Film #041 - Speak Easily (1932)
Viewed February 10, 2006
After watching so much Buster Keaton material from his classic silent era, I was in the mood to see some more from his “down” period. I came across Speak Easily, Keaton’s second film in which he is paired with Jimmy Durante and gave it a shot.
And it’s not bad. Sure, it doesn’t live up to the best of Keaton’s silent output, but it’s at least better than his first talkie, the turgid Free and Easy (1930).
The basic plot is nothing new. Keaton’s timid book-smart but not world-savvy Professor Post is led to believe he has inherited a small fortune. This leads him to travel, where his life becomes more exciting once he meets and hooks up with a troupe of travelling performers. Falling for the leading lady, the Professor bankrolls a Broadway run, only to have his financial reality catch up with him.
The teaming of Keaton and Durante is not entirely successful, but not the complete failure I had been led to believe it was. Durante certainly takes the lead whenever he is on screen, but I see that more as a reflection of the two performers strengths. Keaton’s less boisterous on-screen persona generally would lead him to take a more subordinate role, much as he did in the Arbcukle shorts. Regardless of whether the pairing was a good idea, they do the best with the teaming that could be expected.
It must be said that this film might have worked better for Keaton if it were silent. Although Keaton had a strong voice, it wasn’t exactly one that matches well with the character he is playing. But that is not enough to ruin it. Keaton still has a good deal of the appeal that made his silents so successful and can still liven up the screen when called upon to do so. Durante can grate sometimes, but that’s just the nature of his in-your-face type of humor. He hits more often than he misses and, since he’s firmly in support here, he never overshadows the film as a whole.
The rest of the cast is pretty solid, with a particularly strong performance by Thelma Todd as the gold-digging actress Eleanor Espere. She’s got real presence and it’s somewhat hard to remember to root for Ruth Selwyn’s Pansy Peets, since Todd comes across as so much more appealing. Hedda Hopper is wasted in her small role as Pansy’s mother, never getting a chance to actually do anything but huff and puff. Sidney Bracey, as the assistant whose ruse leads to the Professor’s travels, gives a nice turn, showing his concern for the professor and upset at the trouble he may have caused.
The production values are high, as is the norm for the MGM films. The direction has good pace and does a fairly good job of keeping focused on the action, but never really comes to life on its own. The theater scenes are notable for really conveying the sense of the nature of lower level show business as it compares to the higher expectations of Broadway.
Speak Easily will never be ranked among the best of Buster Keaton’s work, but it’s easy to see why (despite modern day re-assessment) Keaton’s films for MGM were all box office successes. They may lack the genius that elevated Keaton’s independant work, but if Speak Easily is any indication, that doesn’t mean they weren’t still good entertainment taken at face value.