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Buster Keaton: Art of Buster Keaton [11 Pack] - DVD

SKU: 10681318 | Release Date: 11/20/2001

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Format: DVD
Length: 1321 minutes
Screen Formats: Full Screen/Enhanced Widescreen for 16x9 TV/Black & White
Genre: General Comedies
Studio: Kino Video
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1/2.35:1

Synopsis

Includes:

The Saphead (1920)

Our Hospitality (1923)

Three Ages (1923)

The Navigator (1924)

Sherlock Jr. (1924)

Seven Chances (1925)

Go West (1925)

Battling Butler (1926)

College (1927)

The General (1927)

Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928)

The Saphead
The Saphead was based on the tried-and-true Winchell Smith stage comedy The New Henrietta, previously filmed in 1915 as The Lamb. Buster Keaton, at the time a popular 2-reel comedy attraction, makes his feature-film debut in the role of the addlepated son of Wall Street lion William H. Crane. In an effort to make something worthwhile of his unprepossessing offspring, Crane gives Keaton $100,000 to buy a seat on the stock market. Keaton gets mixed up in a seemingly worthless stock, but proves at the end that he's got more business sense than all the other brokers combined. Surprisingly, The Saphead is almost bereft of slapstick, until Keaton forces the issue in a riotous stock-exchange climax. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Our Hospitality
Buster Keaton's third starring feature (discounting 1920's The Saphead, which was not conceived with Keaton in mind), Our Hospitality is a boisterous satire of family feuds and Southern codes of honor. In 1831, Keaton leaves his home in New York to take charge of his family mansion down South. En route, Keaton befriends pretty Natalie Talmadge (Keaton's real-life wife at the time), who invites him to dine at her family home. Upon meeting Talmadge's father and brothers, Keaton learns that he is the last surviving member of a family with whom Talmadge's kin have been feuding for over 20 years. The brothers are all for killing Keaton on the spot, but Talmadge's father (Joe Roberts) insists that the rules of hospitality be observed: so long as Keaton is a guest in the house, he will not be harmed. Thus, Keaton spends the next few reels alternately planning to sneak out of the mansion without being noticed, and contriving to remain within its walls as long as possible. The dilemma is resolved when Keaton rescues Talmadge from a raging waterfall (a dummy stood in for Talmadge; Keaton used no doubles, and nearly lost his life as a result). Beyond the brilliant sight gags in the closing scenes, the most memorable sequence in Our Hospitality is the bumpy train ride taken by Keaton and Talmadge in an 1831-vintage Stephenson Rocket. This 7-reel silent film represents the only joint appearance of Buster Keaton and Natalie Talmadge; Keaton hoped that by spending several weeks on location with his wife, he could patch up their shaky marriage (it didn't work). Also appearing in Our Hospitality are two other members of the Keaton family: Keaton's ex-vaudevillian father Joe (who performs an eye-popping "high kick") and his son Joseph Keaton IV, playing Buster as a baby. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Three Ages
Thirty years after its release, Buster Keaton admitted that his first feature film was essentially three two-reel comedies strung together. Perhaps this was a way for the comic filmmaker to play it safe; he had achieved success for his short films and if Three Ages wasn't going very well, its trio of storylines could have been chopped up into separate films. The picture was a send-up of D.W. Griffith's 1916 masterpiece Intolerance. But instead of following greed and hatred through the ages, Keaton focused on love. His settings were the Stone Age, the Roman era and 1920s America, with Margaret Leahy as the girl and Wallace Beery as the villain in each segment. The stories are intercut, but they're basically the same: the villain uses either brutish or dishonest means to get the girl and Buster must somehow overcome him. Although they're the most crude-looking, the Stone Age scenes often offer the funniest moments: Buster flirts with a cavewoman who turns out to be twice his size; when a foe throws a rock at him, Buster hits the rock with a club, baseball-style, and squarely knocks out his opponent. The modern era offers the most thrilling scene -- Buster tries to jump between two tall buildings, but misses and falls. The fall was unintended, but instead of retaking the shot, he used it to create a series of events that led his character to the back of a moving fire truck. While this picture ultimately didn't rate among Keaton's most classic work, it was a solid success when it first came out. Keaton did exactly what he'd set out to do, which was establish himself as a feature filmmaker. But it hadn't been all smooth going -- Margaret Leahy was pretty but had no talent for acting whatsoever. The girl was an English beauty-contest winner, and the prize was supposed to be a role in a Norma Talmadge film. She was so bad that Talmadge's director threatened to quit. So the star's producer/husband, Joseph Schenck (who was also Keaton's producer) put her in Three Ages instead. Keaton couldn't really complain -- because of his marriage to Natalie Talmadge, he was Norma's brother-in-law. So he made the best of it, although he later complained that Leahy caused him to throw away many scenes. Leahy eventually left the movie business and found a happier career working as an interior designer. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

