Saw Steamboat Bill, Jr., a silent film starring the wooden-faced Buster Keaton. It's a delightful piece of buffoonery, Keaton managing not only to trip multiple times but, each time he's tripped, to do magnificent flips and pirouetting pratfalls. Just great. The story is the usual: Keaton is the bumbling son of an angry man who runs a steamboat. This man is locked in a bitter rivalry with another riverboat man, but one who wears a suit, so you know he's rich. This rich man has a daughter who takes a fancy to the bumbling Keaton and, now that this teetering, ridiculous scaffolding of a premise is constructed, the film gleefully watches it all fall over and explode.
There's not much to say here. The film is essentially a series of high-budget vaudeville skits, with Keaton risking his life to bring the funny. It's great fun but of course the characters are paper-thin and the plot is an afterthought. There's apparently some fancy camera-work on display but I'm too ignorant to spot it. In any case, this is a nice, dumb little film.
Oh, how I love Steamboat Bill, Jr.! Although, it's certainly more for the elaborate set pieces and broad visual gags.
ReplyDeleteA more clever and infinitely superior Keaton film would have to be Sherlock, Jr. (possibly my favorite Keaton film) which could possibly be considered one of the first "meta" films ever made! It's also a marvel of early visual effects.
Brilliant and concise, I highly recommend seeing it if you haven't already.