Sunday Night Open Thread

I love old movies.


[The YouTube]

I’ve mentioned before that I didn’t care for Buster Keaton’s paring with Jimmy Durante. Still, Buster gives it his all, despite not liking the movies. Still, they made money.

What’s been on your mind? Got something you’d like to share? A topic to discuss? It’s Sunday Night Open Thread.

Who wants to start?

8 Comments

  1. From the time Jimmy and I were teamed up I heard rumors that Mr. Mayer was planning to build him up at my expense. This didn’t worry me much, although I can’t say I liked it. With my record of successful pictures, I felt I was a fixture at M-G-M. I couldn’t imagine anyone there wanting to get rid of me. If Jimmy Durante could replace me it would be on his superior ability. Like a lot of men the world considers modest and humble I had unshakable confidence in my talent and ability to hold the place that I had staked out for myself.

    The three pictures I made with Durante were The Passionate Plumber, Speak Easily, and What, No Beer? I made the last one — a 100 per cent turkey — right after my wife divorced me. I was trying to drink away my sorrow and woe every night.

    — Buster Keaton, My Wonderful World of Slapstick

  2. 18:08 — Excellent sight gag, worthy of any of Buster’s early train jokes.

    37:00 — Thsi movie makes a joke about how unoriginal, and cliche, “Singin’ In The Rain” is, for a musical. This was in 1932.

      • You’re certainly correct about the theme of the Gene Kelly movie. Unlike DBDukes, though, I suspect the vast majority of people don’t just associate the song with that movie, but actually think it was composed for it.

        Similarly, I was surprised to learn in a documentary how cliche and already-covered-a-million-times “As Time Goes By” was, by the time they tossed it into Casablanca. I associated it with that movie, and thought it was original with it.

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