The Navigator
At the request of his star Buster Keaton, producer Joseph M. Schenck purchased an obsolete ocean liner for $20,000. Keaton wanted to use the boat as a "prop" in his upcoming feature comedy, but went into production with nary a plot idea in his head. Eventually, Buster and his chief gagman Clyde Bruckman came up with a story involving two wealthy, pampered young people (played by Keaton and Kathryn McGuire), who through a series of fantastic but logical plot convolutions end up stranded together on a drifting, deserted ocean liner. At first, the young couple is helpless because they've never had to lift a finger in their lives. As the weeks pass, Keaton and McGuire become quite adept at fending for themselves, utilizing the huge facilities of the liner (its steam room, its enormous kitchen) for the simplest and most basic of necessities. An attack by a cannibal tribe requires Keaton to be more resourceful than ever; the build-up to the climactic contretemps between Keaton and the cannibals is almost as side-splitting as the climax itself. While the film is rife with some of Buster Keaton's most elaborate gags, he scores equally well with smaller, more intimate comedy bits, notably his losing battle with a deck chair and his attempt to shuffle a waterlogged deck of cards. Reasoning that the comedy in The Navigator would work best if built upon an utterly serious storyline, Keaton hired actor/director Donald Crisp to handle the "straight" scenes. Alas, as Keaton would later recall, the constitutionally humorless Crisp "turned gagman on us", resulting in miles of wasted footage. Thus, pay no attention to the "official" directorial credits: Buster Keaton alone is responsible for the helming of The Navigator. Joe Schenck's initial 20 grand investment proved sagacious when Navigator ended up as Buster Keaton's most profitable silent feature film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Sherlock Jr.
The enduring power of this silent-era comedy classic from director/star Buster Keaton can be ascertained simply by recognizing how often its central concept has been cribbed, most notably by writer/director Woody Allen for The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985). Keaton is a cinema projectionist who dreams of being a famous detective, like Sherlock Holmes. In love with a beautiful girl (Kathryn McGuire), he presents her with chocolates and a ring, but another suitor (Ward Crane) also vies for her affections. The projectionist unsuccessfully tails his romantic rival, a deceitful sort who has stolen a watch from the girl's home and pawned it to buy her a larger box of candy. Falsely accused of the crime by his girlfriend's family, the heartbroken young man falls asleep at work while exhibiting a movie. He dreams that he walks into the screen and interacts with the film's characters -- now the players in the stolen watch imbroglio. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

