Looks like a still from Steamboat Bill, Jr., which contains Keaton's most famous sight gag (the falling house facade) and probably his second most racist (the most egregious being the black face waiter routine in College).
I've always preferred Keaton's oeuvre to Chaplin's, but those relics of Vaudeville ethnic humor that litter Keaton's films does make it tough sometimes...
The original falling house is in the two-reeler One Week, where he and his new bride build a mail-order house and is possibly the funniest thing he or anybody else ever did.
The final bit on the railroad tracks in One Week always struck me as the best example of Keaton's peculiar rhythm (building to a big laugh not with a series of smaller gags that lets you see the payoff coming from a mile away, but with a suspense + relief equation that somehow equals a punchline that smacks you in the back of the head).
Personally, I've always thought The High Sign was his funniest short, maybe because of the frenetic pace, or maybe because the final house sequence, stagey as it is, reminds me of Straw Dogs on meth.
Love him. Love you! It's love by association ;)
ReplyDeleteLooks like a still from Steamboat Bill, Jr., which contains Keaton's most famous sight gag (the falling house facade) and probably his second most racist (the most egregious being the black face waiter routine in College).
ReplyDeleteI've always preferred Keaton's oeuvre to Chaplin's, but those relics of Vaudeville ethnic humor that litter Keaton's films does make it tough sometimes...
Still...Happy Birthday, Buster.
The original falling house is in the two-reeler One Week, where he and his new bride build a mail-order house and is possibly the funniest thing he or anybody else ever did.
ReplyDeleteThe final bit on the railroad tracks in One Week always struck me as the best example of Keaton's peculiar rhythm (building to a big laugh not with a series of smaller gags that lets you see the payoff coming from a mile away, but with a suspense + relief equation that somehow equals a punchline that smacks you in the back of the head).
ReplyDeletePersonally, I've always thought The High Sign was his funniest short, maybe because of the frenetic pace, or maybe because the final house sequence, stagey as it is, reminds me of Straw Dogs on meth.