Speak Easily ~ 1932 -BW

QUICKIE: Geeky proffessor who thinks he's inherited $750,000 hooks up with a vaudeville act and backs them to do a show on Broadway. His dangerous slapstick "accidents" ruin the opening night, but make it a hysterical success, saving the day.

PLOT: Naive, bookish Professor Post (of Potts College) inherits a huge amount of money and decides that now he can afford to go out and enjoy life. He falls for a dancer in a bad stage show, and with his new money decides to buy the show and take it to Broadway. Opening night is a disaster as the clumsy Professor continually ends up on stage trying to correct a mistake, but wrecking the scene. The story is ruined, but his antics make the "play" a success with the crowd.

SUMMARY: Wow, Buster Keaton movies scare me. I think it's that the stunts he does are so unbelievably dangerous, and sometimes border on violent. The most mesmorizing moment of this film is when he manages to get himself caught in a rope that spins him around a roatating scenery, slapping him into the curtains as he flys around the stage mid-air.

Throughout every slapstick film I find myself not believing that anybody could be THAT stupid and clumsy. How has he made it through life without dying? I never find people getting hurt being humorous and everything Buster Keaton does in a film would probably kill me. Maybe I should classify this as a horror film? But if you like slapstick films Keaton films are the best as he does amazing stunts and is unafraid to be an idiot for laughs.

The story is actually pretty good and Jimmy Durante is always amusing with a big screen presence. The scene where Keaton and Thelma Todd are drunk is very funny.