Tag: Buster Keaton

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This Film Is More Than 100 Years Old

Coney Island (1917)

In Coney Island, Fatty Arbuckle and his usual gang of friends go to Coney Island for the day. Hijinks ensue.

This one is a lot of fun and there’s a lot to enjoy in it, not least simply looking at Coney Island a hundreds year ago, which looks magnificent. The downhill dodgems on an undulating Mario Kart style track looks especially amazing.

I also liked this sullen looking baby eating an ice cream quite a bit. The true essence of all summer holidays there in one wonderful picture.

Beyond the wondrous nature of Coney Island itself, this short has a lot more in it that I liked than the last few I watched. I liked, in no particular order, Fatty Arbuckle’s incredible swimming technique; the occasional well-placed piece of fourth-wall breaking; Fatty Arbuckle eating an entire scoop of ice cream in one go; Buster Keaton doing a back flip just because he can; and Buster Keaton’s sheer unbridled delight at accidentally smacking Fatty Arbuckle in the face with a hammer.

Even Luke the Dog turns up for a bit. And at the end Buster Keaton kisses a girl.

I would quite like to Coney Island, a hundred years ago.

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Notes

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

2. The music on the Blu-Ray version was pretty rubbish, unfortunately.

3. I should probably try syncing it up with this Godspeed You Black Emperor track at some point.

4. But I’d probably get my youtube account blocked for copyright violations

5. So maybe some other time, who knows.

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Film Information

Title: Coney Island
Director: Fatty Arbuckle
Year: 1917
Duration: 25 minutes
Watch: youtube

Categories
This Film Is More Than 100 Years Old

Oh, Doctor! (1917)

Oh, Doctor! is another Fatty Arbuckle/Buster Keaton collaboration. This time Fatty Arbuckle plays a reckless, feckless doctor caught up in a complex (or at least convoluted) plot involving gambling, hustling, theft, and seduction, while Buster Keaton plays his dandyish son.

I can’t really think of much to say about this, I’m afraid. It was amiable enough, and at least it tried something different, rather than relying on Fatty Arbuckle’s usual staple of filling up any spare five minutes with everlasting food fights.

Also I liked this joke quite a lot, though I’m not sure exactly why.

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Notes

1. I watched this on blu-ray again. I captured the stills from this slightly grubby version on youtube.

2. This was a marked improvement on yesterday’s viewing, though it still lacked any stand-out scenes

3. I’m missing Luke the Dog quite a lot right now.

4. Hopefully he turns up again soon.

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Film Information

Title: Oh, Doctor!
Director: Fatty Arbuckle
Year: 1917
Duration: 24 minutes
Watch: youtube

Categories
This Film Is More Than 100 Years Old

His Wedding Night (1917)

His Wedding Night is the third Fatty Arbuckle/Buster Keaton collaboration of 1917, and by far the worst so far. This one involves Fatty Arbuckle making an egg cream, indulging in mild racism and homophobia, date raping a woman, and sticking his head up a horse’s arse.

I did not like this one at all, although Buster Keaton looks quite fetching in a wedding dress.

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Notes

1. I watched this on Blu-Ray again. I grabbed the screenshot from this youtube version.

2. Which appears to be the same as the version in the boxset, actually, with the same soundtrack.

3. I was going to be as charitable as I could and say this was “of its time”.

4. But it’s not really.

5. It’s just a bit shit.

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Film Information

Title: His Wedding Night
Directors: Fatty Arbuckle, Buster Keaton
Year: 1917
Duration: 20 minutes
Watch: youtube

Categories
This Film Is More Than 100 Years Old

The Rough House (1917)

The Rough House is another Fatty Arbuckle silent comedy, co-diected this time with Buster Keaton, and starring pretty much the same cast as The Butcher Boy.

The first half of this is very similar to the first half of The Butcher Boy, being as it is a near ten minute ever-escalating food fight with the exact same cast of actors, but this time in a nice posh house rather than a butcher’s shop.

In the second half, Fatty Arbuckle has to make dinner for some new guests who turn out to be crooks. This section is surprisingly tedious, although there’s a nice bit where he slices up the potatoes using an electric fan (see above).

Later on there’s a chase, and a gunfight, and Buster Keaton executing an amazing overhead kick to a man’s face that Jackie Chan would have been proud of (see below). And yet it’s still all a bit boring for some reason.

(The reason is there’s no Luke the Dog at all)

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Notes

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

2. The restored version on the blu-rays looks much nicer than that. You can actually see their faces, for one thing.

3. So I apologise for the poor quality images above.

4. Maybe one day I will learn how to take screenshots from blu-rays, but I doubt it’ll be anytime soon.

5. I’ve said this before, but I love the way old silent films shot on static cameras like this have the feel of some strange 80s/90s adventure games, each room in the house a separate screen.

6. I don’t know if anyone’s ever made a silent comedy adventure game but someone definitely should at some point.

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Film Information

Title: The Rough House
Directors: Fatty Arbuckle, Buster Keaton
Year: 1917
Duration: 20 minutes
Watch: youtube

Categories
This Film Is More Than 100 Years Old

The Butcher Boy (1917)

The Butcher Boy is a silent comedy from 1917, written, and directed by Fatty Arbuckle, and starring Fatty Arbuckle, too, as well as Alice Lake, Buster Keaton, and Fatty Arbuckle’s amazing dog, Luke.

