![]() A series of adventures begins when an accident during photographing causes Buster to be mistaken for Dead Shot Dan, the local bad guy. With Buster Keaton, Virginia Fox, Joe Roberts, Malcolm St. I'll say it now and I'll say it again the genius of Buster Keaton will never cease to amaze me. The Goat: Directed by Buster Keaton, Malcolm St. All of this takes place within a nostalgic, Coney Island-like setting (filmed at Venice Pier in Los Angeles) and even features the appearance of a man at the 11 minutes mark who bears quite a resemblance to that other great silent comic, Charlie Chaplin (intentional or not?). I was laughing, in awe and was even shocked (when the gangster's neck is closed on the door) all at once. The house with its traps and secret hatches is an astounding piece of set design and when four rooms on duel levels appear in the frame at once in which Keaton jumps back and forth between them, it reminds me of a 2D platform video game. Furthermore, the short's finale is a real "How did they do that?" sequence. ![]() Keaton even messes with the audience's expectation for comic effect by walking past a banana peel on the ground only to not slip on it. Bean would conjure while the short also features the earliest example I've seen in a film of a recurring gag with the high sign itself, a secret signal between the members of a gang known as The Blinking Buzzards. The gag involving Keaton's set-up with the dog, the meat and the string (it's hard to explain) is reminiscent of something Mr. The 'High Sign' packs in so much gags and material into its 21-minute runtime, chocked full of blink-and-you-miss-it moments in the story of a wannabe gangster who also becomes a bodyguard for the man he is assigned to kill. This opening prologue reminds me of a statement Roger Ebert made in his review of The General "(Keaton) seems like a modern visitor to the world of silent clowns". The opening prologue of The High Sign states "Our hero came from Nowhere- he wasn't going Anywhere and got kicked off Somewhere" and considering his superhuman stunts, Keaton is like an alien who just landed on Earth. I question why though as I feel the premise of The 'High Sign' is one of Keaton's most inspired and even worthy of being used as the set-up for a feature - it's true what they say, the artist is often wrong about their own work. However, Keaton was reportedly disappointed with the short and didn't release it until the following year, instead making One Week his first solo short. The copies previously uploaded here were either incomplete or too blurry. In 1862, after spies steal his locomotive, 'The General', he wages a one-man battle to recover it. So the next night I watched the whole movie again, and this time I see it for the first time: It's Stupendous! It's Sensational! It's Sublime! Three great comedians! Todd dances! Durante sings! Keaton speaks! Sure it ain't poifect.but there's a lot of laughs in this picture.The 'High Sign' has to be my favourite Buster Keaton short and it just so happens to be the first independent film Keaton produced, giving birth to his iconic unnamed character. The General (complete & clearer) (1926) A great Buster Keaton silent movie. Again, I was laughing out loud, appreciating Keaton's clowning and tumbling. After being rejected by the Confederate military, not realizing it was due to his crucial civilian role, an engineer must single-handedly recapture his beloved locomotive after it is seized by Union spies and return it through enemy lines. With Buster Keaton, Marion Mack, Glen Cavender, Jim Farley. Buster in his blissful innocence botches every act. The General: Directed by Clyde Bruckman, Buster Keaton. So I watched another scene, their show is opening on Broadway. A very funny scene, the actors excellent, their faces, their eyes, their silly expressions. The next night I watched a scene with Thelma Todd as a conniving chorus girl trying to impress Buster and Jimmy with her sex appeal. I couldn't get Durante's song out of my head, I kept trying to better remember Thelma Todd's first scene, I considered that maybe Keaton did do some funny falls and physical comedy. The final work over which he maintained creative control, this clever farce is the culmination of an extraordinary, decade-long run that produced some of the most innovative and enduring comedies of all time. The next day I kept thinking about the movie, though. Buster Keaton is at the peak of his slapstick powers in The Cameramanthe first film that the silent-screen legend made after signing with MGM, and his last great masterpiece. Maybe Buster Keaton strangely speaking threw me off, or the labored line delivery of a leading lady. I watched 'Speak Easily' one night and thought it was o.k., but missing something.
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