She's Oil Mine (1941)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

Jules White

Writers:

Felix Adler (writer)
Clyde Bruckman (writer)

Release Date:

20 November 1941 (USA)

Genre:

Short | Comedy

Plot:

Buster fights a duel over a girl.

Plot Keywords:

Pun In Title | Actor Shares First Name With Character

Cast

Buster Keaton	...	Buster Waters, plumber
Monte Collins	...	Monte Piper, plumber
Eddie Laughton	...	Clementi, Elsie's suitor; also voice of radio announcer
Elsie Ames	...	Heiress
Harry Semels	...	Referee
Bud Jamison	...	Second

Directed by
Jules White

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Felix Adler		writer
Clyde Bruckman		writer

Produced by
Jules White	....	producer

Cinematography by
Benjamin H. Kline		(as Ben Kline)

Film Editing by
Jerome Thoms

Music Department
Leigh Harline	....	composer: stock music (uncredited)
Ben Oakland	....	composer: stock music (uncredited)
William Grant Still	....	composer: stock music (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Columbia Pictures Corporation

Distributors

• Columbia Pictures

Runtime:

17 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Creative reworking

"She's Oil Mine" basically consists of three set-pieces -- in the workshop, in the bedroom, and at the duel -- of which the second two are straight re-workings of the corresponding sequences from "The Passionate Plumber". As with "General Nuisance", however, these are not simply reused gags but in fact improved and more sophisticated versions which Keaton has taken the chance to develop further. I actually liked "The Passionate Plumber", but there's no denying that the 'tapping-on-the-water-pipes' sequence here is slicker and more plausible than the one in the earlier film -- I only wish one could send it back in time as a replacement! Other developments serve to escalate the existing humour a step further in trademark Keaton fashion: for example, the introduction of the time-clock is a stroke of pure genius, and the famous gag in which a towel-clad Buster instinctively retaliates to a blow from his aristocratic rival's gloves via the only means at hand acquires a subsequent twist. (Now in his mid-forties, Keaton very sportingly plays a prolonged undressed sequence, demonstrating a trim physique still nothing to be ashamed of.)

As a comedy in its own right it's good fun -- regarded as a cut-down version of the MGM feature it's equally entertaining. And the workshop sequences, although the humour can be somewhat cruder, are also worthwhile. There's a topical nod to Orson Welles' "War of the Worlds", a brief but classic moment in which the two men catch sight of one another in an unexpected context, a broad piece of misdirection where we are led to assume Buster is about to hit his partner with a hammer, and a brilliant sequence in which he gets his finger caught in a pipe, requiring an inventive (and impressive) stunt expedient; "Your finger's got a left-hand thread", Monty informs him cheerfully afterwards. (Oddly enough, they *don't* make use of the special effects potential provided by the fact that the digit in question is notoriously missing its last joint; perhaps because the implied amputation would be too serious a matter for a laugh.) This was Keaton's final Columbia short, and it's a pretty good note to go out on.