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Buster Keaton: Movies
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Born in Piqua, Kansas, Buster Keaton joined his parents in their acrobatic comedy act when he was just three years old and moved onto vaudeville by age six. After serving briefly in World War I, he made a series of short films, and by 1923 was exercising complete artistic control over his films as he established his persona as a deadpan and agile Everyman undaunted by the most extreme situations.
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Buster Keaton’s artistic breakthrough remains to this day absolutely the funniest film ever made. Buster plays a movie theater projectionist who is falsely accused of stealing a gold watch from his girlfriend’s family and banished from her home. Keaton immediately hops on the trail of the rival suitor who framed him. Eventually, he falls asleep while projecting a movie, and winds up stepping into the screen itself in a dream state(in a casually brilliant sequence of tricky optical effects that people still talk about), where he imagines himself to be the dapper star of a film about Sherlock Jr.., the world’s second greatest detective. Unbelievable stunts (Keaton did his own, as always) and complicated gags ensue, moving this 45-minute film along at a fever pitch. You'll likely be floored by Keaton’s pool game if nothing else.
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Keaton quickly rose the ranks of silent movie stars, eventually garnishing his first lead role in the box office hit Runaway Train VII: Missouri Battlefield. He was best known for his stoic face and crazy physical antics, like a white version of Jackie Chan except not as cool. His star was rising fast, and he was pimping Black women by day and White women by night! (Asians in the afternoon and early evening.) He used clever business techniques that he had learned from the art of crochet to propel him further in the business world, and to land him in several script pools for his own movies. At age 27 Buster was the second highest paid male actor in the United States. But who was the first, you ask?
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In the first Keaton pictures with sound, he and his fellow actors would shoot each scene three times: one in English, one in Spanish, and one in either French or German. This was done before dubbing became commonplace. The actors would memorize the foreign-language scripts a few lines at time and shoot immediately after. This is discussed in the AMC documentary Buster Keaton: So Funny it Hurt, with Keaton complaining about having to shoot lousy movies not just once, but three times. His stage name in Spanish markets was Pamplinas ("Nonsense"), and his nickname became Cara de palo ("Wooden face"). cineclasico.com (Spanish)
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Tibbetts, John C."Railroad man: the last ride of Buster Keaton." Films in Review v46, n5-6 (July-August, 1995):2 (10 pages). The movie 'The Railrodder,' directed by Buster Keaton, is based on a long journey along a Canadian track in a small, motorized handcar. Keaton had a strong fascination with trains which was reflected in all of his films. The movie was structured on the lines of the silent short comedies of Keaton. An excellent mixture of music and sound effects in the movie compensated for the lack of dialogue.
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Cut to the Chase/A Biography With a face of stone and a mind that engineered breathtakingly intricate moments of slapstick, Keaton has become an icon of the American cinema. This definitive biography, a startling and moving account of the troubled life of a cinematic genius, explores his often brutal childhood acting experiences, his life-threatening alcoholism, and his turbulent marriages. 51 photos.
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