In this MGM production, a shy small-town Kansas gas-station attendant named Elmer J. Butts (Buster Keaton) accompanies Elvira Plunkett (Anita Page), the winner of a local beauty contest, and her domineering mother to Hollywood for Elvira’s screen test. Secretly in love with Elvira, Elmer appoints himself her bumbling manager.
Free and Easy (1930) starring Buster Keaton, Anita Page, Robert Montgomery
Product Description
It’s Buster’s talkie debut with a special “as you’ve never heard it before” bonus! Keaton’s first sound foray sees Buster skewering Hollywood itself with the tale of a wannabe starlet (Anita Page) that arrives in Tinseltown with some extra baggage — an overprotective mother (Trixie Friganza) and an even more overprotective gas station attendant (Keaton). A coterie of star cameos accompanies a costarring Robert Montgomery, who plays a “Latin lover,” no less!
And speaking of Latin, as an added bonus, Free and Easy is now paired with its Spanish-language version Estrellados. Rarely seen since its initial overseas release, Estrellados is a prime example of the once customary practice of “parallel production” that helped Hollywood market their fare overseas during the silent-to-sound transition. It’s a full alternative version of the film, shot simultaneously with Free and Easy starring Buster and a Spanish-speaking cast. Viva la Comedia!
Funny movie quotes
Ma: From now on we’re going to manage ourselves, Mr. Butts! Oh, I’ve never been so humiliated in my life. I’m ashamed to show my face.
Elmer Butts: I don’t blame ya.
Elmer Butts: Oh woe is me, the queen has swooned, after you.
Fred Niblo: The queen didn’t swoon after me!
Elmer Butts: She swoon after me?
Fred Niblo: She didn’t swoon after anybody!
Elmer Butts: Then why all the excitement?
Ma: Oh, it’s you, is it! I always did say a bad penny has no sense!
Elmer Butts: I was all flustered up there tonight when that feller insisted that I was William Haines. Gee, I felt bad!
Ma: You felt bad? Imagine how William Haines felt!
Ma: You oughta be with your grandfather.
Elmer Butts: Why, he’s dead.
Ma: I know that!
Elmer Butts: He ain’t so dumb – even if he is in movies.
Trivia
- Talkie debut for Buster Keaton.
- When Buster and Robert Montgomery square off in a corn-shucking contest, Buster says he was the the shucking champion of Piqua (pronounced “pick-kway”) County, Kansas. Keaton was born in the town of Piqua, Kansas (which is actually in Woodson County).
Songs
- The Free And Easy (1930)
- Lyrics by Roy Turk
- Music by Fred E. Ahlert
- Played during the opening credits
- Sung and danced by Buster Keaton, Doris McMahon and chorus
- Copyright 1930 Robbins Music Corporation
- It Must Be You (1930)
- Lyrics by Roy Turk
- Music by Fred E. Ahlert
- Performed by Robert Montgomery and Lottice Howell with dance chorus
- Reprised by Buster Keaton
- Copyright 1930 Robbins Music Corporation
- Oh King, Oh Queen
- Composer unknown
- Performed by Buster Keaton and Trixie Friganza
- A Hot Time in the Old Town (1896)
- Music by Theodore A. Metz
- Played by the band at the train station
- For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow
- Traditional
- Played by the band at the train station
- The Corn Grows Green in Kansas
- Composer unknown
- Sung a cappella a bit by Robert Montgomery and Buster Keaton
- Ain’t We Got Fun (1921)
- Music by Richard A. Whiting
- In the score during the skit with Elmer and Ma
- Snake Charmer
- Traditional
- Danced by Doris McMahon during the desert scene
- Cubanita (1930)
- Music by William Kernell
- Penitentiary Blues (1930)
- Music and Lyrics by William Kernell
- You’ve Got Me That Way (1930)
- Music and Lyrics by William Kernell
Cast
- Buster Keaton (Battling Butler; Three Ages) as Elmer
- Anita Page (Sidewalks of New York) as Elvira
- Trixie Friganza (I Had My Way) as Ma Plunkett
- Robert Montgomery (Here Comes Mr. Jordan) as Larry Mitchell
- Lionel Barrymore (On Borrowed Time; Grand Hotel) as director
- Fred Niblo (Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ 1925) as himself
- David Burton as himself
- William Haines (The Stolen Jools) as himself
- Cecil B. DeMille (The Greatest Show on Earth) as himself