Remembering Buster Keaton!

Joseph Frank “Buster” Keaton was born on the 4th of October 1895 in Piqua, Kansas, US.

Buster Keaton was an American actor, comedian and director. He is most famous for his work in silent films and his unique brand of physical comedy. Although his onscreen persona is constantly involved in high jinks he maintained a deadpan facial expression that earned him the nickname “The Great Stone Face”.

According to a much-repeated, probably apocryphal story, Keaton acquired the nickname Buster at the age of 18 months. After he fell down a long flight of stairs without injury, a family friend remarked, "Gee whiz, he's a regular buster!

Keaton was born into a showbiz Vaudeville family and started appearing on stage from the age of 3… because you could do that in 1898.

The act was mainly a comedy sketch. His mother played the saxophone on the side of the stage while Keaton and his father performed centerstage, wearing funny shoes, bald-headed wigs and fake beards. The young Keaton goaded his father by disobeying him, and the elder Keaton responded by throwing him against the scenery, into the orchestra pit, or even into the audience. A suitcase handle was sewn into Keaton's clothing to aid with him being constantly thrown by his father. Keaton learned to take trick falls safely and was rarely injured or bruised on stage. 

This knockabout style of comedy obviously led to constant accusations of child abuse and occasional arrests but Young Buster was always able to demonstrate to the authorities that he had no bruises or broken bones. 

He was eventually billed as "The Little Boy Who Can't Be Damaged", and the overall act was called "The Roughest Act That Was Ever in the History of the Stage". Keaton said he had so much fun that he sometimes began laughing as his father threw him but he noticed when he was visibly enjoying himself the audience laughed less, leading him to adopt his famous deadpan expression when performing.

He performed with his family until he was 21 when his father's alcoholism threatened the reputation of the family act, so Keaton and his mother, Myra, left him and headed to have a less transitory life and set up a more stable home in New York, where Keaton's career quickly moved from stage performing to film.

In February 1917, he met Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle at the Vitagraph Studios in Brooklin, New York City, where Arbuckle was under contract to Joseph M. Schenck who was an early motion picture entrepreneur. 

Buster’s father Joe Keaton disapproved of films, and even Buster at first had reservations about the medium. During his first meeting with Arbuckle, he was asked to jump in and start acting. Keaton was such a natural in front of the camera he was hired on the spot. 

Buster was instantly charmed by movie making and remarkably at the end of that first day, he asked to borrow one of the cameras to get a feel for how it worked. He took the camera back to his hotel room, dismantled it and reassembled it by morning.

Buster was soon Arbuckle's second director and his only employee in his  “gag department.” 

He appeared in a total of 14 Arbuckle shorts, running into 1920.

Now! What I can’t get my head around to explain and I am not doubting any of the facts… 

Buster met Arbuckle in February 1917 hopped in front of the camera and appeared in the film “The Butcher Boy” (1917) which is credited as being released in April 1917. Buster is also involved in five other films in 1917 but he did sign up for the American army and go and serve in France during WWI where he developed an ear infection that was so bad it permanently damaged his hearing in one ear. I either lack the data or the know-how to put a timeline together for this.

Keaton's 14 shorts he made for Schenck while working with Arbuckle were well-liked and successful.

In 1920 Schenck cast Buster as the leading man in a full-length feature film called 

“The Saphead” where he proved he could hold his own in the long-form format.

 Schenck then gave Buster his own production unit, “Buster Keaton Productions” 

In three years Buster then went on to make 19 Two-Reel silent comedies all written/directed/starring Keaton.

One Week (1920), The Convict (1920), Neighbors (1920), The Scarecrow (1920), The Haunted, House (1921), Hard luck (1921), The High Sign (1921), The Goat (1921), The Playhouse (1921)

The Boat (1921), The Paleface (1922), Cops (1922), My Wifes Relations (1922), The Blacksmith (1922), The Frozen North (1922), The Electric House (1922), Day Dreams (1922), The Balloonatic (1922), The Love Nest (1923).

