Pardon My Berth Marks (1940)

User Rating:

5.9/10   

Director:

Jules White

Writers:

Clyde Bruckman (story)
Clyde Bruckman (screenplay)

Release Date:

22 March 1940 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Short

Plot:

Buster, a reporter, takes a train trip and winds up innocently involved with a gangster's wife.

Plot Keywords:

Reporter | Train | Racketeer | Parrot | Gangster

Cast

Buster Keaton	...	Elmer - Newspaper Copyboy
Dorothy Appleby	...	Mary Crissman
Vernon Dent	...	Newspaper City Editor
Richard Fiske	...	Ted Crissman - Racketeer
Ned Glass	...	Man in Train Station
Lynton Brent	...	Henchman
Stanley Brown	...	Reporter
Bud Jamison	...	Train Conductor
Jack 'Tiny' Lipson	...	Angry Man in Pullman Berth
Eva McKenzie	...	Ma
Cy Schindell	...	Al Spumoni, mobster
Fred 'Snowflake' Toones	...	Train Porter
John Tyrrell	...	Henchman

Runtime:

USA:20 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Approved | USA:Passed (National Board of Review)

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Movie Connections:

Remade as Rolling Down to Reno (1947)

Poor Buster

Pardon My Berth Marks (1940)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Buster Keaton gets a job as a reporter and he must track a woman to Reno. This woman was married to a gangster and she's running away to get a divorce but Keaton gets her into one mess after another. This here is certainly the weakest of the Keaton/Columbia shorts that I've seen. Once again poor Keaton must go through one unfunny gag after another and most of these gags are running into doors, hitting his head on the berth or just falling down. Another problem is that they have Keaton playing an idiot and this just isn't very funny and it certainly goes against all the classic Keaton out there. The film only has a few small laughs and most of these come from a talking parrot so that there should tell you how badly Keaton's talents are wasted.