Buster Keaton in Out West (1918)…
… and nearly a half century later in The Railrodder (1965)
I acknowledge Charlie Chaplin’s genius, but I have to say that his screen personality never appealed to me, and I appreciate his films with a detached, technical eye. Buster Keaton is another thing entirely, for me. His comic genius touches me directly. I laugh when I see Keaton’s silent classics. I was first exposed to his work as a child. The last film he made, before his death, was a short promotional film for the CNR”s coast-to-coast passenger service across Canada. His stone-faced character crosses the country on a railway hand-car. Keaton was as brilliant in it as in any film he had made a half-century before.
If you are not familiar with Keaton’s work, then the documentary series listed above, narrated by the admiring British director, Lindsay Anderson, is an excellent introduction:
(Brownlow & Gil 1987) Buster Keaton, A Hard Act to Follow: From Vaudeville to Movies
(Arbuckle 1917) Coney Island [w. Roscoe Arbuckle & Buster Keaton]
(Arbuckle 1917) A Country Hero [w. Roscoe Arbuckle & Buster Keaton]
(Arbuckle 1918) Out West [w. Roscoe Arbuckle & Buster Keaton]
(Arbuckle 1918) The Bell Boy [w. Roscoe Arbuckle & Buster Keaton]
(Arbuckle 1918) Moonshine [w. Roscoe Arbuckle & Buster Keaton]
(Arbuckle 1918) Good Night, Nurse! [w. Roscoe Arbuckle & Buster Keaton]
(Arbuckle 1918) The Cook [w. Roscoe Arbuckle & Buster Keaton]
(Arbuckle 1919) Back Stage [w. Roscoe Arbuckle & Buster Keaton]
(Arbuckle 1919) The Hayseed [w. Roscoe Arbuckle & Buster Keaton]
(Arbuckle 1920) The Garage [w. Roscoe Arbuckle & Buster Keaton]
0 Comments.