Review of Pest from the West

Newly hired from the notorious, but successful Columbia Short department in 1939 Keaton decided to open his score with a rework of his failed UK feature THE INVADER, a film with some interesting moment, but very overlong and with no proper ending. For PEST FROM THE WEST cutting down the story to 20 min did a good thing, also the film benefits from some nice setting, reused from Columbia features. The beginning is a bit shaky, the falling-of–the-boat gag is a bit overworked, but even this is saved by a single great line. The second part then is beautiful constructed, beginning with Keaton starts singing "In a little Spanish town" armed with a ukulele and ending this song after a wild chase, this time a stolen guitar in hands. It is not exactly 100% Keaton, but it is still very funny. Keaton hated most of his films he did for Columbia and it is clear why. The fast and often careless way of making these films didn't mix with his attitude towards comedies. But for this time he could pick the story and rework this with the talented director Del Lord, so the result was much better then expected. This didn't seem to be the case for most of the remaining nine other shorts he made for Columbia between 1939 and 1941, but they all became quite a box office hit. It is a bit ironic, but for Keaton, who was basically blacklisted as a performer in Hollywood before that, this success reopen doors for him a little. His part in the A-feature Hollywood CAVALCARD was apparently a direct result of that and (slowly but anyway) the things starts to get better for Keaton. P.S. Columbia tries to lure Keaton back in 1942, but he resisted. Enough was enough.