Seven Chances
Buster Keaton plays a young lawyer who will inherit $7 million at 7 o'clock on his 27th birthday--provided he is married. Long before discovering this, Keaton has pursued a lifelong courtship of Ruth Dwyer, whose refusals have become ritualistic over the years (the passage of time is amusingly conveyed by showing a puppy grow to adulthood). He proposes again, but this time she turns him down because she thinks (mistakenly) that he wants her only so that he can claim his inheritance. The doleful Keaton is thus obliged to spend the few hours left before the 7 PM deadline in search of a bride--any bride. He has no luck whatsoever until his pal T. Roy Barnes prints the story of Keaton's incoming legacy in the local newspaper. As a result, literally hundreds of women, bedecked in veils and bearing bouquets, chase Keaton through the busy streets of Los Angeles. When Keaton's producer Joseph M. Schenck bought the film rights to the Roi Cooper Megrue stage play Seven Chances, Keaton opted to forego most of the play's plot complications, devoting his energies to the bride-hunting vignettes and the climactic slapstick chase. The final scenes originally laid an egg with preview audiences--until the sequence was saved by "three little rocks." During the closing moments of the chase, Buster accidentally dislodged three small stones in the ground, which rolled after him as he escaped the thundering herd of would-be brides. The audience laughed immoderately at the tiny rocks, thereby inspiring Keaton to reshoot the ending, utilizing scores of huge, rolling boulders. The extra effort worked beautifully; while not his best silent feature, Seven Chances contains one of Keaton's most hilarious finales. Watch for Jean Arthur in a bit as a receptionist. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Go West
With this delightful film, Buster Keaton rivals Charlie Chaplin for comic poetry and pathos. Keaton's character, known only as Friendless, is a Midwestern boy who is down on his luck. After an abortive attempt to get by in the city, he follows Horace Greeley's advice to "Go West, young man!" As a result, Friendless winds up on a cattle ranch and is about the most unlikely cowboy imaginable (in fact, he never does trade in his porkpie hat for a ten-gallon). Various bits of comic business abound; standouts include the milking scene and a card game in which Friendless accuses a player of cheating. The sharpie tells The Great Stone Face "When you say that -- smile!" More importantly, Friendless finds true love -- not with the rancher's daughter (Kathleen Myers) but with Brown Eyes, a cow who seems nearly as out of place in the herd as Friendless does on the ranch. Cow and boy become devoted, but Brown Eyes is headed for the slaughterhouse. Friendless resolves to rescue her, sneaking on the train that's taking her and thousands of other cattle to the Los Angeles station. The herd escapes from the cattle cars at the destination and runs amok through downtown L.A.; it is then up to Friendless to round them up. Look closely during the hilarious stampede scene -- Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle plays a part in drag, and Keaton's father also has a bit in a barber shop. With the help of a costume shop, Friendless saves the day...and his cow. Go West is Keaton's most heartfelt film, and certainly one of his most underrated. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Battling Butler
Battling Butler has to be the strangest of Buster Keaton's silent features. Based on the musical comedy of the same name, the film casts Keaton as wimpy millionaire Alfred Butler, who goes on a vacation in the mountains in the company of his faithful valet (Snitz Edwards). While communing with nature, Alfred falls in love with a beautiful young girl (Sally O'Neil), who barely acknowledges his existence. Without his master's knowledge, the valet tries to smooth the path of romance by telling the girl that Alfred is, in reality, boxing champion Battling Butler (Francis McDonald). The real champ, a mean-spirited sort, gets wind of this deception and decides to allow Alfred to continue the charade, fully intending to mop the floor with the puny millionaire in the boxing ring. But on the night of the big fight, Alfred suddenly gets tired of being pushed around and turns into a savage opponent, leaving the bullying Butler positively groggy. At this point our hero discovers that the girl would have loved him whether he was Battling Butler or not, and all ends well. Played as traditional Keaton comedy for most of its running time, Battling Butler goes dramatic with a vengeance in the climactic fight scene, with Keaton really giving his ring opponent a going over. The final scene is all the more powerful because it is so completely unexpected; if it surprises today's audiences, one can only imagine the effect it had on Buster Keaton's fans way back in 1926. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

College
The silent comedy feature College stars Buster Keaton as a scholarly young man who doesn't know beans about sports. When he arrives in college, Buster finds that all the Big Men on Campus are jocks. To impress pretty coed Anne Cornwall, Buster tries and fails to join all the school teams. Even when he attempts to take a job at the campus soda fountain, Buster is a washout. Through the kindness of dean Snitz Edwards, Keaton is placed on the varsity rowing team where, despite several clumsy moments, he manages to win the big race. This infuriates his athletic rival Harold Goodwin, who seizes Cornwall and runs off with her. In racing to her rescue, Buster is compelled to repeat all the sports activities at which he'd previously failed--and does so, magnificently. He bursts into Goodwin's dorm room and saves Cornwall from the usual worse-than-death fate. Hero and heroine kiss--at which point this lighthearted film takes a sudden, chilling turn. As always, Buster Keaton performs his own stunts in College, except for the pole-vaulting bit, which was accomplished by Olympic champ Lee Barnes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The General
Buster Keaton plays Johnny Gray, a Southern railroad engineer who loves his train engine, The General, almost as much as he loves Annabelle Lee (Marion Mack). When the opening shots of the Civil War are fired at Fort Sumter, Johnny tries to enlist -- and he is deemed too useful as an engineer to be a soldier. All Johnny knows is that he's been rejected, and Annabelle, thinking him a coward, turns her back on him. When Northern spies steal the General (and, unwittingly, Annabelle), the story switches from drama and romance to adventure mixed with Keaton's trademark deadpan humor as he uses every means possible to catch up to the General, thwart the Yankees, and rescue his darling Annabelle -- for starters. As always, Keaton performs his own stunts, combining his prodigious dexterity, impeccable comic timing, and expressive body language to convey more emotion than the stars of any of the talkies that were soon to dominate cinema. ~ Emru Townsend, All Movie Guide

