How lost they are, or rather were, I have no idea, but I'm guessing there is a reason not only that the popularity of his sound shorts for Educational Films (don't let the name fool you) didn't seem to catch on at the time, but that they're not popular or particularly well liked today either.

I got this DVD set for Christmas and have gotten around to watching some of them, and they're different, some of them very different. It's 10 years later, Buster's noticeably older, and he TALKS! And everything is not sped up like in Cops during the fast paced chase scenes...but at the same time they are not terrible, they actually are funny. And Buster himself doesn't seem to have skipped a beat during the intervening years between his independent short days and his career with Educational Films. I found out that these 'lost' films are up on Youtube and decided to post them here to see what everyone else thinks. Now last October I posted most of his original silent shorts and films, so anybody who is interested could go back and view them for comparison to how he does in these if they see fit. Hope you guys enjoy, I know I am:

The Gold Ghost:







I'll admit when I saw this one I was surprised...when he said he was going to drive himself and be alone for a while, I was expecting something similar to his movie The Navigator, when he says walking home will do him good and it's right across the street. Was NOT expecting him to drive out of Boston out to California.

Allez Oop:






And remember folks, this guy NEVER used a stunt double so that is really him trapezing across on a clothesline. And to think that this man in his life considered himself only HALF an acrobat, clearly he got the half that works.

Palooka from Paducah





Not one of the funnier ones but it is worth mentioning that this starred most of the original Keaton family: Buster, his sister Louise, his mother Myra, and his father Joe. He cast his father in his films several times but this is one of if not the only time he added his mother and sister to the cast as well.

One Run Elmer:





Watching the ballgame you have to wonder if he continued in his old tradition of never having a script and only setting up camera at location and just start filming stuff.

Hayseed Romance:






If ever his sound shorts seemed to be a true return to the comedy of his original silent comedies, this is it. I think this one would've done perfectly well in the silent era, and this is definitely one of the funniest ones I've seen yet.

Tars and Stripes:





While watching this one tonight my mother commented on how good Buster actually was with the rifle. He was a Doughboy in World War I and I wonder if that would have much to do with that here.