Month: February 2022

Categories
This Film Is 100 Years Old

Daydreams (1922)

In Daydreams, Buster Keaton must prove he’s man enough to marry a woman by taken on a series of jobs and showing her father he’s not too poor to provide for his wife to be.

The central framing of this film is that Buster, in his quest to actually hold down a job, writes letters home to his girlfriend telling her what he’s doing now. She then daydreams Buster being incredibly successful for a few seconds, before we get an extended sequence of Buster’s complete incompetence. Poor Buster.

This leads us to a series of vaguely related sketches in which Buster is a bad vet, a bad street cleaner, a bad actor, and finally a bad fugitive from the law, which I’m not sure is a job, exactly, but does mean we can get the obligatory Buster vs Cops chase scene to finish off the film (which here includes both an excellent surprise attack on a tram, and a wonderful sequence where he gets stuck on the paddlewheel of a steamboat).

The ending is surprisingly dark, too, with Buster being forced to commit suicide for his failures by his fiance’s father. Poor Buster indeed.

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Notes

1. I watched this on blu-ray, and grabbed the stills from this youtube version.

2. The restored version on the blu-ray is missing the first two daydreams of Buster in his job, which that youtube version has.

3. Although only as stills.

4. The restored version has a few extra minutes of stuff through the rest of it though.

5. Including a much longer paddle wheel section.

6. Which is wholly amazing and wonderful.

7. So if you can find a 24 minute version of this elsewhere you should watch that one.

8. In the hope that that bit’s all in there.

9. Also this is at least the second Buster Keaton film I’ve seen where he’s arrested for wearing a skirt (or maybe for not wearing pants, who knows)

10. I wonder if that was a common crime in the 1920s

11. Or just one of Buster’s greatest fears.

12. This film also contains the most astonishing dog I have ever seen.

13. As shown in the picture below.

14. I think that dog later appeared as an extra in The Dark Crystal

15. And if it didn’t it should have done.

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Film Information

Title: Daydreams
Directors: Buster Keaton and Edward F. Cline
Year: 1922
Duration: 24 minutes
Watch: youtube

Categories
This Film Is 100 Years Old

The Frozen North (1922)

In The Frozen North, Buster Keaton plays around in the snow for a bit in this sort of western (with extended fishing interlude).

A parody of films I’ve never seen, but there’s still a lot of fun to be had here anyway, and it’s at least interesting to watch now just for the chance to see Buster Keaton changing his on screen persona from a lovable incompetent to a murderous arsehole (who is still, of course, incompetent), which is kind of shocking to see, really.

The ending, of course, provides him with mitigating circumstances for his behaviour, but the damage has already been done by then. I’m not sure I’ll ever recover from seeing Buster gunning people down in cold blood.

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Notes

1. I watched this on blu-ray again. The screenshots are from this near identical version on youtube.

2. The main target of The Frozen North’s parodic intent is supposedly William S. Hart.

3. But as I have never heard of William S. Hart I cannot confirm or deny.

4. But maybe I shall watch some of his films in an attempt to find out.

5. If there are any that still survive.

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Film Information

Title: The Frozen North
Directors: Buster Keaton and Edward F. Cline
Year: 1922
Duration: 18 minutes
Watch: youtube

Categories
This Film Is 100 Years Old

The Blacksmith (1921/1922)

In The Blacksmith, Buster Keaton is a blacksmith. Which makes sense, I suppose (even if he wasn’t a goat in The Goat, or a boat in The Boat, and so on). Although he also seems to be a wheelwright, a farrier, and a car mechanic, too. Which makes slightly less sense, probably. Although is probably just further proof that Buster’s a very talented boy.

This one’s pretty rough, thematically at least, mostly just being a series of disparate sketches occasionally but not always related to blacksmithing. And although I wouldn’t say this is one of Buster Keaton’s best, I still enjoyed it a lot, especially the strangely charming scene where Buster has to get some shoes for a horse.

Which I liked a lot, I really did. I could not tell you why.

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Notes

1. I watched both versions of this on blu-ray. I captured the images from this version on youtube.

2. The Blacksmith has quite an interesting history.

3. For a long time it was considered completely lost, before James Mason found a copy of it in the loft of Buster Keaton’s old house, 30 years or so after Buster Keaton had last lived there.

4. This was assumed (unsurprisingly) to be the release version of the film, but after someone discovered another print of it about ten years ago, it turned out this was only a pre-release version.

5. This new version (released in 1922), has a few new sequences, omits some old ones, has a different start, and some tighter editing in places (I think).

6. The version I grabbed the screenshots from was the 1921 pre-release version.

7. Which is a lot worse than the 1922 actual release version.

8. And although there’s not actually that much that’s different between the two versions (maybe 3 or 4 minutes), it’s quite interesting watching them both just to see how much difference editing can make to the overall quality of things.

