Steamboat Bill Jr. - 1928

Country: USA
Language: English
Director: Charles Reisner (as Chas. F. Reisner); Buster Keaton (uncredited)
Writer: Carl Harbaugh (story), Carl Harbaugh scenario (uncredited), Carl Harbaugh titles (uncredited).
Stars: Buster Keaton, Tom McGuire and Ernest Torrence
Release Date: 20 May 1928 (USA)
Genres: Action | Comedy | Drama | Family | Romance
Plot Keywords: Captain | River | Riverboat | Rescue | Banker | Hurricane | Jail |
Ventriloquist Dummy | Rock Through Window | Father Daughter Relationship | Hospital
Actor Performing Own Stunts | Carnation | First Mate | Rainstorm | Bed | Forbidden Love | Ukulele | Chewing Tobacco | Minister | Black Stereotype | Beret | Umbrella |
Hat | Class Differences | Pratfall | Father Son Relationship | Rivalry | Male Female Relationship | Fight | Falling Building | Small Town | Haberdasher | Boat Pilot | Key | Family Relationships | Father Son Reunion | Jailbreak | Window Smashing | Singing | Bread | Barbershop | Slapstick Comedy | Shaving | Life Preserver | Barn | Sheriff | Railway Station | Physical Comedy | Tree | Public Domain | Pram | Sight Gag | Character Name In Title
Also known as: Wasser hat keine Balken Austria / West Germany (TV title); Apofoitos kollegiou Greece (transliterated ISO-LATIN-1 title); Armastus ei tunne piiri Estonia; Az ifjabb gőzös Hungary; Buster Keaton - Dampfer-Willis Sohn Germany (alternative title); Cadet d'eau douce France; El héroe del río Spain; El loco Bill Argentina; Hans son på galejan Sweden; Io... e il ciclone Italy; L'heroi del riu Spain (Catalan title); Laivakalle nuorempi Finland; Marynarz slodkich wód Poland; O Marinheiro de Água Doce Portugal; Stürmische Zeiten West Germany (TV title); Wasser hat Balken Germany.
Filming locations: Sacramento River, California, USA; Sacramento, California, USA
Production Co: Buster Keaton Productions, Joseph M. Schenck Productions
Runtime: 70 min
Sound Mix: Silent
Color: Black and White
The stunt where the wall falls on Buster Keaton was performed with an actual full-weight wall. Half the crew walked off the set rather than participate in a stunt that would have killed Keaton if he had been slightly off position. Keaton himself, told the previous day that his studio was being shut down, was so devastated that he didn't care if the wall crushed him or not.
The hat that Buster Keaton quickly removes from his head and hands back to the clerk with a frown is Keaton's own trademark porkpie hat.
The movie was originally meant to incorporate a large flood as the disaster that hits the town. However, due to a real Mississippi flood and bickering amongst the producers, the flood plot was changed to a "cyclone."
This movie was used as a model for Steamboat Willie, Mickey Mouse's first cartoon with sound.
During the hurricane sequence, there is a scene that pays homage to Buster Keaton's childhood on the vaudeville stage. One brief moment has a table move in the wind, apparently animating the dummy and turning its head to face Keaton. Keaton is startled and runs. This is based on a real experience from when he was a kid and became fascinated with a dummy named Red Top, who belonged to ventriloquist Trovollo. The young Keaton had a "conversation" with the dummy and conspired to kidnap his new friend one night when the theater was empty. Trovollo, anticipating Keaton, slipped to his props offstage and when Keaton approached, brought Red Top to life, scaring Keaton out of the theater.
This and The General are generally considered by critics to be Buster Keaton's last great films. Shortly after these two were made, the independent-minded Keaton made the mistake of signing a contract with MGM, whose regimented ways clashed with his scrupulous perfectionism. Five years after MGM hired him, it dropped his contract and Keaton drifted into obscurity, complicated by a severe drinking problem, from which he didn't emerge for many years.
Marion Byron could not swim, so the scenes where her character is in the river with Buster Keaton were filmed with Buster's real-life sister Louise Keaton serving as Marion's stunt double. The two were both the same size - 4'11". The water was very cold and during a day of filming Buster and Louise consumed 4-5 glasses of French brandy to keep them warm.
For reasons unknown, Buster Keaton did not receive a directing credit, although all involved in the film concur that he co-directed the film.
Included among the '1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die', edited by Steven Jay Schneider.
Crew or equipment visible: Just before the house facade falls on Keaton, a stagehand can be seen through the first floor window giving it an extra push.
Revealing mistakes: During the final cyclone sequence, a cable pulling down the entire front of a building is clearly visible.
For the first time since he was a baby, an effete Buster Keaton comes home from Boston to visit his steamboat captain father, who's being troubled by the head of the other, finer steamboat, J.J. King. Of course King's daughter is home to visit her father, too! This completely delightful comedy glides right along, with outstanding physical comedy from Keaton. The lightness of the film is a benefit, as is the short 70m running time. There's no shortage of brilliant gags, my favorite being Keaton trying to get his jailed father to accept his homemade loaf of bread. ("That must of [sic] happened when the dough fell in the tool chest.") I loved the opening, as well, with Bill going along to different shops with his son in order to prepare him for the boat, and the hilarious scene in the hat shop as Junior eyes himself in the mirror as his father suggests these awful hats. The ending is just amazing (and dangerous!), as buildings fall apart due to an awful wind, with Buster doing a disappearing act and fighting to stand up straight and retain his composure

