Mooching Through Georgia Trivia Quiz

Answer: Kentucky

When the action starts, we're hearing the strains of "Old Kentucky Home", as well as hearing the line from the young man. It's an odd bit of insistence on realism for a flighty comedy, but like Keaton, Bruckman preferred to base his humor as much in reality as possible.

Sadly, Clyde Bruckman was spiraling downward as he worked at Columbia with Keaton. Both men had taken to drinking to deal with the loss of creative control, and the diminution of quality forced on them by the studio system. Keaton pulled himself out of his spiral. Bruckman continued to deteriorate, eventually ending up unemployed and penniless. He borrowed a gun from Keaton and used it to kill himself.

Answer: Homer

Neither plot nor character development required that Keaton be on one particular side -- he just had to be in one army and his brother in the other. Since Keaton had already played a rebel in "The General", perhaps it seemed logical to cast him as a Confederate soldier in "Mooching" as well.

Check out Monte's classic hook nose. He'd later have cosmetic surgery done on it, much to the dismay of director Jules White, who laments that Collins isn't as funny without his ugly mug.

Answer: In the smokehouse

If Civil War tragedy depended upon brother fighting against brother, Civil War comedy depended upon brother protecting brother -- which is what Homer and Cyrus spend the bulk of this film doing.

Monte Collins played in other Columbia shorts with Buster -- including "She's Oil Mine" (1941) and "General Nuisance" (1941). His father, Monte Collins Sr., had acted with Keaton as well, playing the parson in "Our Hospitality" (1923) and the father-in-law in "My Wife's Relations" (1922).

Answer: He dumps a cup full of ants down the man's pants.

Watch the close-up as Homer scoops up the ants. When you spot the fingernail on the right index finger, you know they're using a hand double. Keaton had lost the tip of his right index finger in a wash-wringer accident as a small child.

The man strips off his pants to free himself of the ants, and Homer appropriates the pants for his brother.

Answer: He uses a pitchfork to cover Cyrus with hay.

Every time they hear somebody coming, Cyrus dives for the floor and Homer forks hay atop him, then turns to the butter churn and pretends to churn butter. None of this is necessary, since the soldiers stream past the barn but never look inside.

Answer: He head-butts the man into the trough and dumps him out of his pants.

The man Homer dumps into the trough is Ned Glass. His character is identified as Joe McIntyre, but never called by name in the film.

Glass had played a deck hand in another Keaton Columbia short, "Pest from the West" (1939). He transitioned from small film parts to small television parts in the 1950s, and worked fairly steadily up into the early 1980s. He died in 1984.

Answer: Long underwear and pantalettes

The pantalettes had been hanging on the wash line so that they'd not just appear out of nowhere. Ned spends the rest of the flashback in mixed men's and women's underwear.

Homer escapes by throwing the coffee tray on the officers, then covering them with the tablecloth to delay their pursuit.

Answer: In a tree

His hiding place is absurd -- he just grabs hold of a tree limb with both arms and legs and hangs on. He gets poked in the posterior by a soldier shouldering his rifle, and is captured.

Answer: He offers them ham.

Evidently Cyrus just changed back into his original uniform.

Since it's his family smokehouse, of course Cyrus knows where all the best ham is kept. He hands out hams, and as the soldiers gather around he takes the cartridges from their rifles and removes the lead.

Answer: He's standing right with them; he'd marched back with them when they moved to form the line.

While the firing squad takes aim at the tree, Homer stands casually by, hands clasped loosely behind his back in the very picture of nonchalance. Bullets or no bullets, Homer was taking no chances until forced to do so by the officer.

Answer: He faints.

Homer -- for all of Keaton's reputation for having a stone face -- looks quite alarmed at this turn of events. Cyrus is quite alarmed as well, and pulls the bullet out of his own rifle to see that it was loaded with live ammo before he faints, dropping both his rifle and the life round. Fortunately for Homer, his brother's dead faint triggers two accidental discharges of the other soldiers' firearms. All four loaded rifles are thus taken out of commission and pose no threat to Homer.

But judging from the look on his face, Homer has lost all faith in his brother's promise that the guns pointing at him won't be loaded.

Answer: He does an over-the-top death scene and throws himself to the ground.

The unconscious Cyrus gets dragged off, and two soldiers are ordered to bury Homer. Homer tries to escape by slowly rolling away, but the soldiers notice that the corpse doesn't seem to be as stationary as a corpse ought to be. They ask him if he's really dead and he answers in the affirmative.

The script had called for Homer's girl, Lula Belle, to arrive, kneel beside him, and bewail his demise. An ad-libbed line was pencilled in for Buster, "I'm all right. I'm just dead. Go away." It's unclear why that bit didn't make it into the finished movie, especially since it's Lula Belle who tells Homer's father that he's been executed.

Answer: He yells, "Ghost!"

The tall, skinny soldier comforting Cyrus is Joe Murphy. According to DVD commentary by Joe Adamson, Murphy had originally been a plumber, and became the inspiration for Mutt in the "Mutt and Jeff" comics. Murphy was less than thrilled, but realized that this meant he could get screen work, so he rolled with the flow and did some work in comedy shorts.

Answer: On Ned's head

Ned has rounded out his union suit and pantalettes ensemble with his uniform cap, but maintains his dignity. The wood clocks him on the head and knocks him silly, but doesn't knock him out. Homer tosses the wood aloft again and carefully positions Ned underneath it.

When it hits, it splinters to bits. But still Ned doesn't fall -- though a thoughtful Homer stands ready to catch him. Finally Homer just kicks Ned's legs out from under him and steals the map Ned was to carry to his army's headquarters.

Answer: Neither. They both end up cold-cocked.

We get a couple of scenes of doubles doing simple stunts Keaton could have done in his sleep -- including an oddly done bit in which a stunt double rides a old-fashioned big-wheeled bicycle out of a barn only to cut to Buster crashing it into a tree and falling on his head.

Back at the Old Soldiers Home, the script had called for the two men to fight and come up with black eyes, but instead Keaton and Glass reprise the last gag we'd seen them do, but with a twist. Glass starts to throttle Keaton, causing him to toss his heavy cane into the air. It comes down and beans Glass, who is knocked silly. Keaton tosses the cane aloft again and, as we'd just seen him do, grabs Glass to position him under the falling wood. But he misjudges and gets knocked on the head himself. Both men stagger back and fall over the bench they'd been sitting on. The end.