REVIEW: Steamboat Bill, Jr. [1928]

“That must have happened when the dough fell in the tool chest” The beauty of Buster Keaton‘s work is how keenly he and his “gagmen” could build a plot around their comedic stunts. It’s said director Charles Reisner was the man who told his vaudevillian friend to craft a tale focusing on the son of a steamboat captain and really there’s little else involved beyond that. A bit of romance is added thanks to Keaton’s titular William Canfield, Jr.’s Bostonian beau Kitty King (Marion Byron), some suspense arrives out of…

Read More

REVIEW: Buster Keaton’s Cops [1922], One Week [1920], The Boat [1921] & The Play House [1921]

If you’re going to watch short films by Buster Keaton, you should do a marathon if possible. Watching four in a row, as I did, allows you to truly appreciate the comedic talent he was—writing and directing with Edward F. Cline, choreographing his own insane stunts, and creating laughter without ever breaking into a smile. Far better, in my opinion, than his contemporary Charlie Chaplin, Keaton utilizes a brand of intelligent slapstick to earn the physical laughs received as well as the cerebral ones with shrewd filmmaking, smart writing, and…

Read More