79% (1) The Scarecrow 19 min, [Comedy, Short, Family] [Edward F. Cline, Buster Keaton] [22 Dec 1920]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 79%, External Reviews
Awards: 1 nomination.
Actors: Buster Keaton, Edward F. Cline, Luke the Dog
Writer: Buster Keaton, Edward F. Cline
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Farmhands Keaton and Roberts share a cottage full of mechanical devices for making life easy. They are rivals for the farmer's daughter. Keaton , disguised as a scarecrow, causes troubles for his rival and the farmer. When Keaton stoops to tie his shoe, the girl accepts what she thinks is his kneeling proposal.
Rotten Tomatoes: Buster Keaton's two-reel work in the early '20s was incredibly rich -- nearly every picture is funny and even the shorts that fall short of classic contain moments of comic brilliance. Because Keaton has so much excellent work from this time in his career, some films get overlooked unfairly, and The Scarecrow is one of them. It's classic Keaton all the way, from the beginning when he and his roommate (big Joe Roberts) prepare a meal with the use of all sorts of convoluted Rube Goldberg contraptions and odd conveniences: a victrola becomes a stove, condiments hang from the ceiling, and the tabletop -- plates and all -- becomes a homey plaque on the wall. The two men are both in love with the farmer's daughter (Sybil Seely), but the farmer (Joe Keaton, Buster's father in real life) isn't too thrilled with either of them. After being pursued by a supposedly mad dog and disguising himself as a scarecrow, Buster wins the girl in spite of himself and they have to elude the roommate and her father. The final chase is pure manic poetry, ending in a marriage ceremony performed on a motorcycle and a sidecar, which flies into a lake with the bride, groom, and parson all on board.
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77% (1) Cops 18 min, UNRATED, [Short, Comedy, Family] [Edward F. Cline, Buster Keaton] [11 Mar 1922]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 77%, External Reviews
Awards: 1 win.
Actors: Buster Keaton, Edward F. Cline, Virginia Fox
Writer: Buster Keaton, Edward F. Cline
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Through a series of mistaken identities Buster winds up with a load of furniture in the middle of parade of policemen. An anarchist's bomb lands in his carriage. After lighting his cigarette with it, he tosses it into the ranks of police. When it explodes the police chase him all over town.
Rotten Tomatoes: Although Cops is one of the all-time great two-reelers, its creator, Buster Keaton, never thought much of it. He felt it was just a run-of-the-mill chase film, which suggests that perhaps Keaton was his own worst critic -- the chase is what gives the film its brilliance. The film's beginning is a portent of things to come: Keaton longingly looks at his girl Virginia Fox through what appear to be prison bars. In reality, it's the gate to the mansion where she lives. The girl sends Keaton away, telling him not to return until he is a success in business. Keaton attempts to do so, acquiring, through convoluted means, a horse, wagon, and a load of stolen furniture. Somehow he drives his wagon into the middle of a policeman's parade, where an anarchist's bomb falls in his lap. Carelessly, he lights his cigarette with it and throws it away. It explodes in the middle of the parade, and suddenly Keaton is pursued by every cop in the city. The surrealistic vision of Keaton, small and alone, evading these hundreds upon hundreds of policemen is unforgettable. The filmmaker was both athlete and comic, and here he makes maximum use of both talents, racing down streets, playing a balancing act on a ladder, and casually grabbing hold of a car as it flies past, all in an attempt to evade the cops. When it was first released, this comic short confused many people -- its subtle statements (including its blend of humor and politics) went over the head of the average filmgoer of the '20s. But those same qualities make Cops a classic today.
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77% (1) Neighbors 18 min, [Short, Comedy, Romance] [Edward F. Cline, Buster Keaton] [22 Dec 1920]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 77%, External Reviews
Actors: Buster Keaton, Edward F. Cline, Jack Duffy, Joe Keaton, Joe Roberts, Virginia Fox
Writer: Edward F. Cline, Buster Keaton
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: A young couple who live next to each other in tenement apartments do everything they can to be together despite of their feuding families.
Rotten Tomatoes: Buster Keaton stars in the short black-and-white silent comedy The Neighbors, also known as Backyard and Mailbox. The story is basically a variation on +Romeo & Juliet set in a regular working-class neighborhood. Keaton falls in love with his neighbor, played by Virginia Fox. Joe Roberts and Joe Keaton play their battling fathers. Their families fight over the fence that separates their buildings. The Neighbors was released in 2000 by Kino Video on the DVD Seven Chances, along with the short The Balloonatic.
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72% (1) The Boat 23 min, [Short, Comedy, Family] [Edward F. Cline, Buster Keaton] [10 Nov 1921]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 72%, External Reviews
Actors: Buster Keaton, Edward F. Cline, Sybil Seely
Writer: Buster Keaton, Edward F. Cline
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: N/A Country: USA
Plot: Buster's handmade boat, The Damfino, is finished and is, of course, too large to get through the basement door. When he drives off with it in tow, the side of his house, then the whole thing, collapses. At the harbor he rides the boat out only to have it sink beneath him. The rest is a series of adventures he and his family have with the restored boat.
