Category: Buster Keaton
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Buster Keaton kinescope from 1950
A rare kinescope of an early television talk show was posted recently. The reason a friend sent me the link, I’m quite sure, is that this 15-minute program manages cover two very important things for me: silent film accompaniment and Buster Keaton. The year was 1950, and Buster appears on an episode of The Faye…
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Keaton’s “Go West” live-streamed
I thoroughly enjoyed presenting and live-scoring Keaton’s Go West (1925) for the Cinema Arts Centre via live-stream last night! Our monthly series will continue online for the remainder of 2021, and possibly longer even after the CAC resumes in-person screenings. We do a live Q&A with viewers after the movie and ask people to let…
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Battling the Elements at 16 Frames Per Second
Buster Keaton had an astounding grasp of what works at what cranking speed and how best to compensate for these frame rates physically. It’s part of his comedic toolbox and was part of his filmic style. This is what makes the second reel of The Boat (1921) something of an anomaly. There are a few…
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Buster Keaton Washes Up in The General
I received notice Tuesday from the NYPL Library for the Performing Arts that that Silent Clowns Film Series screening of Keaton’s Our Hospitality on Sat March 14 was going to be cancelled. So were all public events at all branches of the NYPL I needed an image from a silent comedy to go in the…
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Keaton’s Leap to Features
Keaton’s Our Hospitality is one of my favorites of his feature films, and for the same reason One Week is one of my top picks for the shorts. It’s not just about the smartness of the gags or the overall structure or the physical stunts for me. It’s Keaton’s progression as a silent comedy film…
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Buster Keaton Meets Jimmy Johns
I almost fell off the couch today, just like when I saw the Spongebob cartoon whose punchline was “Nosferatu!” several years ago. There’s a new TV spot airing now that recreates or repurposes the Buster Keaton house-fall gag, and it’s done quite well. You always hope or assume that people in their 20s and 30s…
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A Breakfast Ballet with Buster and Joe
The Scarecrow (1920) has gradually become one of my alternate go-to Keaton shorts for audiences. In the event I’ve already shown them One Week, or am doing a general audience program for a newbie crowd, this one really lands. It’s also one of the few Keaton shorts with a set-piece that could be synched to…
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Missing the Shot in Sherlock, Jr.’s Pool Game
[This was originally posted on May 15, 2019, and was revised on May 18 to correct some factual errors brought to my attention by a colleague.] The pool game in Buster Keaton’s Sherlock, Jr. is one of the film’s many memorable sequences. For many years, one of the trick shots in the game was only…
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Beating Someone To the Punch With an Edit
Some years ago, I made a project of deconstructing Buster Keaton’s The Goat (1921) in a series of undercranking studies that I posted to YouTube. In one of the segments, I’d pointed out a moment where an elision of time occurs through a very tidy edit, one where the sleight-of-hand of the undercranking speed-up in…
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A Mysterious Woman in Buster Keaton’s “The Cameraman”
Honoring the Gag Work in a Silent Comedy Sometimes Involves a Doing a Little Homework and Then Sharing Your Findings With An Audience The gag title seen above from Keaton’s The Scarecrow (1920) got a huge belly-laugh at one of my shows this weekend. Usually it gets a tepid response (if any). The difference? At…