Hard Luck - 1921

Country: United States

Language: English

Directors: Edward F. Cline, Buster Keaton

Writers: Buster Keaton, Edward F. Cline

Stars: Buster Keaton, Virginia Fox and Joe Roberts

Release Date: 14 March 1921 (USA)

Also known as: Fortuna avversa (Italy),Kovanonnen poika (Finland), La guigne de Malec (France), Nonsens (Sweden)

Filming Locations: MacArthur Park, Los Angeles, California, USA

Runtime: USA: 22 min

Sound Mix: Silent

Color: Black and White

Plot Keywords: Police Officer | Opening Door For Someone | Safe | Automobile | Attempted Suicide  | Poverty | Driver | Attempted Suicide By Hanging | Rope | Pretending To Be Statue | Noose | Hard Luck | Car | Baton As Law Enforcement Tool | Hunger | Hole To China | Trolley | Policeman | Statue | Falling Safe

Genres: Short | Comedy 

Out of work, Buster tries various ways to commit suicide. At last he tries "poison" from a bottle containing booze. The president of a sporting club speaks of the need for a sportsman to promote the club and drunken Buster gets the job for which he must learn fishing, hunting and riding.

Goofs

Continuity

When Buster is chased off the trash can by the cop, his clothes are dirty and covered with pale dust. As he walks away from the cop, his clothes are clean.

Buster cuts the rope men are using to lift a safe, but after the safe falls, the rope attached to the safe is too short to have reached the men who were pulling on it.

Buster's attempt to hang himself fails because the rope isn't tied to the tree limb at all, and he falls flat on the ground. But when the cops come running over, the rope is tied tightly to the tree limb with just enough slack for Buster to stand upright.

Revealing mistakes

Buster steps off a curb by a narrow street with no streetcar tracks, into a wide street with an approaching streetcar.

Connections

Featured in Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow (1987); Silent Clowns: Buster Keaton (2006) - Clips