Free and Easy

Dir. Dir. Edward Sedgwick

92 Minutes

USA

1930

Starring: Buster Keaton, Antia Page, Trixie Friganza, Robert Montgomery, Fred Niblo, Edgar Dearing, Gwen Lee

**/*****

First talking film for Buster Keaton where he plays the manager of a small town beauty contest winner and follows his attempts to get her into movies. Was truthfully expecting a real train wreck given its reputation but found myself surprisingly mildly entertained in parts. And there is an interesting snark towards Hollywood that is interesting considering the parts for Keaton that were coming. This becomes one of those films that is more interested in exploring and dazzling the audience with the newfangled "talking technology!" Aside from Keaton talking, the opening is a "who's who" of Hollywood personalities being introduced ("Oh look, it's William Haines!"), and there is the occasional musical number (interestingly, Keaton's previous film, Spite Marriage, was requested to be a sound picture by Keaton but was turned down. The film has sound effects ingrained into the audio). And so the film remains more an interesting artifact than anything memorable. Admired the surprisingly downbeat ending, which was an unexpected approach. Interesting curio to watch the shift from Keaton's final silent to first talking (though there is much better (and funnier) work to be seen in the next two: Doughboys and (especially) Parlour, Bedroom and Bath).

August 20th, 2019