Steamboat Bill, Jr.
Not the best of Buster Keaton's silents, Steamboat Bill, Jr. nonetheless contains some of Keaton's best and most spectacular sight gags. Keaton plays Willie Canfield, the namby-pamby son of rough-and-tumble steamboat captain "Steamboat Bill" Canfield (Ernest Torrence). When he's not trying to make a man out of his boy, the captain is carrying on a feud with Tom Carter (Tom McGuire), the wealthy owner of a fancy new ferryboat. Carter has a pretty daughter, Mary King (Marion Byron), with whom Willie falls in love. The two younger folks try to patch up the feud, but this seems impossible once the captain is jailed for punching out Carter. Willie tries ineptly to bust his dad out of jail, only to wind up in the hospital while trying to escape the law. As Willie lies unconscious in bed, a huge cyclone hits town, knocking down tall buildings like kindling. Upon awakening, he does his best to remain standing as the winds buffet him about. He takes refuge in a tree, which is promptly uprooted and blown toward the waterfront. Here is where Willie proves his manhood -- and ends the feud between Steamboat Bill and Carter -- by rescuing practically everyone in the cast from a watery grave. Steamboat Bill, Jr. would be memorable if only for one eye-popping (and dangerously real) sight gag: as the cyclone rages, the facade of a three-story building collapses upon Keaton -- who is saved only because the upstairs window has been left open! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Version Details

Screen Formats

Full Screen/Enhanced Widescreen for 16x9 TV/Black & White

Additional Features

[None specified]

