Day 52: Have You A Pistol Handy?

OUR HOSPITALITY (1923)
Directed by Buster Keaton and John G. Blystone
Starring: Buster Keaton, Natalie Talmadge, Joe Roberts, Ralph Bushman, Craig Ward

Yes folks, this is a silent film.  And I get the same complaint with silent films as I do with foreign films: "I don't want to have to read anything!"  Well, get over it.

Keaton stars as Willie McKay, who was brought up in New York quite ignorant of the fact that his father was killed in a feud with the rival Canfield family (sound familiar?).  When he finds he's inherited the McKay Estate (a dilapidated shack in the middle of nowhere), he takes the world's first passenger train (which, like the world's first anything, doesn't work too well) to Kentucky to claim it.  On the train, he meets a nice young lady named Virginia (Talmadge) and becomes smitten with her.  Once off the train, she invites him to dinner, which he accepts.  But as it turns out, she is the daughter of Joseph Canfield (Robers) the head of the Canfield Clan.  He and his two sons vow to kill McKay, but not while he's a guest in their house.  To do so, you see, would be to violate that time honored code of Southern Hospitality.  McKay gets wind of this and decides to become a permanent house guest, all the time trying to woo the lovely Virginia.  But the Canfield men decide to put a stop to that and Willie is soon on the run.

This is the first Buster Keaton comedy I have ever seen, and I must say it exceeded all my expectations.  Some have called it an "epic comedy," and I'd agree with that statement.  Everything in this movie is big, including the laughs.  But there Keaton had an eye for cinema unlike most of his contemporaries (including Harold Lloyd and Charlie Chaplin).  Every shot is wonderfully composed.  But the most important thing in a comedy is, of course, the laughs, and rather than play the gags as big as possible, the comedy is much more observational; almost underplayed.  Everyone in the cast seems oblivious to the fact that they're in humorous situations, which works much better than when a cast seems to be aware of the fact that they have to make the audience laugh. 

Also of note are some of the spectacular stunts, all performed by Keaton himself.  His history as an acrobat in Vaudeville works to his advantage, and he uses a combination of elusive camera trickery and physical prowess to keep us on the edge of our seats.  Toward the end of the film, both Willie and Virginia are swept down river toward a waterfall, and Willie makes a daring rescue at the very last second.  All of this was done practically, that is, they had to actually build a waterfall and Keaton had to actually dangle from a rope to save the day.  And it is every bit as exciting to watch as anything they can do nowadays with CGI. 

Probably the most satisfying thing about the film for me was the fact that a jaded 21st Century audience enjoyed this film.  I watched with a group of people, and it made me feel a bit warm and fuzzy to hear an audience raised on Mel Brooks, Judd Apatow and Seth MacFarlane laugh uproariously at what many would call an outdated and antiquated film.  If that's you're attitude, I can understand it.  But it really says something when a movie that's nearly a hundred years old still holds up.