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Buster Keaton: Films
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Discuss Hollywood's greatest comedians and the name Buster Keaton is sure to be mentioned. In this collection of ten short films, the master of mayhem muddles along, maintaining his "Great Stone Face." Meanwhile he manages such diverse mishaps as inviting his ex-wife to live with his new bride (His Ex Marks the Spot) and wearing the wrong uniform in an area under military control (Mooching Through Georgia).
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Joseph Frank Keaton VI, better known as Buster Keaton, was a popular and influential American silent-film comic actor and filmmaker. His trademark was physical comedy with a stoic, deadpan expression on his face, earning him the nickname The Great Stone Face. His innovative work as a director made basic contributions to the development of the art of cinema.
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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.
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Decades before Jackie Chan, Buster Keaton was famous for his often perilous physical comedy and dangerous stunts. This short film is the one that contains the infamous wall-falling scene, where Buster is saved from certain doom by a well-placed window. There are no stunt doubles, camera tricks, or fancy prop gadgets -- the gag happened just as it appears, and had Keaton been standing a few inches the wrong way, the results might have been fatal. Now that's a dedicated comedian.
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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) ... 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.
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Buster was born Joseph Frank Keaton VI on October 4, 1895, while his parents, medicine show performers, were touring the country. By the age of four, the boy - who, according to his father, was nicknamed Buster by magician Harry Houdini [although that may have been one of his father's tall tales - ed.] - had become part of the act. The Three Keatons reached the heights of vaudeville, primarily because of the rough and tumble acrobatics performed by Buster and his dad. By 1917 the act had split up, and Keaton, now a young man of 21, went to work for Roscoe Arbuckle, who had just started up his own production company. Keaton learned everything he needed to know about comic filmmaking from Arbuckle; combined with his already finely-honed athletic abilities, he created an outstanding onscreen presence.
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