9. Unfortunately I can’t find this version on youtube, so you’ll just have to trust me on this.

10. Or buy the Buster Keaton box set I’ve been watching.

11. Which you should, because it’s wonderful.

12. Anyway, here’s an old article about the new version, with a minute or so of some of the new stuff embedded half way down.

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Film Information

Title: The Blacksmith
Directors: Buster Keaton and Malcom St. Clair
Year: 1921/1922
Duration: 22 minutes
Watch: 1921 version (full version); 1922 version (excerpts only)

Categories
This Film Is 100 Years Old

My Wife’s Relations (1922)

In My Wife’s Relations, Buster Keaton plays an effete taffy salesman who accidentally marries into a family of burly working class sorts. Misunderstandings and mayhem ensue.

I can’t say I particularly enjoyed this one. Comedies of manners aren’t exactly my thing, especially when they’re comedies of manners 100 years and 10000 miles away from any I really understand (what even is taffy?). But Buster has a consistently excellent series of exasperated expressions, there’s a pretty great dinner scene, and the restored ending is marvellous, with a perfectly staged escape from five floors up via numerous window awnings all the way to the ground, so it’s not an entirely wasted watch by any means.

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Notes

1. I watched this on blu-ray, and got the screenshots from this youtube version.

2. None of the youtube versions seem to have the restored ending, so I couldn’t get a shot of my favourite scene.

3. But it was pretty good I promise.

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Film Information

Title: My Wife’s Relations
Directors: Buster Keaton and Edward F. Cline
Year: 1922
Runtime: 25 minutes
Watch: youtube

Categories
This Film Is 100 Years Old

Cops (1922)

Cops is yet another Buster Keaton short from 1922, in which, after a series of comedic mishaps, Buster Keaton will be chased by every policeman in the city.

This one is very odd. There’s almost 8 whole minutes, I think, of Buster riding a horse drawn cart very slowly around New York before we get to the madcap chase scene at the end. Buster’s accidental crimes involve pickpocketing, theft, and blowing up half the policemen in New York. And at the end, because he’s failed to convince his love to marry him, it’s heavily implied he commits suicide by cop.

It’s great, but definitely pretty weird, all in all.

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Notes

1. I watched this on blu-ray again. The screenshots are from this youtube version.

2. I’ve had some sort of mild flu all week, and maybe that contributed to this all feeling like a weird and unsettling fever dream at some points.

3. Also I love Buster Keaton’s commitment to using some of his most amazing stunts as almost easily missable throwaway jokes at the ends of scenes, such as his parachuting off a cliff with a blanket in The Paleface yesterday.

4. And then this astonishing escape towards the end of this one.

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Film Information

Title: Cops
Directors: Buster Keaton and Edward F. Cline
Year: 1922
Duration: 18 minutes
Watch: youtube

Categories
This Film Is 100 Years Old

The Paleface (1922)

The Paleface is a Buster Keaton comic western, in which Buster is sentenced to death for trespassing on Native lands.

I’d sort of been dreading this one, based on the name alone, assuming it wouldn’t have aged particularly well (it has not aged particularly well). I wasn’t expecting it to be quite so tedious and jokeless though.

There’s a few bits of good classic Buster here, with possibly the best “getting onto a horse” joke in his repertoire, and a section where he falls down a hill for a minute or so, but mostly I found it slightly wearying, to be honest.

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Notes

1. I watched this on blu-ray again. The screenshots are from this slightly shorter version on youtube.

2. Also hooray, I am actually up to 1922 now.

3. Finally doing my job.

4. It’s strange, though, how, with each passing year it feels like I’m catching up to now a bit more.

5. Despite 100 years ago always being 100 years ago.

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Film Information

Title: The Paleface
Directors: Buster Keaton and Edward F. Cline
Year: 1922
Runtime: 25 minutes

Categories
This Film Is More Than 100 Years Old

The Boat (1921)

In The Boat, Buster Keaton builds a boat and goes to sea.

The Boat is one of those Buster Keaton films with no real plot, but a scenario (in this case: a boat!) subjected to an ever escalating series of set pieces exploring pretty much every possible avenue of amusement available, utilising elaborate sets, clever camera work, some clever sight gags, and also a pun that took me almost a minute to understand (due to my inability to understand puns, or indeed to pronounce the name of his boat in a way even vaguely compatible with the pun). It’s pretty good.

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Notes

1. I watched this on blu-ray, and grabbed the screenshots from this version on youtube.

2. That’s the same version that’s in the box set, which is five minutes longer than loads of the other versions on youtube.

3. I have no idea what bits they’re missing.

4. Anyway, 27 minutes is very long for these Buster Keaton films really.

5. At least 5 minutes longer than usual.

6. While I was watching this I thought that it’d make a good sequel to One Week

7. In that in that one Buster builds a house and everything goes wrong, and in this he builds a boat and everything goes wrong.

