Pest from the West is the first short subject starring American comedian
Buster KeatonJoseph Frank "Buster" Keaton was an American comic actor, filmmaker, producer and writer. He was best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the nickname "The Great Stone Face".Keaton was recognized as the...
made for
Columbia PicturesColumbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
. Keaton made a total of ten films for the studio between 1939 and 1941.
Synopsis
Keaton is a millionaire vacationing in
MexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
traveler who falls in love with a
senorita (
Lorna GrayLorna Gray is an American film actress, known for her comic roles and later as a villainess. She is best known for her role as Mattie Herring in the 1940 Three Stooges film You Nazty Spy!-Career:...
) and sets out to win her.
Production
This was the first film made by
Columbia PicturesColumbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
starring Keaton and was a condensed remake of his English-made feature film
The InvaderThe Invader is a comedy film, starring Buster Keaton, released in the United Kingdom. The film, also known as An Old Spanish Custom, co-stars Lupita Tovar. The film follows the same plot as its remake Pest from the West , with a millionaire setting out to win a local girl in Mexico...
(1935). Keaton's
silent-eraSilent Movie is a 1976 satirical comedy film co-written, directed by, and starring Mel Brooks, and released by 20th Century Fox on June 17, 1976...
writer
Clyde BruckmanClyde A. Bruckman was an American writer and director of comedy films during the late silent era as well as the early sound era of cinema. Bruckman collaborated with such comedians as Buster Keaton, W.C...
collaborated on the screenplay and it was directed by comedy veteran
Del LordDel Lord was a Canadian film director and actor best known as a director of Three Stooges films.-Career:Delmer Lord was born in the small town of Grimsby, Ontario, Canada...
. The supporting cast features Columbia regulars
Lorna GrayLorna Gray is an American film actress, known for her comic roles and later as a villainess. She is best known for her role as Mattie Herring in the 1940 Three Stooges film You Nazty Spy!-Career:...
, Gino Corrado, Richard Fiske, Bud Jamison, Eddie Laughton, and
Ned GlassNed Glass was an American character actor who appeared in more than eighty films and on television more than one hundred times, frequently playing nervous, cowardly or weasely characters...
with the voices of short-subject stars
Charley ChaseCharley Chase was an American comedian, actor, screenwriter and film director, best known for his work in Hal Roach short film comedies...
and
Curly HowardJerome Lester "Jerry" Horwitz , better known by his stage name Curly Howard, was an American comedian and vaudevillian. He is best known as a member of the American slapstick comedy team the Three Stooges, along with his older brothers Moe Howard and Shemp Howard, and actor Larry Fine...
heard on the soundtrack.
Much of
Pest from the West was filmed on location at
Balboa, CaliforniaThe Balboa Peninsula is a neighborhood of the city of Newport Beach, Orange County, California. It is named for the famous Spanish explorer, Vasco Núñez de Balboa....
, USA (Keaton repeatedly falls off his boat, into Balboa Bay). The Mexican-village settings were adapted from sets used in Columbia's 1937 feature film
Lost Horizon.
Reception
Pest from the West was a huge hit in theaters, and earned rave reports from exhibitors. Keaton starred in nine more Columbia shorts, the last of which was
She's Oil MineShe's Oil Mine is the last short subject American comedian Buster Keaton made for Columbia Pictures. Keaton made a total of ten films for the studio between 1939 and 1941.-Plot:...
. Like
Pest from the West, this borrowed content from an older Keaton feature,
The Passionate PlumberThe Passionate Plumber is a 1932 American comedy film directed by Edward Sedgwick. The screenplay by Laurence E. Johnson and Ralph Spence is based on the play Dans sa candeur naïve by Jacques Deval. It is the second screen adaptation of the play, following the 1928 silent film The Cardboard Lover...
.