Chapters

Side #1 -- The Navigator
0. Chapter Selections
1. "The Navigator" Opening Titles [4:27]
2. "Will You Marry Me?" [5:41]
3. Alone Together [4:17]
4. A Meal Made Difficult [5:29]
5. Saved? [5:51]
6. Restless Night [8:21]
7. A Meal Made Easy [1:59]
8. "Cannibals!" [2:23]
9. Undersea Buster [8:42]
10. Devil From the Deep [4:44]
11. Repelling the Natives [7:43]
12. "The Boat" Opening Titles [3:16]
13. More Than One Way to Launch a Boat [7:23]
14. All the Comforts of Home [3:52]
15. Rough Seas Ahead [7:22]
16. Cast Adrift [5:08]
17. "The Love Nest" Opening Titles [2:08]
18. A Whaling Ship [5:59]
19. Monsters In His Midst [7:32]
20. Target Practice [4:35]
Side # 2 -- Our Hospitality/ Sherlock Jr.
0. Chapter Selections
1. "Our Hospitality" Opening Titles [1:32]
2. The Prologue [6:10]
3. The Story [3:39]
4. The Out-Bound Limited [11:40]
5. Arriving With a Bang [17:40]
6. The Safe Indoors [8:26]
7. A Permanent Guest [7:18]
8. Family Ties [6:44]
9. The Wild River Ride [7:07]
10. Love Thy Neighbor [3:05]
11. "Sherlock, Jr." Opening Titles [16:37]
12. Picture Show [4:56]
13. The Crime-Crushing Criminologist [22:32]
Side #3 -- Three Ages
0. Chapter Selections
1. "Three Ages" Opening Titles [2:02]
2. Man Finds Woman [14:33]
3. Man Attempts to Arouse Jealousy [11:29]
4. Man Fights for Woman [3:37]
5. The Fight Continues [14:56]
6. Man Gets Woman [15:25]
7. Love Has Not Changed [1:24]
8. "The Goat" Opening Titles [3:56]
9. Escape From Millionaires' Row [5:36]
10. Wanted Dead or Alive [10:29]
11. Going Up or Down? [3:13]
12. "My Wife's Relations" Opening Titles [2:39]
13. A Polish Wedding [1:36]
14. First Day With the In-Laws [12:46]
15. The Problems of the Rich [7:22]
Side #4 -- The Saphead
0. The Saphead
1. Opening Titles [2:22]
2. "The Old Nick of the Street" [3:10]
3. Mark Turner: Broker [6:28]
4. Bertie's Love [2:59]
5. A Failed Greeting [9:47]
6. The Morning News [4:32]
7. The Last Check [2:54]
8. Humble Quarters [5:27]
9. A Change of Wedding Plan [8:31]
10. Death of a Ceremony [7:23]
11. Visit to the Stock Exchange [4:05]
12. A Chance to Clean Up [2:56]
13. The Raid on Henrietta [11:38]
14. Saved by a Miracle [1:34]
15. After a Hard Day on the Floor [3:02]
0. The High Sign
1. Opening Titles [1:38]
2. Boy in Shooting Gallery [2:22]
3. The Blinking Buzzard [10:46]
4. Booby-Trapped [5:54]
0. One Week
1. Opening Titles [1:59]
2. One House, Assembly Required [3:15]
3. Piano, Carpet, and Chimney [6:23]
4. The House-Warming [7:08]
Side #5 -- College
1. "College" Opening Titles [2:13]
2. The Graduation [4:32]
3. The Curse of Athletics [4:54]
4. Ronald Arrives at Clayton [4:19]
5. "Fizzical" Exercise [2:54]
6. Baseball Tryouts [7:19]
7. Tossed Like a Salad [1:33]
8. Waiting Tables [3:05]
9. In Training [3:49]
10. Perseverance [8:03]
11. Grief From the Dean [4:30]
12. The Day of the Race [6:21]
13. Rough Launch [5:35]
14. Outstanding Performance [1:58]
15. To the Rescue [3:43]
16. "The Electric House" Opening Titles [3:03]
17. The House to Be Electrified [3:48]
18. Technological Wonders [5:25]
19. Revenge of the Engineer [3:41]
20. House of Horrors [3:49]
21. The Culprit [3:41]
22. "Hard Luck" Opening Titles [6:10]
23. A Scientific Hunt [2:53]
24. Rendezvous for a Fox Hunt [5:43]
25. Lizard Lip Luke [4:21]
26. A Spectacular Dive [2:18]
27. "The Blacksmith" Opening Titles [5:09]
28. "My Horse Needs Shoes" [6:10]
29. Extreme Body Work [7:42]
Side #6 -- Battling Butler
0. Chapter Selections
1. "Battling Butler" Opening Titles [3:21]
2. The Great Outdoors [3:52]
3. Gone Fishin' [7:31]
4. A Marriage Proposal [7:40]
5. The Prize Fight [4:11]
6. A Hero's Welcome [6:05]
7. Checking In [3:31]
8. Training the Champ [6:00]
9. The Two Mrs. Butlers [4:27]
10. Learning the Ropes [9:34]
11. Road Work [3:18]
12. Battling Butler vs. Alabama Murderer [6:50]
13. Battling Butler vs. Battling Butler [4:54]
14. "Haunted House" Opening Titles [3:47]
15. Sticking Around [5:36]
16. Opera Critics [1:31]
17. House of Horrors [3:52]
18. Ghosts on the Loose [5:48]
19. "Frozen North" Opening Titles [2:18]
20. Woman Trouble [6:45]
21. Home Away From Home [4:50]
22. A Dramatic Finish [3:35]
Side #7 -- Steamboat Bill, Jr.
0. Chapter Selections
1. "Steamboat Bill, Jr." Opening Titles [3:50]
2. Telegram for Dad [1:43]
3. At River Junction [3:27]
4. Child's Play [3:19]
5. Slight Alterations [7:31]
6. Working Clothes [6:03]
7. Learning the Family Trade [2:57]
8. A Date With Kitty [5:45]
9. Caught! [4:27]
10. Bad News All Around [4:22]
11. Homemade Bread [5:45]
12. Jailbreak [5:52]
13. The Storm to End All Storms [2:30]
14. Things Get Worse [4:13]
15. Blown Away [3:15]
16. One Man Crew [4:04]
17. "Convict 13" Opening Titles [6:54]
18. Good Day for a Hanging [4:47]
19. On the Rocks [5:48]
20. Three O'Clock Riot [2:56]
21. "Daydreams" Opening Titles [1:48]
22. Hospital Work [2:59]
23. Cleaning Up on Wall Street [3:44]
24. His Theatrical Debut [5:45]
25. Brush With the Law [5:25]
26. A Man of His Word [1:40]
Side #8 -- Go West
0. Chapter Selection
1. "Go West" Opening Titles [1:52]
2. Down on His Luck [4:24]
3. Westward Bound [4:06]
4. Brown Eyes [4:38]
5. Home on the Range [5:43]
6. After a Long Day [3:03]
7. Morning Chores [6:36]
8. Fast Lunch [3:59]
9. The Cattle Drive [6:53]
10. Poker Players [3:36]
11. An Unscheduled Stop [5:05]
12. Get Along, Little Dogies [3:53]
13. The Pied Piper of Pasadena [3:43]
14. Panic in the Streets [3:20]
15. The Bulls Meet the Bulls [4:47]
16. The Cows Come Home [3:16]
17. "The Scarecrow" Opening Titles [2:27]
18. High-Tech Dining [5:00]
19. Rivals [6:02]
20. Hide in Plain Sight [3:23]
21. Race to the Alter [2:03]
22. "The Paleface" Opening Titles [2:13]
23. Victim of Circumstance [6:19]
24. Trial by Fire [3:29]
25. A Member in Good Standing [4:08]
26. Little Chief on the Run [4:40]
Side #9 -- Seven Chances
0. Chapter Selections
1. Seven Chances: Opening Titles [3:14]
2. A Lawyer With a Letter [6:14]
3. Jimmy's Proposal [6:58]
4. Prospective Brides [9:49]
5. Striking Out [4:26]
6. Spreading the Word [7:51]
7. "What Time Is It?" [1:32]
8. Here Comes the Brides [6:59]
9. Race To fhe Finish [6:41]
10. Too Late? [2:26]
11. Neighbors: Opening Titles [4:36]
12. Trouble With the Law [3:21]
13. The Patent Fly-Swatter [2:43]
14. Court Decision [1:15]
15. Wedding Day [5:38]
16. The Balloonatic: Opening Titles [3:35]
17. Up, Up and Away [2:48]
18. Man In the Wilderness [5:12]
19. Down River [4:17]
20. Damsel In Distress [4:35]
21. Love In the Air [1:29]
Side # 10 The General
0. Chapter Selection
1. "The General" Opening Titles [2:31]
2. A Courtship [3:03]
3. First in Line [7:49]
4. Trouble at Big Shanty [2:09]
5. Johnnie to the Rescue [7:10]
6. Staying on Track [5:20]
7. Into Enemy Territory [3:47]
8. Lost, Cold & Hungry [4:33]
9. Escape in the Night [4:08]
10. Taking the Train [4:41]
11. In Pursuit [5:01]
12. Slowing Them Down [5:06]
13. Drastic Measures [2:02]
14. The Rock River Bridge [2:53]
15. The Yanks Are Coming! [3:12]
16. Battle at Rock River [4:04]
17. Take Aim [2:17]
18. Heroes of the Day [4:08]
19. Alone at Last [1:00]
20. "The Playhouse" Opening Titles [2:46]
21. The Keaton Minstrels [3:47]
22. Backstage Antics [3:44]
23. Monkey Business [4:47]
24. Zouave Guards [3:24]
25. That's Entertainment! [4:43]
26. "Cops" Opening Titles [1:58]
27. A Good Businessman [4:07]
28. Transportation Trouble [3:54]
29. Policemen on Parade [3:29]
30. Massive Manhunt [4:45]

