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Buster Keaton
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In 1928, Buster Keaton was at the height of his creative powers, just coming off one of his greatest films, "Steamboat Bill Jr.," and ranked in the pantheon of American film comics with Chaplin and Lloyd. But Keaton's films were independent ventures and the projects were becoming more and more expensive to mount. Encouraged to sign with MGM as a salaried player, Keaton was promised bigger budgets and greater promotion. Despite being warned not to do so by Chaplin and Lloyd, Keaton signed at MGM on the dotted line in his blood. Incorporated into the studio system at MGM's rarefied factory level, Keaton sacrificed his artistic independence to become a cog in the machine. Fighting the system became the norm for Keaton and, after his first two films, Keaton gave up the battle for The Bottle as MGM's edicts about detailed scripts, no improvisation, stunt doubles, and script approval by MGM committee took their artistic and personal toll.
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By the late 1930s, Buster Keaton (1895-1966) was out of business as a self-starting auteur. He continued to work all his life, doing innumerable TV appearances and turning up in movies like Chaplin's "Limelight," Wilder's "Sunset Boulevard" and even "Film," an original screenplay by Samuel Beckett. He lived in the San Fernando Valley, raised chickens, and thought his work had been forgotten. Then came a 1962 retrospective at the Cinematheque Francaise in Paris, and a tribute at the 1965 Venice Film Festival. He was relieved to see that his films were not after all lost, but observed, no doubt with a stone face, "The applause is nice, but too late."
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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.
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Travelling to antebellum Dixie to claim his family estate, Buster Keaton learns he's ... inherited a feud with his new girlfriend's clan. A daring rescue from a waterfall is among the amazing stunts performed by Buster; Natalie Talmadge co-stars. Next, one of the comic's most inventive efforts has movie theatre projectionist Buster entering the film he's running in order to solve a jewelry theft. With Kathryn McGuire and Keaton's father Joseph. 118 min. total. Standard; Soundtrack: stereo music score.
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Although Buster Keaton was known as "Tribute to the Great Stone Face" this was a misnomer. Keaton actually had one of the most expressive faces in silent film. His reactions to the curious events around him left no doubt as to how he was feeling. Keaton just didn't need to smile or laugh - that was the audience's job.
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Synopsis: This WW II comedy centers upon a hapless German general (played by Buster Keaton in one of his last roles) who is stationed in Italy the night before the Allied invasion. Two Yankee POWs are planning to steal the plans for the Nazi offensive strategy. The Germans anticipate this and replace theRead More
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Buster Keaton