Buster Keaton is a Confederate who tries to take back a train that has been stolen by the Yankees. This leads to all Continue reading…
buster keaton
This was the last silent movie by Buster Keaton. Talkies were already being produced, but the sound stages were a scarce resource: there was overlap in the production of both types, until capitalization permitted talkies to drive the silents out for good.
Nevertheless, sophisticated sound effects were added and put into synchronization using a technique called Continue reading…
Unlike Gold Rush, this silent is, apart from a perky soundtrack with piano, harpsichord, and theatre organ accompaniments, actually silent: but the situations are so typically human that one easily fills in the dialogue, with help of course from the titles. Buster Keaton plays a nebbish fellow that despite genuine qualities never can seem to impress Marceline Day, a young girl of timeless beauty; or can he?
Includes a fine throw-away scene of Keaton miming a big-league pitcher in Yankee stadium.
Full of lots of slapstick, as a silent comedy must be. The story of the heart will make the movie appealing to women as well, however.
(Warning: there is a disturbing disregard for the Sabbath that must be “bracketed” as part of the culture being depicted in order to enjoy.)