Then 1923 he moved into making full-length features,

Three Ages (1923), Our Hospitality (1923), Sherlock Jr (1924), The Navigator (1924), Seven Chances (1925), Go West (1925), Battling Butler (1926), The General (1926), Collage (1927), Steamboat Bill Jr (1928) These films were all directed by and starred Keaton but he worked with writers so he could focus on direction and devising his wonderful practical stunts. 

Keaton adventurous ideas called for dangerous stunts all performed by Keaton at great physical risk to himself. While filming a sequence in Sherlock Jr involving a railroad water tank where a torrent of water crashed down on him from the watertower and it actually broke a bone in his neck Buster did not realize it until years later.  There is a very famous stunt in Steamboat Bill, Jr. where Keaton stands still and the front of a two-story building falls forward on top of Keaton. Keaton's character is unscathed, due to a single window opening alowing him to pass threw. This stunt is insane because the house front weighed two tons, and the window only gave a few inches of clearance around Keaton's body keaton losing an arm or his life was a very real concern but this sequence is now totally iconic and is one of the most indelible images of his entire career. 

His film The General (1926) set during the American Civil War, combined physical comedy with Keaton's love of trains this film features an epic locomotive chase. The film reenacts an actual wartime incident and it really is an amazing achevment. Although it is now regarded as Keaton's greatest work, the film received mixed reviews at the time. It was critisised for being too dramatic for the average filmgoers expecting a more lightweight slap stick comedy. Critics at the time did question Keaton's judgment in making a comedic film about the Civil War, even while noting it had a "few laughs." through a contemporary lens I question Busters jugment making a comedic film about the American Civil War where Keaton the protagonist is a confederate solder that kind of grates on me. 

“The General” was an expensive misfire in his career (the climactic scene of a locomotive plummeting through a burning bridge was the most expensive single shot in silent-film history) due to this Buster was never trusted with total control over his films again. 

His distributor, United Artists, insisted on monitoring expenses and interfered with Busters vision. Keaton endured this treatment for two more feature films, Collage (1927), Steamboat Bill Jr (1928) and then he gave up  independent film making and  signed a contract with Hollywood's biggest studio at the time, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). It is worth noting Keaton giving up his  independence as a filmmaker and taking a payday from MGM coincided with the advent of “The Talkies”.

Keaton’s contemporaries Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd both advised Buster against making the move to MGM cautioning him that he would lose his independence and creative control, he would later cite this in his biography as the worst business decision of his life.

Although he went on to make many more films nothing really lived up to the genius of his work when he held the purse strings, directed and starred in his silent films. 

Notably he appeared as himself in Billy Wilder's 1950 masterpiece “Sunset Boulevard” and he plays a Vaudeville performer in Charlie Chaplin’s 1952 film “Limelight”. Keaton’s final film appearance was as Erronius in the 1966 film “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” which was released after his death.

Buster Keaton died of lung cancer on February 1, 1966, aged 70, in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles.

Despite being diagnosed with lung cancer in early January of ‘66, a decission was made to never tell him. Keaton thought that he was hospitalised due to severe case of bronchitis. during his final days, Keaton was active and paced his room and spoke about returning home. He was chatty and even played cards with friends who came to visit right up to a day before he passed away. He is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Hollywood Hills, California.

He was a truly gifted filmmaker.

My recommendations for anyone wanting to experience some Buster Keaton 

“Sherlock Jr” (1924)

You can stream this for free with ads on the Freevee streaming service

With a subscription on the BFI streaming service.

"The General” (1926)

“You can stream this for free with ads on the Freevee streaming service

With a subscription on the BFI streaming service.

“Steamboat Bill Jr” (1928) 

“You can stream this for free with ads on the Freevee streaming service

Alternatively you can buy all three films in this Blu-ray boxset from EUREKA!

As part of their ”The Masters of Cinema" series