PR: Buster Keaton - Short Films Collection: 1920 - 1923 on DVD & Blu-ray June 14

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Release Date: May 7, 2011, 6:07 pm
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This marks the first time that these 19 classic short comedies, produced between 1920 and 1923, will be available in the Blu-ray format, as well as the first time that all of these films will be released in the US in a single package. These celebrated comedies come to Blu-ray and DVD in a splendid three-disc ultimate edition, with all 19 shorts remastered in HD from archival elements.

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KINO INTERNATIONAL ANNOUNCES THE RELEASE OF
Buster Keaton - Short Films Collection: 1920 - 1923

ON BLU-RAY AND DVD

New York, NY - May 3, 2011 - Kino International is proud to announce the Blu-ray and DVD release of Buster Keaton - Short Films Collection: 1920 - 1923.



This marks the first time that these 19 classic short comedies, produced between 1920 and 1923, will be available in the Blu-ray format, as well as the first time that all of these films will be released in the US in a single package. The Blu-ray set is priced at $49.95, and the DVD is priced at $34.95. Both are available for prebook on June 14, 2011, and the street date for each is July 12, 2011.

These celebrated comedies come to Blu-ray and DVD in a splendid three-disc ultimate edition, with all 19 shorts remastered in HD from archival elements. The set is loaded with special features, including The Men Who Would Be Buster (consisting of clips from silent comedies by other comedians that show the influence of Keaton's work), alternate and deleted takes, a video tour of Keaton's filming locations (by John Bengtson, author of Silent Echoes: Discovering Early Hollywood Through the Films of Buster Keaton), and a series of visual essays on individual films written by leading scholars of silent comedy.

This three-disc set presents Keaton's short films in chronological order (The High Sign, while released in 1921, was actually the first short film Keaton produced, but it was held back from release for about a year). Select titles are presented in both standard and digitally enhanced versions. This special set will also contain a booklet with an essay by Jeffrey Vance, author of Buster Keaton Remembered (co-authored with Eleanor Keaton).

Kino has previously brought five Keaton films to Blu-ray (The General, Steamboat Bill Jr., Sherlock Jr., Three Ages and Our Hospitality).

Buster Keaton in The Goat (1921)

"The nineteen comedy shorts made by Keaton between 1920-1923 afforded him a laboratory in which he enjoyed the freedom to experiment with and explore his own comedic impulses, as well as refine his screen character, his conceptions of film structure, and his use of the camera and editing as comedy devices. During this frenetic period of his career, Keaton was utterly devoted to his work. He later remarked, 'When we made pictures, we ate, slept, and dreamed them.' The films remain a testament to his single-minded vision. Unsentimental and cynical, with touches of the bizarre and the surreal, they remain - alongside Charles Chaplin's twelve Mutual-Chaplin Specials of 1916-1917 - the greatest collection of comedy short subjects produced in the entire silent-film era."
- Jeffrey Vance

Ingram "Seven Foot" Pickett, Buster Keaton and Bartine Burkett in
The High Sign (1921)

Disc One:

The High Sign
(presented in standard and digitally enhanced versions)
1920/21 B&W 19 Min.

One Week
1920 B&W 24 Min.

Convict 13
1920 B&W 19 Min.

The Scarecrow
1920 B&W 18 Min.

Neighbors
1921 B&W 19 Min.

The Haunted House
1921 Color Tinted 20 Min.

Hard Luck
1921 B&W 21 Min.

Joe Roberts and Buster Keaton in
The Paleface (1922)

Disc Two:

The Goat
1921 B&W 23 Min.

The Playhouse
1921 B&W 23 Min.

The Boat
(presented in standard and digitally enhanced versions)
1921 B&W 23 Min.

The Paleface
1922 B&W 20 Min.

Cops
(presented in standard and digitally enhanced versions)
1922 B&W 18 Min.

My Wife's Relations
1922 B&W 17 Min.

Buster Keaton, Joe Roberts, Virginia Fox in The Blacksmith (1922)

Disc Three:

The Blacksmith
1922 B&W 21 Min.

The Frozen North
1922 B&W 17 Min.

Day Dreams
1922 B&W 23 Min.

The Electric House
1922 Color Tinted 23 Min.

The Balloonatic
(presented in standard and digitally enhanced versions)
1923 B&W 22 Min.

The Love Nest
1923 Color Tinted 20 Min.

Buster Keaton and Joe Roberts in Neighbors (1920)

SPECIAL FEATURES
Newly mastered in HD from archival elements
Fifteen visual essays, illustrated with clips and stills, written by various Keaton experts, including Jack Dragga, Ken Gordon, David Kalat, Bruce Lawton, Steve Massa, Ben Model, David B. Pearson, R. Emmet Sweeney, and Patricia Eliot Tobias
A series of brief alternate/deleted shots from The Goat, The Blacksmith, Day Dreams and The Balloonatic, and an alternate title sequence from Cops.
The Men Who Would Be Buster, a collection of clips from slapstick films influenced by Keaton's work, including: the complete film Only Me (1929, starring Lupino Lane, which is an elaboration upon The Playhouse) a lengthy excerpt of Be Reasonable (1921, starring Billy Bevan, an elaboration of the police chase from The Goat, and it may or may not have influenced Keaton back again, on Cops, which was released 3 months later) brief excerpts of White Wings (with Stan Laurel) and Oh Baby! (with Charley Chase).
Eight-page booklet with an essay by Jeffrey Vance, author of Buster Keaton Remembered.

Four visual essays on the films' locations by Silent Echoes author John Bengtson
Character Studies (ca. 1925) - a gag film starring Carter DeHaven, with cameos by Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, and others
Seeing Stars (excerpts) - a 1922 film featuring cameos by Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, and others.

Buster Keaton - Short Films Collection: 1920 - 1923
Directors: Buster Keaton, Eddie Cline, Malcolm St. Clair
Genre: Silent Comedy
US / 1920-1923 / Black & White and Color - Tinted / 386 minutes

Buster Keaton in
The Electric House (1922)
Photo courtesy of Jeffrey Vance

About Kino Lorber

Kino Lorber is the newly formed company that combines the resources, staffs and libraries of Lorber Films, Alive Mind and Kino International, bringing together industry pioneers Richard Lorber and Donald Krim to create a new leader in independent film distribution.

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News Editor May 7, 2011, 6:07 pm