Talk:Once Upon a Time (The Twilight Zone)

Keaton’s decline and sound?

The notion that Keaton’s career declined after the advent of sound may be true, but correlation is not necessarily causation, and to give it emphasis in the way this article does is to rehearse an old saw which has been long debunked, and isn’t supported even in Wikipedia’s article about him. Keaton was at the top of his game when he signed with M-G-M, but it was not the move to talking pictures which stymied him, but the inability to maintain the improvisational process he used to develop his work in his own earlier pictures. M-G-M made him present complete scripts, then work from scripts developed and polished by scenarists, gag men and dialogue writers, each of whom taking it further out of the hands of the star, who then had to watch as directors and editors made decisions to please their producers and department heads. That did for Keaton’s self-confidence, and that in turn led to his drinking and downfall, not sound pictures (he actually tried to use sound for “The Spite Marriage”, and M-G-M refused). Anyone who has seen his talking pictures knows he could deliver dialogue, and even sing, perfectly well. Jock123 (talk) 13:29, 25 August 2017 (UTC)