-night disc jockey. Allen (sans glasses) appears as himself, a disc jockey on a live TV broadcast showcasing Mack Sennett comedies. Everything goes wrong -- Sennett doesn't show up on time, the film jumps from silent to sound and back again, the live commercials go haywire, etc. The framing device effectively introduces Sennett's favorite clips with W. C. Fields, Bing Crosby, Ben Turpin, Donald Novis, and Mabel Normand. DOWN MEMORY LANE is infrequently shown today, but if it comes your way, don't let the opportunity escape.
Blazing Stewardesses (1975)
Low-budget homage to '40s westerns; familiar cast is the only asset
BLAZING STEWARDESSES suggests a T & A movie, but it's a low-budget western which tries awfully hard to imitate horse operas of the '40s. Masked killers on horseback terrorize a western town, where girls mingle with guests at a dude ranch. Former cowboy stars Don "Red" Barry and Robert Livingston have character roles, and Yvonne DeCarlo has a featured role. Best scenes involve The Ritz Brothers (Harry and Jimmy), who offer comedy relief as ranch hands.
If you're looking for something sexy, this will disappoint you, but old-movie buffs and Ritz Brothers fans may give it points for good intentions.
The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle (2000)
Very disappointing. Watch the TV version instead.
The TV show was fast, sharp, and funny, but the movie is slow, dull, and pointless. Not much resemblance between TV's cartoon characters and the big screen's pale approximations: Rocky, formerly the brains of the outfit, is now a forlorn wimp. Bullwinkle, who used to fearlessly fire off hilarious puns, now offers a few tired one-liners as tedious live-action characters monopolize the footage. The picture might have worked better as an animated feature. If you've never seen "moose and squirrel" on television you might get a few laughs out of this, but you'll wonder how the show ever got such a following. Diehard fans will definitely be disappointed, although Robert DeNiro is amusing as Fearless Leader, and June Foray and Keith Scott are excellent as our heroes' voices. Curiously, Bill Scott (the original voice of Bullwinkle and co-creator of the TV show) does not get any screen credit at all.