Showing posts with label Our Hospitality. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Our Hospitality. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 11, 2019
Some incredible scenes in the Keaton silen film Our Hospitality
The Buster Keaton silent from 1923, Our Hospitality, recently restored and with a newly composed/recorded sound track, shows its age, of course - it's so quaint to see these broadly drawn characters bob and smirk and leap their way through a silent comedy, but it's still worth watching as a historic relic in film history and as a pretty amazing work of film production. The story, sketchy as it is, is based on the Hatfield-McCoy rivalry, with in this case Keaton as the youngest offspring of the McCay family marked for murder - we never know why nor does it matter - by the brothers of the Canfield family. This leads to some really funny scenes in which Keaton, unaware that he's a target, escapes from a few jams and culminates in an incredible chase sequence, involving an antique (movie set in 1810) train - how did they build that thing and get it to work? - and some special effects way ahead of their time as Keaton climbs a precipice and ends up in a rushing river; I really have no idea how they could have filmed some of this sequence w/out putting the actors at great risk. Keaton is not as well appreciated today as is his contemporary, Chaplin, but he deserves props in his own right: in a way, he's more athletic and more expressive than CC, although his character doesn't seem as sweet and vulnerable. One quibble w/ the movie: a little stray dog plays a big role, up to a point, but he's completely forgotten in the chase scene and the romantic conclusion. What happened to the pup?
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