Nothing But Pleasure (1940)

Director:

Jules White

Writer:

Clyde Bruckman (writer)

Release Date:

19 January 1940 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Short

Plot:

To save money, Buster and his wife decide to drive to Detroit to buy a new car, then drive it home.

Cast

Buster Keaton	...	Clarence Plunkett
Dorothy Appleby	...	Mrs. Plunkett
Beatrice Blinn	...	An intoxicated woman
Robert Sterling
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Bobby Barber
Addison Randall		(as Jack Randall)
Lynton Brent	...	Sheriff at Cozy Auto Court (uncredited)
Vernon Dent	...	Bus rider with child (uncredited)
Richard Fiske	...	Man with damaged car in Detroit (uncredited)
Bud Jamison	...	Cop in Detroit (uncredited)
Eddie Laughton	...	Gangster at Cozy Auto Court (uncredited)
Victor Travers	...	Farmer (uncredited)
John Tyrrell	...	Car salesman in Detroit (uncredited)

Directed by
Jules White

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Clyde Bruckman		writer

Produced by
Jules White	....	producer

Cinematography by
Henry Freulich

Music Department
William Grant Still	....	composer: stock music (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Columbia Pictures Corporation

Distributors

• Columbia Pictures

Runtime:

20 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Movie Connections:

Edited into The Three Stooges Follies (1974)

Pleasure, but not much

Buster and his wife must take a cross-country trip. She wants to travel by train, but Buster spends all their savings on a car ... and then he assures his wife that the long road trip will be "Nothing But Pleasure". Of course, everything goes wrong ... but some of it is funny.

At a low point in his career, comedy genius Buster Keaton cranked out low-budget shorts at Columbia for producer Jules White, in the same production unit where the Three Stooges were turning out some of their best and funniest films. "Nothing But Pleasure" is probably Keaton's best Columbia work ... which isn't saying much.

The only sequence truly worthy of Keaton in this film occurs when his car gets a puncture at the top of a hill. Buster has to change the tyre, but somehow he ends up INSIDE the tyre, and it starts rolling down the hill. You'll laugh at this. Keaton was 44 when he made this film, but he could still handle physical comedy brilliantly.

Watch for a scene on a bus. The little bald man sitting in front of Buster is Bobby Barber, who worked with several major comedians but is seen most frequently in Abbott & Costello films. In real life, Barber had a steady job as Costello's "gofer", which he managed to parlay into brief roles in several movies and on Bud & Lou's television series. Bobby Barber looks like Joe Besser's evil twin.