And so it begins - the show starts, Keaton reels from a sincere kiss and things start falling apart. A face in the crowd is targeted as someone really enjoying the show. At first, we all thought it was the university butler in attendance at opening night, but it is actually one of the show's backers. It seemed odd to introduce him so late in the proceedings.
Keaton has a nice slide onto the stage, Durante does one of his specialty songs (which he was still doing on the Mike Douglas Show in the 1960s), and Thelma Todd gets covered in bleached corn flakes. The sequence doesn't really build, but there it is:
Nobody really cared for Henry Armetta here, either. I told them to check out the Marx Brothers' The Big Store someday, where the producers thought they needed a "funny Italian" (apparently Chico wasn't a comedian to them by that time in his MGM career). Regardless, he was trimmed.
In 1932 - 8 minutes, 22 seconds.
2021 - 6 minutes, 58 seconds
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