Topic: The Spook Speaks (1940) - Buster Keaton

[Paul Pain]

Get the Damfino's note here:
http://www.busterkeaton.com/Films/F06_The_Spook_Speaks.html

Apparently the Columbia cronies are on to my wiles, as they've arranged for many of the Buster Keaton shorts to be pulled from Youtube.  I watched the entire set on there just a couple of years ago.  C'est la vie.

THE SPOOK SPEAKS again slips in the way our previous short did.  This is just not a Buster role, but it does have some nice pratfalls scattered throughout to suit the strengths of Buster and Elise Ames, who from here just gets more and more prominent the next few shorts.  This short is a typical cheesy Columbia Shorts Department scare comedy, and Buster Keaton + scare comedy = bizarre.  However, I like Buster's style of scare reactions.  As I have said before, I relate heavily to Buster as he reacts to many things the same way I do or would.

This short isn't without strengths, though.  As I mentioned, there are many great falls, and this is even one of the shorts most heavily borrowed by the Three Stooges later.  This short would later be reworked as SPOOK LOUDER.  Also, the brown bottle of heavy liquor, complete with "The Little Brown Jug" being played, was first done here.  The punchline of this short's version of that gag, however, is one of the funniest things in any Columbia short.

Most people aren't fans of how Elsie and Buster handle things in this short, but I think it makes a funderfully unique little piece and saves it from being junk.  The only other dissatisfying bit is that, unlike SPOOK LOUDER, the villains emerge victorious in this short.

9/10

[Big Chief Apumtagribonitz]

The title of this explains why a few years later Columbia had to use the ultra-bland " The Ghost Talks ".  They'd already used the synonymous "The Spook Speaks".  So how do we get to see this one?

[Umbrella Sam]

As mentioned, this was later reworked by the Three Stooges as SPOOK LOUDER, and Keaton had previously done a haunted house comedy with...THE HAUNTED HOUSE (hey, I never said the titles were perfect during the silent era). THE HAUNTED HOUSE is definitely the superior of the three. As for SPOOK LOUDER, I’ll admit that I like it, though I don’t think it’s great. It’s pretty consistent in terms of laughs and there really isn’t anything wrong with it outside of the plot hole of how the spies got into the house in the first place.

Then we get to THE SPOOK SPEAKS. I would have to say that I prefer the Three Stooges version, mostly due to the better team dynamic. Keaton is once again teamed up with Elsie Ames in this short, who is a bit more subdued in this short, though unfortunately does very little physical comedy, outside of that one moment where she falls off the chandelier, and because of how dark the lighting is, I can’t tell if that even is the two of them doing that stunt.

Dorothy Appleby and Don Beddoe kind of just get randomly shoved in there as a couple who has to stay overnight and the focus shifts at one point to them, making it feel even less like a Keaton short.

The scare comedy kind of works. Even if Keaton was known as the Great Stone Face, he still was able to make these kinds of comedies work somehow, as proven in THE HAUNTED HOUSE. Unfortunately, the best gags were the ones done better in other films. We’ve got the painting gag from THE NAVIGATOR, as well as the gags that later turned up in SPOOK LOUDER like with the boxing gloves behind the bookcase. Other gags like the spirit ones were fine enough, but not really anything special, especially for a scare comedy.

A fine enough effort, but the fact that there are better versions out there both by the Three Stooges and Keaton himself does not really make this one stand out at all.

7 out of 10

[Paul Pain]

The title of this explains why a few years later Columbia had to use the ultra-bland " The Ghost Talks ".  They'd already used the synonymous "The Spook Speaks".  So how do we get to see this one?

Unfortunately, this one isn't online.  Blame Columbia pictures for so passionately policing YouTube.

[Paul Pain]

As mentioned, this was later reworked by the Three Stooges as SPOOK LOUDER, and Keaton had previously done a haunted house comedy with...THE HAUNTED HOUSE (hey, I never said the titles were perfect during the silent era). THE HAUNTED HOUSE is definitely the superior of the three. As for SPOOK LOUDER, I’ll admit that I like it, though I don’t think it’s great. It’s pretty consistent in terms of laughs and there really isn’t anything wrong with it outside of the plot hole of how the spies got into the house in the first place.

Then we get to THE SPOOK SPEAKS. I would have to say that I prefer the Three Stooges version, mostly due to the better team dynamic. Keaton is once again teamed up with Elsie Ames in this short, who is a bit more subdued in this short, though unfortunately does very little physical comedy, outside of that one moment where she falls off the chandelier, and because of how dark the lighting is, I can’t tell if that even is the two of them doing that stunt.

Dorothy Appleby and Don Beddoe kind of just get randomly shoved in there as a couple who has to stay overnight and the focus shifts at one point to them, making it feel even less like a Keaton short.

