Buster Keaton: The Complete Short Films 1917-1923 (Masters of Cinema) 4-Disc Blu-ray REISSUE

The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present on Blu-ray a box set that charts Buster Keaton's early years, from his first steps in front of a camera through to his starring, headlining, and directing of his own box office smash hits. Capturing Keaton's sophisticated technical inventiveness and his haunted-yet-handsome 'Stone Face' persona, these films were created using Chaplin's old Hollywood studios in 1920 and represent some of the most timeless, classic comedy shorts ever realised.

Featuring a meticulous restoration, this collection includes The Butcher Boy (1917), The Rough House (1917), His Wedding Night (1917), Oh, Doctor! (1917), Coney Island (1917), Out West (1918), The Bell Boy (1918), Moonshine (1918), Good Night Nurse (1918), The Cook (1918), Backstage (1919), The Hayseed (1919), The Garage (1919), The "High Sign" (finished 1920, released 1921), One Week (1920), Convict 13 (1920), The Scarecrow (1920), Neighbors (1920), The Haunted House (1921), Hard Luck (1921), The Goat (1921), The Playhouse (1921), The Boat (1921), The Paleface (1922), Cops (1922), My Wife's Relations (1922), The Blacksmith (1922), The Frozen North (1922), Daydreams (1922), The Electric House (1922), The Balloonatic (1923), and The Love Nest (1923).

This four-disc Blu-ray set features 1080p presentations with multiple scores on selected titles, as well as archival audio commentaries by Joseph McBride on several key films. Additional special features include a version of The Blacksmith containing four minutes of previously unseen footage, alternate endings for Coney Island and My Wife's Relations, a video essay by critic and filmmaker David Cairns titled That's Some Buster, an introduction by preservationist Serge Bromberg, and a discussion of Keaton's style by actor Pierre Étaix in The Art of Buster Keaton.

Keaton's early association with ex-Keystone Kop Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle is also chronicled, culminating in a segment titled Life with Buster Keaton, where Keaton re-enacts Arbuckle's Salomé dance performed in The Cook. The set is further enhanced by an audio recording of Keaton at a party in 1962.

Praised as "an unprecedented series of delights, combining daredevil stunts, sublime timing, technical artistry and increasingly sophisticated characterisation with some of the greatest belly-laughs in film history, as fresh and funny today as they were some 80-odd years ago" by Time Out, and a "rapturously pleasurable definitive collection" by The Telegraph, this Buster Keaton box set is a must-have for fans of classic comedy and cinema.

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