Nick M
Roscoe and Buster are backstage hands for a vaudeville theater who naturally work with temperamental prima donna talent. After they try to cut the jerk strongman down to size the entire troupe ends up quitting. With the help of an assistant, the stage hands are forced to put on that evening's performance by themselves. The narrative has some rough spots, but is better than many comedy shorts of this era. All the story really needs to be is serviceable to stand up to the majority of the competition at this point, and it certainly does. More importantly, many of the gags feel fresh and, rather than drawing from the same old bag of tricks, feel authentic to the setting and premise. A notable moment is when Arbuckle serenades a fair damsel who is watching him from her second floor window. Keaton accidentally runs into a support beam, causing the set piece of the house to come crashing down onto the stage. Arbuckle is standing right in the spot where the window lands, however, so he survives unscathed. This must certainly have served as inspiration for Keaton's famous scene from Steamboat Bill, Jr. where the facade of a house falls toward him, but he just happens to be standing exactly where the window lands. There is nothing truly groundbreaking here, but it is a nice diversion that would have satisfied a diverse range of audience expectations.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
09/26/24
Full Review
sean l
Egos collide in the wings of a weekly variety show, leading the talent to walk out en-masse and two stagehands (Fatty Arbuckle and Buster Keaton) to perform in their stead. Both comedians owe their careers to the live circuit, where they learnt the ropes with a traveling vaudeville act or two, and that gives the behind-curtains stuff a sense of validity. These guys know which corners to prod, which props to rig for spectacular failure, where and how to poke the pompous stars to push them over the edge.
On-stage, too, they exploit every last opportunity for misadventure, from heckling audience members to collapsing scenery (including an early example of Keaton's famed "falling edifice" gag, best-known from 1928's Steamboat Bill Jr.), with the usual amount of reckless tumbles and messy melees thrown in for good measure. More balanced than some of the duo's earlier pictures, with a number of fresh new bits, but it's missing a certain spark. Maybe their rigorous filming schedule (a dozen comedies together in the preceding two years) was beginning to take a toll.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
03/30/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle made many shorts with Mabel Normand in his early career and then, prior to the pairing of the more famous Laurel and Hardy, Fatty made several shorts with Buster Keaton. This is another such teaming between Fatty and Buster. Again actor Al St. John is also present as another stagehand. And again the slapstick routines don't do much to make for a memorable story or unforgettable characters. There is a strongman who is abusive to his lady assistant. He is pressured to leave the vaudeville theater, and then...you get back stage antics with the crew mimicking the usual variety acts. Very static shots. Very young Keaton developing his film presence, but not yet to the level of his solo career.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
02/01/23
Full Review
Audience Member
fatty+keaton= funny stuff
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
01/21/23
Full Review
bill t
Not a bad Arbuckle / Keaton silent, which has them as the owner operator of a rickity theatre dealing with burly actors such as Al St. John. Segments do seem missing though, which is too bad. The best part is the half sign in the beginning.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
03/30/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Buster and Fatty work as stagehands at a vaudeville show but when the actors go on strike, they have to hilariously fill in for them in the show.
Back Stage is one of their funniest shorts. There are tons of great moments and Buster fans would love to know that many of them are because of him. Like in their other best shorts, Buster has the chance the display his real skill and talent here as a dancer, stuntman, and pantomime. Oh, and if that's not enough to get you to watch this, then you have to see it to see BUSTER IN DRAG! And it's hilarity squared.
Another great reason to see this is because one of Buster's most iconic gags is borrowed from a gag that Fatty does. In Back Stage, one of the set pieces fall on Fatty but he comes away unharmed because a hole in the scenery falls right through him. Buster would borrow it in One Week, and then again more famously (and much much much more dangerously) in Steamboat Bill Jr. But Fatty's version is still great.
Overall, the film is fun, entertaining, and laughter-inducing, but it's not as good as their best work together, and not nearly as good as Buster's best work.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
01/28/23
Full Review
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