Friday, December 28, 2007

An early Buster Keaton feature on TCM



I'm very busy on the HP tablet at the moment and took a break just now as there's this mystery film with (I think) Gilbert Roland and some wonderfully marcelled actress on. This has got to be circa 1930 or '31 but no later.

EDITED TO ADD: Aha! The sudden appearance of Buster Keaton in the mix tells me it's "The Passionate Plumber"--with the marceled dark girl and a blonde I don't know. Here's my doodle of the blonde:


Poor Buster was probably drunk for the filming of this turkey...he's not up to form but who would be paired with Durante. Gawd!

4 comments:

Vanwall said...

Darn. I missed that one. I usually try to catch Keaton films I haven't seen. The brunette is Mona Maris, I believe - your wonderful sketch resembles her a lot. Her lack of English skills killed her career in H'wood, except for token exotic roles. She was quite pretty, and a very good actress, but she's mostly wallpaper in 'B' movies. Too bad. She just missed the Cine del Oro period of Spanish language films in Mexico.

I'd say the blondie is Irene Purcell, who stopped by Hollywood for a cup of coffee, and she, too, missed a shift in films - the rise of the blonde. This sketch is just as full of flowing energy as your usual work, with a dash of hauteur thrown in. Both are lovely - thanks for posting these.

Katie said...

WOW! These are beautiful! So soft and pretty! I'm shy about leaving posts...I'm sorry!! I love your drawings! :D

Eshniner Forest said...

wow so pretty!

Alex said...

Jenny,

I hope you get as inspired when Metropolis is on TV. I'd love to see how you would draw Brigitte Helm and the android.

Thanks for sharing all these great pictures.

Alex