Rotten Tomatoes: In what is perhaps Buster Keaton's most fatalistic short subject, the comedian portrays a husband who has been diligently building a boat in his basement. It's finally done, and he, his wife (Sybil Seely) and their two boys prepare to tow it to the harbor for its first run. The car slowly pulls the craft, which is too big to fit, through the basement doorway, and the house just as slowly collapses. But this is just the beginning -- at the pier, the car sinks, the christening bottle dents the hull, and then the boat itself sinks, with Buster aboard. But as the title says: "You can't keep a good boat down." Finally the little boat is at sea (even if its life preserver sinks and anchor floats), and Buster and his family try valiantly to makes themselves at home as the waves toss them to and fro. Of course this can't go on forever; in the darkest part of the night, a storm fiercely blows and the boat begins to sink. Buster desperately radios for help, but when the telegraph operator (played by Keaton's co-director, Eddie Cline) asks for the boat's name, and Buster replies "Damfino" (which is, in fact, its name), the operator angrily replies, "Neither do I!" As Buster and his family cram into their makeshift lifeboat, the situation looks very bad, but somehow they wind up on land. "Where are we?" the wife wants to know. There's no need for a title card to record Buster's reply: "Damned if I know!" This is one of Keaton's best two-reelers, which was almost lost to the ravages of time and deterioration -- when Keaton's work was first being restored, only one print of The Boat was found, and several scenes were nearly past the point of salvaging. But the picture squeaked through intact, and its indelible images have become a part of silent film's heritage.
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71% (1) Convict 13 19 min, Not Rated, [Short, Comedy] [Edward F. Cline, Buster Keaton] [27 Oct 1920]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 71%, External Reviews
Awards: 1 nomination.
Actors: Buster Keaton, Edward F. Cline, Joe Roberts, Sybil Seely
Writer: Edward F. Cline, Buster Keaton
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Buster is playing golf with Sybil when he gets knocked out. An escaped prisoner changes clothes with him. Buster goes to prison and learns that he is to be hanged. He changes clothes with a guard just as prisoner Roberts attacks all the guards.
Rotten Tomatoes: In Buster Keaton's second two-reel comedy to be released, he is golfing with a group of socialites. He knocks himself out and while unconscious, an escapee from a nearby prison exchanges his uniform with Buster's clothes. When Buster comes to, he finds pursued by dozens of prison guards.
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70% (1) The Haunted House 21 min, Unrated, [Short, Comedy, Horror] [Edward F. Cline, Buster Keaton] [21 Feb 1921]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 70%, External Reviews
Awards: 1 nomination.
Actors: Buster Keaton, Edward F. Cline, Joe Roberts, Virginia Fox
Writer: Edward F. Cline, Buster Keaton
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Buster is a bank clerk. Overturned glue gets everything, mostly the money, stuck to everything else. When robbers show up he can't "stick 'em up" because his hands are stuck in his pockets. The robbers' hideout is a haunted house designed to scare off police.
Rotten Tomatoes: While this isn't one of Buster Keaton's best two-reelers, it has some undeniably classic moments. Keaton plays a young bank teller who isn't immune to a pretty girl begging him for an early withdrawal. Sighing, he goes to the safe's clock and turns the hand an hour ahead so the door will spring open. Behind the scenes, there is scheming afoot; the cashier (big Joe Roberts) is part of a ring of counterfeiters who have fixed up a mansion to appear haunted in order to throw off the police. Their finest trick among the trap doors and secret passageways is a staircase that becomes a flat ramp when a cord is pulled, causing anyone climbing it to slide to the bottom. Back at the bank, Keaton has some trouble with a bottle of glue that causes all the money he touches to stick to him. This is also trouble for a group of bank robbers who try to hold him up. To throw the cops off his scent once again, the cashier makes it appear that Buster is the robber, and he has to run away. Keaton eventually makes his way over to the mansion, where the staircase proves to be his nemesis. Nevertheless, he manages to capture the counterfeiters, although he is knocked cold in the process. While he is unconscious and being held tenderly by the bank president's daughter (the small but always aristocratic Virginia Fox), he has a dream: He is climbing the long steps to heaven where he faces Saint Peter. Keaton is refused admission, and the saint pulls a cord. The steps flatten out and Buster slides down until he reaches hell. Fortunately, he wakes up to find himself face to face with the girl, not the devil.
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69% (1) Daydreams 23 min, Not Rated, [Short, Comedy] [Edward F. Cline, Buster Keaton] [27 Nov 1922]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 69%, External Reviews
Actors: Buster Keaton, Edward F. Cline, Renée Adorée
Writer: Edward F. Cline, Buster Keaton, Jeffrey Vance (titles)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Buster goes away to the city to prove to his girl's father he can succeed. He writes her of his various jobs which she glorifies in her imagination. She sees a surgeon, he is a vet's assistant; she sees him cleaning up on Wall Street, he's really a janitor.
Rotten Tomatoes: Not to be confused with the 1922 Buster Keaton comedy of the same name, the 1919 Goldwyn production Day Dreams was a vehicle for the immensely talented Madge Kennedy. The star is cast as Primrose, a gawky shepherdess whose head is filled with dreams of being carried off by a Knight in Shining Armor. Wealthy concrete manufacturer Geroge Graham (John Bowers) is in love with Primrose, but can make no headway with the girl because of her silly daydreams. Graham decides to disillusion the girl by purchasing a castle and hiring an imposter as her long-awaited White Knight, hoping that she will be so disappointed by her "dream lover" that she will settle for Graham as her sweetheart. But Primrose overhears Graham's scheme and decides to have little fun with her would-be boyfriend. Both hero and heroine spend the rest of the picture trying to outfox each other, but the end result is pre-destined, with the two giggling protagonists falling into each other's arms.
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