Summary
This cinematic vignette, a kinetic extension of Richard F. Outcault’s iconic comic strip, commences in the quietude of a shared bedchamber where Buster and his canine companion, Tige, are besieged by a persistent fly. The ensuing struggle transitions from domestic irritation to elaborate masquerade when Buster utilizes stilts to impersonate a local constabulary officer. This deception, aimed at securing a culinary windfall of pie from a gullible cook, collapses into a slapstick crescendo involving projectile pastry and canine ablutions. The narrative then pivots to the rigid confines of the 1920s schoolhouse, where the friction between Buster’s anarchic spirit and the schoolmaster’s pedantry ignites. The introduction of Limburger cheese—a pungent catalyst for biological warfare—transforms the academic setting into a theater of the absurd. Birds succumb to the miasma, and the pedagogical order is utterly dismantled by a well-placed firecracker and the olfactory assault of the cheese, cementing Buster’s status as a pint-sized agent of chaos.
Synopsis
Buster and Tige are in bed asleep. A fly hectors the dog, who brushes it away. It lights on Buster's face. The dog smashes it with his paw. A policeman is at the window getting coffee from the cook. Buster, with the aid of stilts, impersonates a tall cop, goes to the window and introduces himself as the new roundsman. She serves him pie. The dog bites at the stilts, throwing him out of balance and catapulting the pie into the cook's face. Another custard pie covers the dog, who washes himself -at a fountain. The schoolmaster scolds Buster when he comes to school late. Tige sneaks in and sits beside Buster while the teacher snoozes. When discovered, the teacher throws him out, but he gets in again. A little boy at the next desk munches a piece of Limburger cheese which nauseates Tige. The dog and cheese are thrown out again. The teacher calls Buster to the desk and orders him to give him what he has in his hand. Buster slips a giant cracker under the chair, which explodes when the teacher sits down. Tige runs around with the cheese in his mouth, and as he passes beneath a board fence all the birds on the fence drop dead. For revenge on the teacher he jumps into the window of the school with the Limburger throwing the place into a furor.
Review Excerpt
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The 1920s represented a peculiar crucible for American humor, a decade where the transition from vaudevillian stagecraft to the silver screen allowed for a specific brand of visual hyperbole. Educating Buster, directed by the prolific Charles Lamont, serves as a fascinating specimen of this era’s penchant for translating sequential art into temporal mayhem. Based on the characters created by Richard F. Outcault, the film captures the quintessence of childhood rebellion against th..."
