The General (Buster Keaton, 1927)

Though The General is the highest ranked comedy in Sight and Sound’s recent poll of ‘The Greatest Films of All-Time’, it is interesting to note how it failed to recoup the costly production in 1927. An expensive bridge-destruction rivalling The Bridge on the River Kwai and casting armies of Union troops and Confederate’s fighting in a raging war clearly took its toll. With the financial success of Battling Butler, Buster Keaton confidently took on a larger budget and made a comedy that, in scale, only Charlie Chaplin could rival. It was only in the 1950’s and beyond that audiences realised how perfectly placed and beautifully balanced The General is. The acclaim it has accumulated and achieved in the last sixty years is not without merit – and now is the time to see Keaton’s masterpiece.

Keaton’s plays Johnny Gray, an engineer on the Western and Atlantic Railroad. His two loves are his engine and fiancée Annabelle Lee (Marion Mack). When war breaks out, Johnny tries to enlist but is rejected as he is needed on the rail road. Unfortunately, Annabelle’s brother and father assume he has refused to enlist, prompting Annabelle to refuse his love too - until she sees him in uniform. Feeling down, Johnny returns to his train – “The General” but becomes caught up in the war effort as armies from the North plan to destroy the railroad to stop the transportation of the Southerners artillery and food. They take hold of “The General”, with Annabelle on board, and so Johnny sets off to save his locomotive (and his love) from the clutches of the enemy soldiers.

As the train route sets-up jokes travelling in one direction, we remain on board for the laughs as it returns, repeating many jokes in reverse. Tomfoolery with the use of cannons, wood and fire is regular and commonplace. Though we are watching professionals, behind the scenes directors were shot in the face (with a blank) and crew had feet trampled by the train wheel. Even Keaton was hurt by standing too close to a cannon. A vaudeville performer, Keaton knows dangerous and death-defying stunts – and his effort to capture authenticity in the civil war setting and his hilarious exploits is where The General, rightly, receives praise.

The box-office failure of The General could be due to a number of reasons. United Artists had failed to market the film effectively while in 1927 the civil war was still in the collective consciousness of Americans. For some, it was too soon for comedy based on such a tragic time. Re-released at the BFI and screened digitally in glorious 4k, you can see the precise detail Keaton went to, to ensure The General stood the test of time. Cannons were based on actual civil war weaponry and he included what is rumoured to be the most expensive single shot of the silent era (rumoured to have cost $42,000). This shot, filmed on 26^th July 1926, is an actual locomotive, on an actual bridge in Oregon, and Keaton destroys both.

Written, directed and starring Buster Keaton, The General is outstanding filmmaking. The story suits the full-feature context and there is no sense that this is four 20-minute shorts squeezed together. The comedy supports the story and slapstick and poker-faced dry-wit is complemented by well-placed sarcasm and shots that, in their pace and framing, are laugh-out-loud moments. Paul Merton writes how The General proved “screen immortality” after hearing the loud laughs at a screening in 1971. 40 years later, the loud laughs continue to fill the theatre, proving how this epic silent comedy remains timeless and immortal.

This post is originally written for Flickering Myth, published on 27th January 2014

Sherlock Jr. (Buster Keaton, 1924)

"Say Mr. Detective, before you clean up any mysteries, clean up this theater!"

At only forty-four minutes long, there is absolutely no reason to not watch this incredible, cinema-obsessed venture into film-making by Buster Keaton. Considering that Keaton is thought of amongst icons of silent-cinema such as Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd, it is surprising to note that Keaton's later life was plagued by financial-problems, alcoholism and - at one point - was even placed in an asylum (marrying a nurse in a drunken 'black-out'). Sherlock Jr, alongside The General, remains an established staple of silent-comedy - especially as it focuses so much on the practice, production and obsession with cinema many people hold.

Sherlock Jr, akin to many silent feature films, is split into multiple sections. The first section begins with a semi-detective story as Keaton attempts to woo a girl (Kathryn McGuire) and fails to win her love as another admirer (Ward Crane) manages to frame him for a theft - a theft which he failed to solve using his by-the-book detective skills. This then leads into an extended sequence as Keaton, in his job as a projectionist, dreams of becoming the lead in a film - as 'Sherlock Jr' - managing to defeat the villain and win the woman.

What is key in the story is how, as a projectionist, there is an underlying context obsessed with the nature of cinema. The 'dream-sequence' unto itself is playful but incredibly cine-literate as Buster manages to appear in different genres and locations. The entire parallel between a film and reality is something that I am sure many cinema-goers appreciate - visually replacing the characters on-screen with the 'reality' in Keaton's scenario isn't too far from an audience watching Bridesmaids or The Hangover and relating their own friends to the characters on screen. In the final moments, Keaton directly looks to the cinema to inspire and inform him of what to do to win the heart of the lady - directly imitating the actions of the romantic-lead on the screen to win her love in reality. The fantasy of film and influence of cinema summarised through comedy - I tip my [pork pie] hat to you Mr. Keaton.

