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The Love Nest (1923) - Buster Keaton

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Offline Paul Pain

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Watch THE LOVE NEST in the box above and get the Damfino's note here:
http://www.busterkeaton.com/Films/B19_The_Love_Nest.html

Does anybody like the Youtube box I post every week?  This short is a precious way to end the second phase of our journey.  We may or may not include his Educational shorts; that's TBD.

The basic concept is that Keaton is escaping spurned love on a dreamy journey.  His misadventures are hilarious as he has run-in after run-in with Joe Roberts.  Somehow, though, he endears himself to escape the murderous fate or his shipmates.  Even he gets murderous and murdered in Stooge fashion!

Great moments: sealing the envelope with his tears, the shoe polish beard, Buster throwing the wreaths, playing solitaire after killing Roberts to sink the ship, and his post-awakening realizations.

Sorry, but I love this short.

10/10 [poke] [poke] [poke] [poke] [poke] [poke] [poke] [poke] [poke] [poke]
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Offline Umbrella Sam

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Being Keaton's last silent short, THE LOVE NEST was actually a pretty good place for him to end at before starting his own features. Joe Roberts is just wonderful as the captain. His reactions whenever his crew members screw up are just wonderful and it does lead to a nice running gag with Keaton and the wreaths, though I do have to wonder why Roberts didn't throw Keaton off after the coffee incident, considering his limited patience with the other crew members. I also really enjoyed the porthole gag. Seeing Keaton's reaction after Roberts hands him the picture is just priceless.

Once again, there is a lot of excitement to this short such as with the whale or when Keaton is sinking the ship. However, the part towards the end with the navy and their target practice feels pretty unnecessary and just kind of drags on a bit. Still, Keaton does give a spirited performance and does show that he could have continued in shorts if he really needed to.

9 out of 10
“I’ll take a milkshake...with sour milk!” -Shemp (Punchy Cowpunchers, 1950)

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Offline metaldams

      We're at the final Buster Keaton silent short and about to enter into his equally brilliant run of feature films.  THE LOVE NEST is another engaging short and would be the best film for many lesser comedians, but for Keaton, it lacks that one brilliant stand out gag or scenario for me to give this a 10, hence the 9 instead.  Still, there is absolutely nothing wrong with this short at all.

      What do I like about THE LOVE NEST?  In general, I dig the deep sea atmosphere and just the loneliness of the whole thing.  Really, Keaton is a guy lost at sea, and even when he is on a ship with others, you never feel like he is either on board with everyone else on the ship or understands their feelings about him.  Think the times Keaton think Roberts will throw him off but doesn't.  So yeah, a real lonely film, similar to some Chaplin and Langdon, but never Lloyd.  I dig that kind of thing, and perhaps that speaks more about me than the film itself.  Speaking of Joe Roberts, it's always a treat watching him play the intimidating heavy, and this is one of his more humorous roles.

      Lots of fun little throwaway gags in this one.  Keaton appearing to stare at the sea through a window outside only for Roberts to take down the window revealing it's actually a painting Keaton's staring at got a big laugh this viewing.  One of the many Keaton gags where he surprises the audience, think the opening prison bar scene in COPS.  Love Keaton walking down the stairs into the sea with a rifle to shoot a fish, the sinking of the big boat while Keaton camps out on the smaller boat on top, the phony beard, the trick ending where he's really not at sea....just an overall entertaining film.

9/10
- Doug Sarnecky