US, 74m Dir: John Blystone and Buster Keaton
Original Screenplay (Inspired by the real Hatfield/McCoy Feud)
I've seen a few Buster Keaton films which I liked but for me this one isn't his best work.
It opens with a prologue that sets up the story- two families have an age old feud and two men confront each other and end up both dying in the firefight, leaving baby Willie McKay without a father. Cut to twenty years later and Willie has been brought up in New York City and knows nothing of the feud until his mother warns him before he sets off to claim his family home for his own.
The next section is the train journey- the train faces all sorts of absurd obstacles along the way and Willie attempts to seduce a woman sharing his carriage as they overcome them. This section felt really at odds with the rest of the film which is based on plot and character- this was basically an extended sketch of an absurdly difficult train journey. I think silent comedies are at their best when the characters create the comedy but we don't get that during this section.
Fortunately the second half of the film is better. Willie is invited to the woman's home for tea but what do you know, she's part of the rival Canfield family. The two sons immediately want to kill Willie but the father tells them they can't kill him as a guest in the house and have to wait until he leaves. Willie overhears this and so begins a decent farce as he does everything he can not to leave the house.
This section of the film is superb and is proper Keaton mayhem. I love it when a silent character is so expressive you can almost understand what he is saying without there being any dialogue. It's a shame really that the other sections of the film don't match up to the level of brilliance that is achieved here.
A disappointingly inconsistent film which I think shows Keaton at both his best and worst. When he's at his best he's rushing around telling a very character driven story but when he's at his worst he's just attempting to get laughs from meaningless stunts.
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