Though the themes remain innovative, it is the execution of the dream sequence that must be praised. Mounting a list of "Top Dream Sequences", this end act would be up there with the ballet-dance in The Red Shoes and the fascinating Dali-surrealist sequence in Spellbound. Technically, the beginning of the dream shows Keaton walk from the audience and directly into the film interacting with the characters on screen. But then Keaton truly becomes cheeky as the scene on screen cuts to another, as Keaton remains on screen. He sits on a mound of sand in a desert; *snap*; he is suddenly sat on small island in the sea. This continues between different locations, as Keaton moves within the frame, and then manages to re-emerge as the character Sherlock Jr. This means that he can now continue to use the editing techniques but within the story-within-the-story - and the moment "Sherlock" walks through a half-safe, half-door, for a moment it feels like he has stepped into a third alternate world righting the wrongs of the character who set Keaton up in the first act (indeed, there is no resolution to Ward Crane's characters theft except in the dream). This type of intelligent narrative constructed using techniques that were incredibly new for the time period simply says how ahead of his time Keaton was. Story-within-stories became the central point-of-interest for Christopher Nolan's Inception and reflecting on reality through fantasy is not too far from the surrealism of Charlie Kaufman - and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind equally managed to use a wide variety of editing and production techniques to fool the audience. Not far from how Keaton manages to fool us as he leaps through a window and manages to completely change outfit as he passes through.

Buster Keaton remains an legend within the history of cinema - and this film clearly shows how great a director and actor he was. Roumiana Deltcheva manages to combine many of the elements discussed in one swift sentence stating how from a social perspective it fantasises "about upward mobility in American society " whilst, on a "psychological plane it introduces the motif of the double striving for fulfilment in imaginary spaces, as the protagonist is unable to achieve it in ordinary, tangible reality". A topic Keaton further explores in The Cameraman, it is Sherlock Jr that sets the standard and, if you haven't seen a silent film before, then this wouldn't be bad place to start! Keaton certainly cleaned up the cinema with a truly ground-breaking - and literal scene-stealing - comedy.

The Butcher Boy (Roscoe Arbuckle, 1917)

"Molasses, please?"

Introduction

Comedian Paul Merton has had an interest in Silent Comedies since he was a teenager. DVD sales have provided access to these shorts for everyone, giving Merton a chance to create incredible documentaries on these topics. Only recently, he directed and presented a three-episode mini-series titled The Birth of Hollywood, whereby he managed to show how cinema was first born and, more importantly, how Hollywood began to dominate the market. I was utterly transfixed to this series when it played. Merton's enthusiasm and wide-knowledge of Silent Comedies was infectious and it was only a matter of time before I hunted down the celebrated comedies he noted in his documentary and book, Silent Comedy.

Buster Keaton Arrives

Beginning in 1917 is by no means the beginning of Silent Comedy. By this point, Charlie Chaplin was a household name - his 'tramp' character firmly established through his shorts The Tramp and The Vagabond. Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle was well-known, now with the power to direct and headline his own films (The Butcher Boy is one of many "Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle stars in The Butcher Boy". But this film did mark the first cinematic appearance of the unforgettable Buster Keaton. This is not an example of Buster Keaton before he became the deadpan, dry face of silent comedy. This is an incredibly self-assured start, whereby Keaton is ahead of his game when he filmed his first scene - which, proudly, Keaton acted in one-take.

From the Start

Buster Keaton was brought up on the road, his family were 'The Three Keatons' and their act consisted of much slap-stick comedy - whereby Buster would often be thrown around the stage by his Father, much to the delight of the audience. It was a chance meeting with Roscoe Arbuckle in New York which ensured Buster joined the Hollywood silent-comedy heroes. The difference between the Keystone cops and Charlie Chaplin's output at the time was immense - and The Butcher Boy shows a clear difference in comedy from the different actors. Buster Keaton's first gag shows him get caught on a tub of molasses (a honey-like by-product of processing sugar-cane). He hands the tub, with the money to Roscoe and asks for some molasses - Roscoe fills the tub up, on top of the money, only realising afterwards where the money is. Roscoe pours out the molasses into Keaton's hat, which resides, up-turned on the table, finds the money and Keaton picks up the hat, pops iit on his head and it is inevitably stuck. This well-thought out joke and planning is a far cry from the relentless throwing of flour that dominates the sequence and the bed-jumping and running-around and dog-biting finale that concludes the short. The Butcher Boy shows how certain comedians became so much more important than others - random tom-foolery would get a few laughs, but well thought-out, intelligently-planned comedy would always last the test of time.

Change of Scene

The film is set primarily in the butchers - whereby many customers create chaos as Arbuckle clumsily makes mistakes and creates gags in the process. We even see some brilliant use of a shapr knife as it appears Roscoe lets the huge knife slip out of his hand - only to land, blade stuck in, on the wooden surface. It happens once, and it looks like luck - shocking luck at that - but then it happens twice more and you realise that it is a skill. We also see some ridiculous sequences as the dog, Luke, runs on a home-made running-machine. Though it may be cruel - it is incredibly funny to see the dog running as fast as it can and getting nowhere. This whole sequence climaxes in thr aforementioned flour-fight, before suddenly changing direction to show Arbuckle attempt to win the love of Amanda by breaking into her all-female boarding school by dressing in drag. His rival, without knowing about Arbuckles plan, concocts the same plan giving us plenty of laughs when we see the two bumbling idiots feminise their characters.

Throughout all of this, Buster Keaton is in the background - not always as deadpan as he would later become - but definately in character. His physicality as he is pulled around and leaping across beds shows a real natural in his style and from this early cinematic-endeavour, Buster Keaton was clearly thr stand-out performance. Arbuckle had struck gold with this actor and the two continued to work together in the future - but, considering Keaton and Lloyd are often mentioned alongside Charlie Chaplin, at this moment in history Chaplin was towards the top of his game - and unknown to him Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd were waiting in the wings to show something different. The Butcher Boy gives us a little tease about whats to come...