Free and Easy (1930)

Technically Buster Keaton’s foray into talkies, this film is less a movie that stars Buster Keaton and more an MGM showcase that features him. Anita Page has just won a Kansas beauty pageant, so she, her mother, and Keaton as her agent are soon on a train to capture Hollywood. The fact that I can so easily describe the plot shows what a generic 1930s film this is and how out of their element the studio was in having Buster in their film. There are few physical gags, a whole lot of time is spent on a love story between Page and Robert Montgomery, there are musical numbers with no humor in them whatsoever and the end is just sad with little hope for a happy future for Buster’s character.