Could "Lost Keaton" lead to "Lost Langdon"

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David B Pearson
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Re: Could "Lost Keaton" lead to "Lost Langdon"

Postby David B Pearson » Wed Nov 10, 2010 2:30 pm

Gary Johnson wrote:I knew that would get David's attention.

What I keep finding are reviewers who say that Keaton is visibly fighting the effects of alcoholism onscreen throughout the Educationals. Someone online says he looks drunk in TARS AND STRIPES. I believe they are projecting. The effects of booze ARE very noticeable during his MGM features - especially he last couple of films. That's the reason I have a hard time revisiting WHAT NO BEER to often. But I do not find him sluggish or groggy-looking in any of the Educationals - and I've been around a few drunks in my time..........including myself!

Gary J.



Well... it does show that Dave Kehr fails to read his own blog... See here --

http://www.davekehr.com/?p=532&cpage=1&cpage=1

And with the pre-Navigator numbers Dardis listed ALSO starting to fall into question -- it looks like the whole thing is falling apart for Dardis. And for the record -- I first revealed Dardis' faulty numbers in the Keaton Chronicle several years ago -- BEFORE Dardis died. I SUPPOSE one could indeed argue Dardis was so utterly incompetent that the financial faux-pas regarding THE GENERAL, COLLEGE, and STEAMBOAT BILL might have been yet another of his long, long list of innocent misspellings, confusions and general foul-ups (and there is AMPLE evidence of that). But on the other hand -- the way Dardis hammers REPEATEDLY on the point that these films FAILED ad nauseum (and that being the point that the biography is best remembered for) based on faulty evidence that Dardis himself provided -- one has to wonder if that wasn't done on purpose. I guess we'll never know for sure.

At best, Dardis was incompetent. At worst, Dardis was being either malevolent or self seeking. Who knows? But one thing we CAN be certain of is Dardis caused a screw-up that has caused damage to Keaton's most famous film for people -- including myself -- who trusted these numbers for a generation.

Does this piss me off? Yes. Damned right it does. And its probably going to take another generation to fix. It sure didn't stop Dave Kehr from repeating Dardis' screw-up as fact again, did it?

I'd also love to have a long conversion with Jean-Pierre Coursodon on what he considers a BAD Keaton biography to be. Hmmm... Should one trust the early editions of Dardis book, or the one printed over 20 years later with "many factual errors corrected" that STILL manages to list the town Buster was born in as PICKWAY, when any doofus with an atlas can figure out it's spelled Piqua.

As for Buster's drinking problem -- yeah, one can see it foul up his timing in SPEAK EASILY, while WHAT! NO BEER? is almost unbearable to watch. The Educationals -- not so much.

DBP


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