Buster Keaton: Art of Buster Keaton [11 Pack]: AMG Review
AMG

Includes:

The Saphead (1920)

Our Hospitality (1923)

Three Ages (1923)

The Navigator (1924)

Sherlock Jr. (1924)

Seven Chances (1925)

Go West (1925)

Battling Butler (1926)

College (1927)

The General (1927)

Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928)

The Saphead
No reviews available.

Our Hospitality
Though it was not his first multi-reel movie, Buster Keaton hit his feature-length stride with this period comedy. Set in the carefully recreated 1831 South and shot on location near Lake Tahoe, the film turned the legendary feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys (re-named the Canfields and the McKays) into a send-up of Southern politeness. Two exterior sequences became vintage Keaton. Precisely duplicating one of the first-ever trains (the "Stephenson Rocket") and hiring his vaudevillian father to play the engineer, Keaton turned the crudeness of early train travel into a dreamlike and hilarious trip southward over rough yet beautiful forested terrain. And the final river rescue showcased Keaton's agility, as he snatches his beloved (played by then-wife Natalie Talmadge) from a waterfall; it also inadvertently revealed the risks of Keaton's drive for authenticity, as he almost drowned on camera. The potentially lethal work paid off, as Our Hospitality became a box office hit and confirmed Keaton's talent for integrating comedy into a larger narrative rather than simply stringing together gags. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

Three Ages
No reviews available.