8. And Sybil Seely’s back in it as his wife.

9. Then I read on wikipedia that it was actually intended to be a sequel to One Week

10. But then they forgot to ever say.

11. Also is this the first film in which Buster Keaton’s had children? I think it is.

12. Anyway, he appears to be a disastrous father.

13. But at least none of them die.
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Film Information

Title: The Boat
Directors: Buster Keaton and Edward F. Cline
Year: 1921
Duration: 27 minutes
Watch: youtube

Categories
This Film Is 100 Years Old

The Playhouse (1921)

In The Playhouse, Buster Keaton is trapped in a theatre and must perform for us all, forever (until the end, where he gets married for some reason).

Apparently Buster Keaton made this one with a broken ankle, so relies more on his vaudeville background than any particularly elaborate stunts, with the majority of the film having the feel of an episode of The Muppets, with Buster’s various acts going increasingly wrong to the consternation of the cast and crew and the amusement of the audience.

A lot of this is very similar to the previous Buster Keaton/Fatty Arbuckle film, Back Stage, which is also set in a theatre and has an incredibly similar back stage set. But Fatty Arbuckle never sets his fake beard on fire, so I think this one’s probably better overall.

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Notes

1. I watched this on blu-ray again. The screenshots come from this youtube version.

2. The bit at the end of this, where an obvious mannequin comes flying out of the shattered mermaid tank, is strangely reminiscent, in a sort fo reversed way, of the bit at the end of A Nightmare On Elm Street, where an obvious mannequin gets pulled backwards though a window.

3. The first section of this, in which Buster Keaton plays ever actor on stage, every musician in the orchestra, and every single person in the audience, is pretty astonishing.

4. The multiple exposure stuff is flawless, and technically amazing considering that they still used manually hand-cranked film cameras at the time.

5. It sort of makes my head hurt thinking about how painstakingly accurate they must have been to make it work this well.

6. But also there’s some black face in this bit, I’m afraid.

7. But it’s not too egregiously monstrous, fortunately.

8. Weirdly though the entire section where he’s playing a monkey (orangutan) playing a human genuinely horrified me in ways beyond even the misidentification of the orangutan (an orangutan) as a monkey (not an orangutan).

9. Possibly the mild illness delirium I watched this through is to blame.

10. I do not know.

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Film Information

Title: The Playhouse
Directors: Buster Keaton and Edward F. Cline
Year: 1921
Duration: 22 minutes
Watch: youtube

Categories
This Film Is More Than 100 Years Old

The Goat (1921)

In The Goat, Buster Keaton is framed for a crime he didn’t commit and must run away from the police for a very long time.

The Goat is short on invention and plot (it’s basically one very long manic chase scene from start to end), but high on laughs and execution, with (almost) everything being done with fairly effortless grace and charm.

There’s some really beautiful shots, too, especially the train sequence (above) and Buster’s forlorn face on the wanted poster (below). And the scene on the horse sculpture is a wonderful piece of slow-motion bizarrity.

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Notes

1. I watched this on blu-ray, etc etc, and grabbe dthe screenshots from this version on youtube.

2. I’m getting a little concerned by Buster Keaton’s naming conventions for his films, really. The Scarecrow had about two minutes of scarecrow action, The Haunted House was set in a decidedly unhaunted bank for 50% of its runtime, and now in The Goat there are no goats at all.

3. Not even one.

4. I demand a refund.

5. Also this film features perhaps the best prison escape ever, where the murderer simply switches off the lights and runs away in the dark.

6. (PS: I have no idea if “bizarrity” is a word but I’m using it anyway you can’t stop me.)

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Film Information

Title: The Goat
Directors: Buster Keaton and Malcolm St. Clair
Year: 1921
Duration: 23 minutes
Watch: youtube

Categories
This Film Is More Than 100 Years Old

Hard Luck (1921)

In Hard Luck, Buster Keaton is so poor and hungry and filled with despair he becomes totally suicidal. This leads him to take up fox hunting for some reason. I do not know why.

This one veers all over place, in plot, tone, and quality. Buster’s attempts at suicide eventually give way to a fishing interlude, a hunting expedition, a good old fashion face off with bandits, and finally some romance at the swimming pool. The good bits are good, the not so good bits are not so good. So it goes.

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Notes

1. I watched this on blu-ray, but captured the screenshots from this version on youtube.

2. Which doesn’t actually include Buster’s amazing dive off the diving board for some reason.

3. Probably because Hard Luck was lost for years

4. And then only found in partial form until a more complete version was found relatively recently.

5. I would just like to say here how beautiful smoke always looks in these old silent films.

6. I don’t know why but it does.

7. Such as in the shoot-out scene here

8. This film also contains a lot of animals (dogs, horses, oxen, foxes, fish, bears).

9. Which is nice.

10. And the escalating series of absurd ways in which Buster attempts to mount and dismount a horse is pretty wonderful.

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Film Information

Title: Hard Luck
Directors: Buster Keaton, Edward F. Cline
Year: 1921
Runtime: 22 minutes
Watch: youtube