Kino puts classic Keaton onto Blu-ray

By Christopher P. Jacobs
Movies Editor

Blu-ray video discs have been on the commercial market for five years now, and 2011 is seeing the largest increase in variety beyond the recent box office hits. These include more “catalog titles” from studio vaults, some carefully restored (such as “The Ten Commandments,” “Taxi Driver,” “Ben-Hur,” “Citizen Kane”), and others simply re-transferred in high definition so they more closely resemble how they look on the original film (such as “Network,” and the original 1960s versions of “Ocean’s Eleven,” “The Manchurian Candidate,” and “The Thomas Crown Affair”). There’s also a steadily growing number of film classics showing up on high-quality Blu-rays from companies like Criterion and Kino, making it possible to see them at home looking better than they ever have outside of film archive screenings or the best revival theatres in the biggest cities.

While numerous films from the 1950s and 60s, famous and obscure, are regularly turning up on Blu-ray, and several key classics of the 1930s and 40s are now available in the format, the pre-sound period remains the least-represented. Even worldwide movie icon Charlie Chaplin has only his last part-silent “Modern Times” (1936) and his first all-talkie “The Great Dictator” (1940) out on Blu-ray in the U.S. Nothing at all from Harold Lloyd is yet on Blu-ray.

Luckily, one of the best and most popular movie comedy stars of the silent era is the rare exception. Buster Keaton was and still is Chaplin and Lloyd’s greatest rival, with a completely different approach to his comedy and his stories. Five Keaton silent features are already on Blu-ray, with more promised for the near future, including a set of shorts this summer.

“The General” (1927) made it to Blu-ray first, back in November 2009. Last year, “Steamboat Bill Jr” (1928) came out in July and a double-feature of “Sherlock Jr” (1924) and “Three Ages” (1923) in November. Just this past March, Kino released a Blu-ray of Keaton’s first full-length feature as both director and star, “Our Hospitality” (1923), and for this July they’ve announced a three-disc Blu-ray set of Keaton short films from the years 1920-23.

Keaton’s Civil War satire “The General” is likely his best-known film, and the Blu-ray’s picture quality ranks among the best of any films in the format, scanned from a print struck off the original camera negative. “Sherlock, Jr.” is probably his most innovative and surrealistic film, with Keaton playing a movie projectionist who dreams he walks into the movie. It, too, has an excellent HD transfer and the edition prepared for Blu-ray now includes several shots missing from any previous video version. “Steamboat Bill Jr” was Keaton’s last great independent feature and the Blu-ray includes good HD transfers of two completely different versions made up of alternate takes.

“Our Hospitality” shows Keaton’s early skill at constructing a solid story around which to develop comic gags and episodes, instead of the other way around as many other movie comics then worked. It could easily be a serious melodrama, with a young man traveling west by train in 1830 to claim inherited property only to find himself in the middle of a generations-old family feud with the father and brothers of his new girlfriend. Keaton plays some sections of the film straight, undermines the seriousness at other times with his typically dry humor, and occasionally throws in moments of broader slapstick that usually involve elaborate, often dangerous physical stunts.

Much of the humor deals with the contrast between the film’s early American time period and modern-day “roaring 20s” attitudes. A fascinating element of “Our Hospitality” is how many comic episodes involving the film’s quaintly primitive train are dry runs for “The General,” which he’d film three years later. Just as fascinating is one of the disc’s bonus features: a recently discovered early cut of the film entitled simply “Hospitality.” While there are no alternate scenes, this version runs 25 minutes shorter and concentrates on the plot structure rather than the comedy, re-arranging the film’s prologue so that it appears as a flashback about nine minutes into the film.

Kino’s “Our Hospitality” has a very fine HD transfer to Blu-ray, if not quite as spectacular as “The General” or “Sherlock Jr.” transfers. The slightly lower visual quality is partly because the print displays more wear on the original negative in the form of dirt and light white scratches, but also because it is just a tiny bit less sharp than those other two films even though the film grain is still apparent. The audio includes a choice between two different music accompaniments, a wonderful 5.1 DTS-HD full orchestra score composed by Carl Davis, fitting the action quite closely, and a nice bouncy small-orchestra score compiled about 15 years ago by Donald Hunsberger using period music that might have been played when the film was first shown, recorded in 2.0 stereo.

There is a decent, though not extensive, selection of bonus features. Most notable is the alternate cut, which unfortunately survived only in a poor quality 16mm copy made from an already-decomposing nitrate print. A highly enjoyable bonus short is “The Iron Mule,” a 19-minute short made in 1925 using the same train Keaton had built for “Our Hospitality.” Keaton even does some uncredited bit parts in the Al St. John comedy directed by his friend Roscoe Arbuckle. There’s also an informative new 26-minute documentary on Keaton’s shift from shorts to features and the making of “Our Hospitality,” as well as a selection of 64 rare behind-the-scenes photos in two well-organized galleries that allow direct access instead of merely clicking through each picture. “OUR HOSPITALITY” on Blu-ray — Movie: A / Video: A- / Audio: A+ / Extras: B

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