Movies Galore

Buster Keaton was the other great silent film comedien, along with Charlie Chaplin. He never attained the popularity of Chaplin, perhaps because he kept his famous "stone face." His movies were very funny, but not as emotionally engaging. OK, a lot of people think Chaplin was too sentimental, but I think that some emotional appeal should be mixed in with the comedy. No modern comedies fail to make an emotional appeal to the audience through their characters or story lines.

Unfortunately, Keaton lost control of his career by signing with MGM. He never again attained the heights of comedy or of being a directory -- he was voted the 7th greatest directory of all time by Entertainment Weekly. Some feel that he would have also been a great star of sound movies, but he'd lost professional control when they came in, and also had a lot of personal problems. Bad marriages and alcoholism.]

I look forward to the day when I have time to buy or rent his great silent movies in DVD and enjoy watching all of them.