The Cameraman.

Review #1774: The Cameraman.

Cast: 

Buster Keaton (Buster), Marceline Day (Sally Richards), Harold Goodwin (Harold Stagg), Sidney Bracey (Edward J. Blake), Harry Gribbon (Hennessey, the cop), with Josephine the Monkey, Richard Alexander, Edward Brophy, and Ray Cooke. Directed by Edward Sedgwick and Buster Keaton (#757 - Seven Chances, #762 - College, #805 - The Navigator, #877 - Three Ages, #908 - The General, #926 - Our Hospitality, #941 - Sherlock Jr, #1037 - Go West, and #1058 - Battling Butler, #1173 - Steamboat Bill, Jr)

Review: 

“When we made pictures, we ate, slept, and dreamed them.”

Buster Keaton, as is the case with several folks that thrived in the silent era, deserved better. He thrived best as one of the comedy pillars of the silent era, but his popularity underwent its demise not long after his decision to sign a contract with Metro Goldwyn Meyer. Of course, it actually really started with The General (1926), arguably his greatest film. The mixed success of the film at the time led his distributor in United Artists making sure to monitor him more carefully in expenses. With this film, it fell to MGM to try and manage him, with Keaton not even given credit for co-direction; Sedgwick, known for his un-credited work for 1925's The Phantom of the Opera (#774), shouldn't be diminished, since he tried to maintain his authority before quietly telling Keaton to help guide him. Keaton would later call his decision to join one of the worst of his life, one that would last until 1933. Instead of doing all the stunts, now he had stuntmen (after this film, anyway). Perhaps it is a coincidence that a movie involving cameramen name-drops the studio in the film. done by MGM. He wanted Spite Marriage (1929, the film released after this one) to be done ss a sound film, but the studio (headed by Irving Thalberg in production) wanted it to be done simply and under their control. As his workload got tougher in the next few years (which came with attempts at pairing him with Jimmy Durante for three films), his personal life fell apart, and he was fired from the studio midway through the 1930s. At any rate, this film managed to do quite well with audiences, even though it was believed to have been lost because of the 1965 MGM vault fire; three years later, a print was found in France, proving that is important to keep looking (a 1991 print was combined with this one to make the restored version one knows today). The film was written by Clyde Bruckman and Lew Lipton, with Joseph W. Farnham for titles. 

For what it is worth, the studio would show this film to new directors over the next few years about what a well-constituted comedy looked like. It is always hard to say just which Keaton film is the best, because he managed to do so well as one of the masters of the deadpan, the visual gag, and all-around master of charm. Even with a lessened capacity in terms of control with his comedy (i.e. not just him having an idea he could flesh out in the middle), he still is at the top of his game. His expressions in the face of amusing situations manages to never waver, always seeming to zone in on what is needed without becoming a malleable prop or just a stone face. He might not have as many dangerous stunts to pull around, but he still finds ways to make worthy humor come from arranged sequences, such as a street skirmish or sequences in a pool room. Day accompanies him with fair timing that fits what is needed, since one just has to make sure they don't look overmatched when it comes to being together. They match well, and the boat sequence is a useful one to note. At any rate, there are a few folks that Keaton pairs himself with for a gag, whether involving a monkey or with a hapless Gribbon (Goodwin does fine as the stooge). Of course, maybe the biggest smirk on my face comes with his scene at Yankee Stadium (an improvisation on his part), acting out the game to an empty crowd. At any rate, the sequence involving him shooting (or at least attempting) with the camera prove quite interesting, as a sort of film-within-the-film (which in that sense might remind one of Sherlock, Jr), complete with "mistake shots" and a climax with an absolute zinger for a line. The 67 minute run-time is effective to where one might want to see it twice just to absorb those visual gags again and again. It is the last great classic with Keaton in control, and he does everything one might see from him, never seeming compromised or constrained in his comic vision. No matter who stands out as your comic favorite of the silent era, Keaton's The Cameraman is still a great triumph for its era.

Overall, I give it 10 out of 10 stars.

I want to close this review off by acknowledging that today is the eleventh anniversary of the beginning of Movie Night. What a time we live in. 4,018 days since that day has seen 1,774 reviews, which means a review has been done every 2.26 days on average. As always, I wish to express my gratitude to anybody who has had the curiosity to check out this show over the years and anyone who has stuck around to check out what somebody on the Internet has to say about some random movie, whether good or bad. I hope that the years that follow lead to a continuation of interesting films to encounter and ponder about and that you are there to read all about it. Onward to the next row of films for the holidays.