I love Luke.

Anyway the film’s in two parts. The first part is set in the butcher’s shop where Fatty Arbuckle works, while the second part involves Fatty Arbuckle dressing up as a girl so he can break into a boarding school for girls and marry a girl.

The second part has more Luke but less jokes. The first part has less Luke but more jokes. I could not tell you which I prefer.

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Notes

1. I watched this on blu-ray, in this excellent collection of Buster Keaton films.

2. But there’s plenty of version available on youtube or wherever. I captured the above screenshots from this slightly shoddy version.

3. This was Buster Keaton’s film debut, which explains why it’s in the Buster Keaton boxset and not a Fatty Arbuckle boxset, I suppose.

4. Anyway, I’m going to watch one of these every day during December.

5. I hope that’s okay.

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Film Information

Title: The Butcher Boy
Director: Fatty Arbuckle
Year: 1917
Duration: 24 minutes
Watch: youtube (various versions)

Categories
This Film Is 100 Years Old

Nude Woman By Waterfall (1920)

Nude Woman By Waterfall is a short film from 1920, directed by Claude Friese-Greene, featuring a nude woman by a waterfall, and the same woman, not so nude, upon a cliff top. I reviewed it earlier in the year (well, “reviewed” it), and really loved it. It’s beautiful, beguiling, mysterious, odd, sad. All the best things in film, really.

Anyway, I rewatched it again today, because the always excellent Haiku Salut (who previously released/toured a live soundtrack to Buster Keaton’s The General) have released a new soundtrack for it, called Portrait In Dust.

Recorded as part of a project to re-score two films for the BFI (the other was 4 And 20 Fit Girls, from 1940, which they paired with Pattern Thinker), Portrait In Dust is a lovely piece of minimalist melancholy, which perfectly underscores the slightly unsettling ethereality of the film.

Anyway, it’s brilliant and I love it.

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Notes

1. I watched this on the BFI Player, while simultaneously listening to Haiku Salut on bandcamp

2. Earlier in the year I made a re-edit of this film, using the track Messy Hearts by Moon Ate The Dark as accompaniment.

3. In which I used all of Nude Woman By Waterfall except the shots of the nude woman by the waterfall.

4. I had hoped to show it somewhere

5. Sometime

6. But I fear that now the chance has gone

7. For a variety of reasons

8. Not least because Haiku Salut’s soundtrack is perfect.

9. And also everywhere is closed.

10. And always now shall be.

11. Maybe I should just project it out into the night

12. Onto the bamboo at the end of the garden

13. As they rustle in the wind

14. And weep in the rain.

15. Anyway I’ve added it to youtube here if you want a watch, but have no idea who long it will stay there, if their copyright robots allow it to live.

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Film Information

Title: Nude Woman By Waterfall
Director: Claude Friese-Greene
Year: 1920
Duration: 12 minutes
Watch: BFI; youtube (extract only)

Categories
This Film Is 100 Years Old

One Week (1920)

In One Week, Buster Keaton builds a house. Hijinks ensue.

This is a pretty amiable Buster Keaton film, and I enjoyed it a lot, although I definitely preferred The Scarecrow.

That’s my entire review. I’m not really sure that was worth a two month wait, now, was it?

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Notes

1. I watched this on youtube here

2. Although that version has a soundtrack which sounds like it should be from a snow level on a Mario game

3. So I’d maybe suggest finding another version if you can.

4. This film also features an early version of the house falling on Buster Keaton gag (see first picture above).

5. Although the more famous version of it is this one, in Steamboat Bill Jr., from 1928.

6. Which was then remade by Steve McQueen in 1997

7. And which was first version I saw

8. So now I’ve seen all three versions of it, I suppose

9. In reverse chronological order

10. Slowly

11. Over the course of my entire adult life

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Film Information

Title: One Week
Director: Buster Keaton; Edward F. Cline
Year: 1920
Duration: 24 minutes
Watch: youtube

Categories
This Film Is 100 Years Old

The Scarecrow (1920)

The Scarecrow is a 20-minute Buster Keaton comedy (co-directed with Edward F. Cline) from 1920, in which Buster Keaton eats lunch, runs away from a dog, and also pretends to be a scarecrow for about 10 seconds.

The film is essentially two entirely separate parts. The first part, in which Buster Keaton and his flatmate have lunch in a tiny house filled with mechanical space-saving contraptions, is utterly brilliant (and very reminiscent of Wallace and Gromit’s elaborate living arrangements).

The second part, in which Buster Keaton and his flatmate pursue the farmer’s daughter’s hand in marriage, while her father, and also the farmer’s incredibly excellent dog, try to chase them away, isn’t quite as good, but it’s still pretty fun.

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Notes

1. I watched this on youtube here

2. The utterly amazing dog in this is Luke, who is so wonderful he even has his own wikipedia page.

3. This was his last film

4. Although he lived for another 6 years in retirement.

5. So please don’t be too sad.

6. This is one of five Buster Keaton films from 1920, so hopefully I’ll watch all of them sometime soon.

7. Also thanks again to Vom Vorton for recommending this one to me.

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Film Information

Title: The Scarecrow
Directors: Buster Keaton and Edward F. Cline
Year: 1920
Duration: 20 minutes
Watch: youtube