Today I finally found the collection of Buster Keaton's Columbia shorts (2006) for $10 at Half Priced Books. For anyone who's never seen them, I highly reccomend this set. Granted, these films are not even close to matching the genius of his early silent films, but they are a great way to see a talkie-version of Buster and some Columbia players in non-Stooge roles. There are 10 films in all, and costars include Vernon Dent, Bud Jamison, Dorothy Appleby, Eddie Laughton, Monty Collins, Richard Fiske, and many more Stooge regulars.
Actually, everything is pretty much the exact same as the Stooges minus Moe, Larry, and Curly. Jules White is the director of 8 out of the 10 shorts (in the commentaries and documentary feature, there is a lot of Jules White-bashing that I think is unjustified), many are written by Clyde Bruckman or Felix Adler, the opening titles are exactly the same, and many of the sets and music pieces are the same.
The set also features a reproduction of a script by Felix Adler in an included book. There is also a pretty cool preview of some of the past Stooges DVD releases that features Moe, Larry, Curly, Shemp, and Curly-Joe. (Two of the clips of Shemp and Curly-Joe are from Scrambled Brains and Have Rocket Will Travel, which were never included on any of the past DVD's-FALSE ADVERTISING!
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