The Navigator
Buster Keaton's first major hit and biggest moneymaker paired him with one of his largest comic props: an abandoned ocean liner. When he heard that the S.S. Buford was going to be junked, Keaton swiftly grasped the possibilities and convinced his producer, Joe Schenck, to buy it; he then worked on the scenario and gags with his collaborators. Making the most of the ship and its contents, Keaton's spoiled rich boy Rollo Treadway and his hapless fianc�e engage in a prolonged shipboard search for each other in a meticulously choreographed comedy of near-misses; they cook breakfast in a kitchen equipped to feed hundreds, while a diving suit comes in handy when cannibals attack. Keaton's skill with gadgets and physical comedy contrasts with his character's cluelessness, as Rollo manages to triumph through ingenuity in spite of himself. Playing to standing room only crowds, The Navigator confirmed Keaton as a major presence in American movies and convinced Schenck to bankroll Keaton's free-wheeling filmmaking style for three more years of extraordinary work, including Seven Chances (1925), The General (1927), and College (1927). ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

Among the great silent-era comedians, history has been much kinder to Buster Keaton than it has been to his peers such as Charlie Chaplin or Harold Lloyd. Part of that lies in the bestowment of the genius label that Chaplin accepted quite a bit too earnestly in his lifetime and, while it is certainly merited, it has the side-effect of playing up the genius of Keaton as well, who relied on his films rather than self-promotion to lay his claim. Keaton's success lay in his never-breaking deadpan expression and the sincerity that his characters always seemed to have, regardless of the situations they found themselves in. The Navigator, while not remembered with the same reverence as his later classic The General, nevertheless is an excellent example of the Keaton magic at work. The premise is fairly simple. Keaton and Kathryn McGuire are stranded alone on a 500-foot yacht and must learn to co-exist with each other in the middle of the high seas. There are, naturally, dozens of non-stop laughs, many involving Keaton's unique brand of physical humor. Of particular merit is the scene where he tries towing the yacht from a small dinghy and the scene where he is adorned in a deep-sea diving helmet, forgetting that he is smoking a cigarette and thus cutting off his air. The film also pokes fun at the idle rich, as both Keaton and McGuire's characters are established as spoiled members of that class. One reason the film holds up so well, as do most of Keaton's films, is that even when he establishes himself as a figure to be ridiculed or held up in scorn, he's just so darn likable. Hopefully viewers for many generations to come will make the same realization. ~ Dan Friedman, All Movie Guide

Sherlock Jr.
Considered one of Buster Keaton's greatest works, and his most (gasp) avant-garde feature, Sherlock Jr. centers on movie illusion itself, hilariously filtered through the dreams of Keaton's sad-sack projectionist. Showcasing both Keaton's interest in filmmaking technique and his repertoire of vaudeville physical gags, the film comically riffs on such visual tricks as superimpositions and editing, as a ghostly "Keaton" exits his sleeping body and walks into the screen, only to face repeated peril as one background cuts to another. The movie he finally joins becomes, naturally, an ideal fantasy world in which Keaton, as a suave detective, phlegmatically rights the wrongs that he has just suffered in reality. French director Ren� Clair likened Sherlock Jr. to Luigi Pirandello's classic self-reflexive play, Six Characters in Search of an Author, for its surreal take on the relationship between viewer and medium. Should this comparison put in question Keaton's overriding desire to create comic mass entertainment, Sherlock Jr. also contains the railroad stunt that literally broke Keaton's neck. Combining comic physical prowess with smart visual wit, Sherlock Jr. confirms Keaton's place as the most imaginatively cinematic of the silent film comics, and it inspired Woody Allen's fantasy, The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), as well as countless other directors and sequences. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

Seven Chances
Buster Keaton's fifth feature proved once again that, regardless of his virtuosity with trains, boats, and houses, Keaton's greatest comic prop was his own body. Keaton initially thought the 1916 play about a young man who stands to inherit $7 million if he marries by 7 p.m. that day was not right for him, but, when he accidentally dislodged a couple of rocks during the climactic chase, he literally stumbled on one of his funniest and astonishing flights of slapstick. Reshooting the scene with hundreds of fake boulders ranging from one to eight feet in diameter, Keaton slid and somersaulted down a steep hill, forced to dodge the rocks as well as hundreds of wannabe brides. Even with Keaton's reservations, the rest of Seven Chances is replete with comic and surreal Keaton moments, such as a church filling with potential mates while an unaware Keaton sleeps in the front pew, and a turtle that latches onto Keaton's tie during the chase. With the boulder slide added after a disappointing preview, Seven Chances succeeded with audiences; and it was feebly remade with Chris O'Donnell in 1999 as The Bachelor. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

