His Ex Marks the Spot (1940)

User Rating:

5.4/10   

Director:

Jules White

Writer:

Felix Adler (story)

Release Date:

13 December 1940 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Short

Plot:

Buster's home life is disrupted when his ex-wife and her boyfriend move in.

Plot Keywords:

Dinner | Alimony | Husband Wife Relationship | Poverty | Bed

Cast

Buster Keaton	...	Buster - the husband
Elsie Ames	...	His ex wife
Dorothy Appleby	...	His wife
Matt McHugh	...	Radcliffe - the ex wife's boyfriend

Runtime:

18 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

The Battle Behind the Scenes

Looking at a Jules White-directed Keaton short, one can almost see them battling behind the scenes, White a proponent of smashing things and slapping people, and Buster trying for elaboration. Given that they shot these shorts on a three-day schedule, there is a lot of cheating going on, mostly through undercranking the camera to get Buster through one of his falls. Yet this is a highly entertaining short, particularly in the first half, as Buster fights with his ex-wife's trunk for some of his trademark falls. Even Elsie Ames gets some excellent pratfalls in.

Buster also gets to do some real acting here, and people who think of him as stone-faced do not really watch him. He shows an enormous range of emotion even though he doesn't smile. In many of the Jules White shorts, he seems mentally deficient, but here he is, struggling to make the best of a bad situation: his ex-wife's alimony means that he and his new wife are suffering, so he comes up with the idea of having his ex-wife move in, which will save on the living expenses. It's a crack-brained idea, but Buster perseveres. Yes, there are many crude Jules White touches, but it's a Buster Keaton movie and he and the audience win in the end. Give this one a try.