The scare comedy kind of works. Even if Keaton was known as the Great Stone Face, he still was able to make these kinds of comedies work somehow, as proven in THE HAUNTED HOUSE. Unfortunately, the best gags were the ones done better in other films. We’ve got the painting gag from THE NAVIGATOR, as well as the gags that later turned up in SPOOK LOUDER like with the boxing gloves behind the bookcase. Other gags like the spirit ones were fine enough, but not really anything special, especially for a scare comedy.

A fine enough effort, but the fact that there are better versions out there both by the Three Stooges and Keaton himself does not really make this one stand out at all.

7 out of 10

Penguins imbibing hooch... LOL

[Big Chief Apumtagribonitz]

I see the comparison, though of course I much prefer Spook Louder.  This one is O K, though, not idiotic or embarrassing, with Dorothy Appleby again in good support, in the role of a cute moron, not easy to pull off.  It has been decades since I've seen some of these, and some I've never seen, so I'd forgotten that so many of them are built around mechanical devices, which of course abound here.  I knew that Buster was mechanically inclined, but if I had noticed before, I had certainly forgotten the extent to which that bent was featured in his pictures.  Which to me says that Buster had a major hand in production and development in this one, or worked through Clyde Bruckman to get it the way he wanted it.  And yes, the little brown jug bits are the best things in the picture.
      I have never quite understood Paul Pain's aversion to Lyman Brent's acting until now.  Boy, does he stink in this role.

[metaldams]

Like Paul, I've been busy as Hell lately.  I got a Saturday to myself, finally.

Believe it or not, listening to the audio commentary and reading the occasional book, there are people who consider THE SPOOK SPEAKS just about the worst thing Buster ever did.  Nothing is worse than FREE AND EASY in my mind.  These shorts also don't go on for over ninety minutes like the just mentioned feature. To Buster Keaton fans, I can see how they don't like this one.  Not a single gag has any Keaton style cleverness and he only gives us a few physical moments, namely a few good pratfalls and the part towards the end where and Elsie Ames hold each other while standing diagonally.

For me personally, I've also made it known scare comedy without Bud and Lou or The Bowery Boys (OK with The Stooges, but they do so many other comedy styles better in my mind), is not one of my favorite genres.  Keaton's THE HAUNTED HOUSE, while not one of the better silent shorts, at least has some surreal moments, good production values, and wit.  Not so much here.  Here, it's a penguin on a skate covered in a sheet and a Halloween store tarantula dangling from the ceiling.

All this being said, despite my logic telling me otherwise, there's a comfort food familiarity to all this I dig.  It's a 1940 Columbia short with Stooge drinking sound effects, Dorothy Appleby acting cute, and Buster Keaton.  I'll take a Buster Keaton not in his element (Really? Subtle comedians and scare comedy rarely, if ever, works), versus no Buste at all.  A short I would never pick to watch on its own, but OK to spend fifteen minutes with when I'm watching them all in order.

[Dr. Mabuse]

One of Keaton's worst Columbia two-reelers. Painfully unfunny and a total waste of Buster, who never should have been trapped in this formulaic nonsense. 

2/10

[Kopfy2013]

I read where many people think this is awful. Keaton's worst.  I actually thought it was ok.  Better than a few of his other Columbia shorts.  I like the supporting cast - Appleby especially.  Ames again does amazing catfalls ...

Penguin on skates ... all the magician gags ... I give it a 6, above average.

[I. Cheatam]

As mentioned, this was later reworked by the Three Stooges as SPOOK LOUDER, and Keaton had previously done a haunted house comedy with...THE HAUNTED HOUSE (hey, I never said the titles were perfect during the silent era). THE HAUNTED HOUSE is definitely the superior of the three. As for SPOOK LOUDER, I’ll admit that I like it, though I don’t think it’s great. It’s pretty consistent in terms of laughs and there really isn’t anything wrong with it outside of the plot hole of how the spies got into the house in the first place.

Then we get to THE SPOOK SPEAKS. I would have to say that I prefer the Three Stooges version, mostly due to the better team dynamic. Keaton is once again teamed up with Elsie Ames in this short, who is a bit more subdued in this short, though unfortunately does very little physical comedy, outside of that one moment where she falls off the chandelier, and because of how dark the lighting is, I can’t tell if that even is the two of them doing that stunt.

Dorothy Appleby and Don Beddoe kind of just get randomly shoved in there as a couple who has to stay overnight and the focus shifts at one point to them, making it feel even less like a Keaton short.

The scare comedy kind of works. Even if Keaton was known as the Great Stone Face, he still was able to make these kinds of comedies work somehow, as proven in THE HAUNTED HOUSE. Unfortunately, the best gags were the ones done better in other films. We’ve got the painting gag from THE NAVIGATOR, as well as the gags that later turned up in SPOOK LOUDER like with the boxing gloves behind the bookcase. Other gags like the spirit ones were fine enough, but not really anything special, especially for a scare comedy.

A fine enough effort, but the fact that there are better versions out there both by the Three Stooges and Keaton himself does not really make this one stand out at all.

7 out of 10

If Sweetie doesn't stop all this spiritual business, Honey's gonna BREAK HER NECK!!!