Go West
To look at Go West, like the much more celebrated The General, is to see one of the glories Buster Keaton's silent period -- and realize what the movies lost when MGM took over his career. Not that everything he did during this period was perfect, but as Go West -- one of his (undeservedly) less celebrated films of this era -- demonstrated, at least he knew what he was aiming for when he directed his own movies. And here, he achieved something special in terms of mixing comedy and pathos, working with a plot that reached out to the western genre, and back to D. W. Griffith's rural dramas, and all of it shaped to Keaton's special screen persona, amid physical oomedy, sight gags, and a cliffhanger plot element (will he save his beloved cow?). It's a movie whose achievements seem all the more impressive over time, even with the oft-parodied elements present, because Keaton's presence, behind as well as in front of the camera, gives it the spark that keeps it seeming fresh and bright, and funny, across eight decades. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Battling Butler
Buster Keaton once claimed that Battling Butler was his favorite out of all the films he made, but at the time he said it, he was an aging, bitter man whose career was at its nadir. Before his death in 1966, Keaton would finally get the credit he deserved as one of silent comedy's greats, and Battling Butler wasn't one of the films that got him there -- especially when compared to his best work, such as The Navigator, The Cameraman and, of course, The General. But neither is Battling Butler a bad film -- it's far more amusing than Keaton's weaker silent features, such as Seven Chances and The Three Ages. Battling Butler was based on an English musical comedy -- not the most promising start for a Keaton picture. But Keaton was able to adapt it to his own style and he wholeheartedly threw himself into the role of the coddled rich boy turned fighter -- he actually trained hard to prepare for the ending scene in which he fiercely battles the real "Battling" Butler (Francis McDonald). In fact, Keaton's appearance in boxing getup almost gives things away -- instead of the smooth, flabby body expected of the wimp he plays, he displays a small but well-muscled physique. To the trained eye, he looks fitter than McDonald's pugilist! Although the film's power is contained in the intensity of the climax, where the two Butlers battle it out, Keaton's fine comic touches throughout are its soul -- for example, his character's idea of "roughing it," which includes valet, gourmet meals and a different outfit for every hunting and fishing occasion, or his woefully inept attempts at training (he can't even enter the ring without getting tangled up in the ropes). Keaton's valet/sidekick -- the little, funny-faced Snitz Edwards -- also adds a lot of humor, and while Sally O'Neil (like most of Keaton's leading ladies) doesn't have a lot to do, she's pleasantly spunky. Even if this isn't one of Keaton's finest pictures, it's still far better than most comedies of its day, and it grossed more than any of his other films in the 1920s. In fact, its success enabled Keaton to later spend the large amounts of money it took to make The General such a timeless classic...and if Battling Butler really did hold a special place in his heart, perhaps that's the reason why. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

College
No reviews available.

The General
Buster Keaton perfectly balanced romance, action and comedy in his most admired film and personal favorite, a Civil War story about an engineer and his eponymous locomotive. Based on a true incident involving a hijacked Confederate train, Keaton strove to make the film as authentic as possible, shooting on location in Oregon to get the proper track gauge and sinking an actual locomotive engine at the film's climax (in reportedly the most expensive single take for a silent film). The lighting and composition recall Matthew Brady's Civil War photographs, while tracking shots following Keaton's locomotive adventures further displayed his technical expertise. The train became Keaton's supreme comic prop in the two intricately devised, and narratively mirrored, chase sequences involving his efforts to elude Union pursuers; the humorous business accompanying Keaton's retrieval of the General, and girlfriend, sent up romantic fantasies and war heroics. The effort seemed to be for naught when The General received negative reviews in 1927 and failed to make a profit. The General's reputation, along with Keaton's, however, was resuscitated in the 1950s; The General became Keaton's masterpiece, joining Charles Chaplin's The Gold Rush (1925) as one of the greatest silent comedies ever made. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

Steamboat Bill, Jr.
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Buster Keaton: Art of Buster Keaton [11 Pack] - DVD

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