FM-B052-1920

Buster Keaton Steamboat Bill, Jr.

Video

DVD

F&MS

No

Available

Flavored with American and loaded with cinematic inventiveness, STEAMBOAT BILL, JR, was Buster Keaton’s final independent production before joining MGM (where his work suffered a steady decline in quality), a comic masterpiece that represents the full breadth of its maker’s remarkable talents. Set on the Mississippi river in the old sidewheeler days, STEAMBOAT BILL, JR, follows the adventures of a spoiled young man who is forced by the crusty father (Ernest Torrence) to learn the ropes of riverboating. Over the course of the narrative, the scale of comedy gradually expands, from small-scale, nostalgic humor (as when Bill Sr. outfits his son with a new wardrobe) to some of the most elaborate sight gags of Keaton’s career. Junior’s attempts to single-handedly pilot the rag-tag “Stonewall Jackson” recall the mechanical brilliance of THE GERNERAL and THE NAVIGATOR, but the film’s crowning achievement is its hurricane climax. Highlighted by remarkable special effects (including the destruction of full-sized structures), it includes the legendary stunt in which the front of a building collapses over Junior, who passes unharmed through an open window. Notes: Special Features: Steamboat Bill, Jr.; Convict 12; Daydreams. Director: Charles F. Reisner, Buster Keaton, Eddie Cline. Actors: keaton, Ernest Torrence, Marion Byron, Tom McGuire, Sybil Sealey. Black and White. Country: USA.