Buster Keaton

Buster Keaton was one of the two great film comedians and comedy film directors of the silent era. His reputation has suffered by the greater accord given to the other silent film comic, Charlie Chaplin, and Chaplin's reputation remained greater because Chaplin continued to work as a leading player well into the 1950s and also remained a controversial figure at the same time. Keaton, on the other hand, was considered finished by Hollywood when sound came in, though he did continue to make films until the end of his life, more often as a supporting player than a star in later years. A myth developed that Keaton could not make the transition from silent to sound because of his voice or for some similar reason, but in fact, Keaton's problems derived first from an unhappy experience at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer at the end of the silent era and second from a drinking problem that he managed to overcome, though it hurt his career. In the long term, though Keaton's talent would reach out to later generations and would have a major influence on comedians and filmmakers from Dick Van Dyke to Jackie Chan.

Keaton directed or co-directed most of his best films and was meticulous at developing the physical stunts at which he was so adept, and since Chaplin did the same, the two were usually seen as in competition. Chaplin came out of the tradition of the British music hall, and he adapted that tradition to the screen by emphasizing elements of movement and physical interaction over verb

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os Angeles and broke up the act. Buster approached their manager about doing a solo act in New York, and he was in the process of developing a routine for a revue called The Passing Show of 1917 when he met Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, then making a series of short films for the Comique Film Corporation. Keaton started doing small parts in Arbuckle's films and was so enamored of this new business that he began making films with Arbuckle full-time. Keaton saw the possibilities in film from the first, and he would later note, The greatest thing to me about picturemaking was the way it automatically did away with the physical limitations of the theater. On the stage, even one as immense as the New York Hippodrome stage, one could show only so much. The camera had no such limitations. The whole world was its stage (Knopf 30). The first film Keaton made with Arbuckle was The Butcher Boy in 1917, and a few months later, Arbuckle asked Keaton to work as his assistant director. The company made six films in New York and then moved to Hollywood. Keaton made six more films with Arbuckle and then was drafted into the Army in June 1918. He served a few months entertaining the troops in France before returning to Hollywood and making th

Category: Film - B