LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Buster Keaton: Man
built 277 days ago
In order to impress a girl, milquetoast Buster Keaton passes himself off as famed boxer "Battling" Butler, only to wind up facing the real McCoy in a fight, in this mix of slapstick and pathos. With Sally O'Neil and Francis McDonald. Plus, two short subjects find Buster getting spooked in "The Haunted House" (1921) and as a Mountie trying to get his man in "The Frozen North" (1922). 115 min. total. Standard; Soundtrack: music score. Silent with music score.
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Several factors, other than the loss of creative control, contributed to Keaton's downward spiral in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The arrival of the sound era in 1929 did not work in his favor because of his voice. He had his sound debut in The Hollywood Revue of 1929, then made eight more films under his Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract. None of them were very good. He was forced to make several films as a straight man to Jimmy Durante, including Free and Easy (1930). Keaton's contract with MGM was ended in 1933.
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Buster Keaton is on the mississippi, traveling in the old sidewheeler days. Buster plays a spoiled young man who is forced by his crusty father to learn the ropes of riverboating. From small scale laughs to some of the most elaborate sight gags on film, Steamboat Bill, Jr. is sure to tickle any viewer.
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Seven Chances (1925), which Keaton considered one of his worst films, is actually one of his best, and certainly his most under-rated. Perhaps Keaton didn't like being tied to such a definite plot; it's the old Belasco chestnut about the man who must marry before the day is up if he is to receive seven million smackers. Buster has something of Cary Grant about him in this, an off-kilter sexual charge, a snarky urbanity. Trying to find a bride fast, he tangles with a young, dark-haired Jean Arthur for a blissful moment or two. There are a lot of far-out jokes in Seven Chances, the kind of situations that you can't unravel with words—described point by point, they wouldn't sound as funny and strange as they are. In the lunatic climax, an amazingly sustained live action cartoon, hundreds of potential brides chase him across the countryside, an avalanche of unleashed feminine rage.
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Keaton managed to get his drinking under control by 1934, after a short time in Europe where he appeared in several films including Le roi des Champs-Elyses (1934). That same year, he was put under contract by Educational Films and returned to making shorts. One of the best of this era was Grand Slam Opera. After the company shut its doors in 1937, Keaton was re-signed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, but only as a gagman. He directed three short films in 1938. The following year, United Artists hired Keaton; he made ten shorts in the next two years.
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Buster Keaton plays a man named Jimmie Shannon. In order for him to inherit seven million dollars, he must marry by 7:00 PM. Word of his chance spreads and soon all women flock to seek his courtship.
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