Song of the Fishermen - 1934

Country: China
Language: Mandarin
Also known as: Yu guang qu
Director: Chusheng Cai
Writer: Chusheng Cai
Stars: Langen Han, Peng Luo and Kwah-Wu Shang
The first social-realist film in the history of Chinese cinema. Won the first international prize for a Chinese film at the 1935 Moscow Film Festival.
The story is about a fisherman's family living near to Shanghai. In the beginning, twin babies are born, a boy and a girl. Their growing-up is briefly sketched, and their friendship with "young master", a boy from rich family about their age. While the fishing business goes from bad to worse, he travels abroad to study ship-building, and later returns to have a rather large, modern trawler built. This of course reduces the chances of the traditional fishermen even more, so the boy and the girl go to Shanghai looking for a job. These scenes are really intensive - the queues forming outside the personnel office (men and women separate), the attempts to get a better place in the queue, the final disappointment when all vacancies are filled.

Robbery Under Arms - 1920

Country: Australia
Director: Kenneth Brampton
Writers: Rolf Boldrewood (novel), Kenneth Brampton
Stars: Jackie Anderson, Vera Archer and Kenneth Brampton
Release Date: 2 October 1920 (Australia)
Production Co: Pacific Photo Plays
Sound Mix: Silent
Color: Black and White
Continuity: When Warrigal sees the troopers arriving to thwart the stage robbery, only three are seen riding up. However, five troopers arrive at the stage coach. Three troopers are seen riding to the gold fields to look for the Marsdens. The shot of these troopers is just a continuation of the shot used for the three troopers arriving at the stagecoach hold-up. When the troopers arrive at the tent, the number of troopers has dropped to two, one of whom is now an officer (white pants).
Plot Keywords: Remake | Based On Novel
Genres: Drama
Kenneth Brampton was one of many Australian film-makers who appeared and disappeared quickly on the silent film scene in Australia. Film distribution was controlled largely by the American studios, and Australian films had real trouble getting a look-in. As a result many great talents were wasted. Kenneth Brampton seems to be one of these - because this film is really very good.
It's a bush-ranging yarn, very popular at the time, about Captain Starlight, played well by Brampton himself, and his co-horts the Marsden family. Dick Marsden is especially well played by Roland Conway, who is the quintessential Aussie bloke.
But it is the excellent cinematography, lovingly filming the Australian bush, that really shines here - and Brampton's strong sense of narrative, perhaps from his stage background, keeps the story moving at a great pace. You'll really feel for the characters - and there is some fabulous surreal stuff toward the end. This is a gem of an Australian silent film

Get Out and Get Under - 1920

Country: USA
Language: English (intertitles)
Director: Hal Roach
Writer: H.M. Walker (titles)
Stars: Harold Lloyd, Mildred Davis and Fred McPherson
Release Date: 26 September 1920 (USA)
Also known as: Oh! La belle voiture (France)
Plot Keywords: Title From Song | Auto Repair | Dream | Drug Addict | Gardener | Dog
Photographer | Automobile | Amateur Theater | Mouse | Fly | Two Reeler | Train |
Road Repair | Fire Hydrant | Hose | Motorcycle Cop | African American | Hypodermic Needle | Chase
Genres: Comedy | Short
A young man is awakened from a nightmare by the telephone ringing - his girlfriend is calling him, because he is late for an amateur theatrical production. But before he can leave, he gets into an argument with his neighbor. Then, soon after he gets on the road, his car stalls. If he cannot get to the theater quickly, he might be replaced in the play by a rival.
Fair Harold Lloyd short which presents several gags he would re-use and improve upon in his later feature films. It opens with a scene at a photographer's studio where Harold discovers that his girl Mildred Davis is about to marry another man - but it all turns out to have been just a dream. He's involved in amateur theatricals and, being late for a performance, rushes out to the venue in his beloved car: amid the vehicle's breaking down on him, he falls foul of an elderly neighbor and a colored child; the race-against-time, then, culminates in the usual pursuit by a horde of policemen. The automobile trouble eventually gets a bit repetitive, but the film nevertheless includes the occasional inspired and hilarious gag - such as when Harold 'disappears' inside the car's engine compartment, an actor accidentally falling off the stage (after being 'killed') promptly going back up to resume his performance i.e. affecting a typically melodramatic 'exit' and, especially, when Lloyd sees a junkie getting high in the street and reasons that, if he injects his vehicle with the same substance, it will be likewise revitalized - which is what happens, as the car goes off on its own soon after 'taking' its fix!