Wir Schalten Um Auf Hollywood

Let's take a brief break from our discussion of "Sherlock Jr." for a little exclusive – a fragment from the MGM film "Switching to Hollywood" (Wir Schalten Um Auf Hollywood), created specifically for the German market. This fragment has been digitized from a 35mm print, which, to our amazement, we discovered in the Gosfilmofond. Remarkably, the archive not only holds a Soviet positive copy but also the original German negative. As far as we can tell, this film has never been released or published in decent quality before, although you can watch the full version in poor quality here.

This revue-style film was released by MGM in early 1931 and presented a compilation of scenes from the 1929 "Hollywood Revue," fragments from the unreleased film "The March of Time" and original footage, including this episode featuring Buster Keaton. The film's loose plot follows a German reporter (Paul Morgan) who had invented a wireless radio transmitter and travels with it around Hollywood, interviewing MGM stars. At the end of the film, Buster breaks his transmitter, bringing the broadcast to an abrupt end.

The cafe scene presented in this fragment portrays a familiar challenge Buster often faced – throughout his life, every other journalist or photographer attempted to make him laugh or at least smile. True to his iconic persona, Buster steadfastly resisted these attempts. This episode also reflects a principle Keaton wanted to employ in "talkies" if he had the chance to direct them himself – to speak only when absolutely necessary.