Our Hospitality (1923)

Our Hospitality (Buster Keaton and Jack Blystone, 1923)
"Once upon a time in certain sections of the United States there were feuds that lasted from generation to generation. Men of one family grew up killing men of another family for no other reason except that their fathers had done so."

It's 1810 and the bitter feud between the Canfield's and the McKay's has been going on for some time. One night, Jim Canfield goes to the house of John McKay to kill him, but the confrontation leaves both men dead: McKay's wife takes his infant son away from the city of Rockville to New York to raise him in peace; Canfield's brother Joe (Joe Roberts) vows vengeance for his sibling's death. Trouble is there are no more Canfield's on which to take that revenge. Yet.

Twenty years later, young Willie McKay (Keaton) receives a cable from Rockville to claim his late father's property. Willie decides to go back to Rockville on a rudimentary proto-train that has none of the considerations of grading, geography or, for that matter, comfort. The bumping and jostling makes it very difficult to wear a top hat.

This was Keaton's second feature film (and his first with a feature-length story) and it does have some pacing issues, as well as a prologue that is dark in photography and subject matter, making one wonder if it's actually a comedy. Keaton's humor could be dark—darker than most of the silent comedians—but his humor usually centers on the absurd, and murderous multi-generational family feuds is the height of absurdity. Still, its murderous conclusion, ending with the death of one Canfield and one McKay, isn't funny. It's tragedy. But, out of that tragedy comes danger and threat, and a comedian can do a lot with that.

Keaton makes the most of it. And as it is set in the past with limited means of carrying out any murderous activities, the attempts can be rather tortured and frustratingly inept. And the comedy is built around Willie McKay's return to Rockville, where, first, he becomes quite infatuated with the elder Canfield's only daughter (played by Keaton's wife Natalie Talmadge*) and he makes himself attractively useful. Then, when he gets there, he saunters around town, coming into contact with Canfield sons—who have no idea that he is one of the hated McKay's.

For awhile, Keaton's McKay can walk around town without fear, but soon, he is recognized and the Canfield males take turns trying to shoot him with single-shot pistols, which need to be loaded before they can be shot again, and their range is limited, as shown in a sequence where McKay is shot at repeatedly, but nothing comes close, and McKay can only wonder what it might be that is hitting a nearby tree trunk.

But, the central absurdity is the core at the majority of the movie. Virginia Canfield invites Willie to dinner at her house to meet her family—she has no idea that he's a McKay. This complicates things. The Canfields are nothing if not traditional. Though they are surprised—and slightly appalled—to be hosting the young McKay for dinner, they would not think of trying to kill him while he is in their house. That's no way to treat a guest. However, should he step out of the house, he is an easy—and handy—target. This conceit inspires McKay to draw out his stay under the Canfield roof for as long as possible and avoid crossing the Canfield threshold. Despite this, there are many opportunities, either planned or accidental, to get McKay out of the house.

The other source of comedy is that Virginia, smitten with McKay, has no idea that her family wants to murder him, and all the males under the Canfield roof are united in the common deceit of who he really is. And when McKay does escape under disguise from the Canfields there begins a wild chase with a lot of stunts that involve sheer cliffs, dangerous rapids, and a precipitous water-fall, which becomes the setting for one of the best-timed and most dangerous stunts Keaton ever pulled off. 

The transition from short to feature did nothing except show more Keaton—the gags and sequences are just as fast, just as dense, and just as entertaining. But, Keaton found that he could sustain a feature with a layered story-line, while maintaining his flexible every-man character, despite where he placed him. 

Out Hospitality also has bit of the inspiration for Keaton's eventual masterpiece, The General. Buster Keaton, the director, was just getting started.

* Our Hospitality, centered around family, is a bit of a family affair. Not only is Keaton's wife featured as the romantic interest, but his father, Joe, plays the train engineer. And who plays Keaton's character as a baby? Buster and Natalie's son, Buster Jr.

Safety Last!

Safety Last! (Fred C. Newmeyer, Sam Taylor, 1923) Boy (Harold Lloyd) leaves home to achieve fame and fortune in the Big City, so that he can then call for his girl (Mildred Davies) so they can marry and make a life together. She should know better. He almost misses the train in his zeal, first stealing a child instead of grabbing his luggage, then, realizing his mistake, he grabs the first thing in his path—a passing car—instead of the train.

The film starts playing with expectations (and morbid ones, at that) from the first shot, as we see Lloyd behind a bars, his mother and a clergyman bidding him good-bye, as a policeman looks at his watch while a noose hangs in the background. No, he's not about to die. He's leaving home, the bars to keep people from crossing over onto the tracks and the noose a delivery system for pass-by messaging. But the camera trickery and stunt-work—at about 50% Keaton speed—is very much in evidence right from the beginning, and does not flag throughout the film for its 70 minute running time, up to and including a sequence so iconic—with effects trickery so effective—that it stands as one of the great representations of the silent era.

Lloyd's "Boy" (his pay-checks come to him as Harold Lloyd, however) after weeks of making do and hiding from his landlady, manages to land a job at the fancy-schmancy DeVore department Store as a counter boy. His letters home paint a different picture, saying he's a successful manager, and though he keeps trying, it always seems that something—including the snooty floorwalker of the store, Mr. Stubbs (Westcott Clarke)—gets in his way.

Then, disaster strikes. His girl comes to visit and he has to work overtime trying to impress that he's "big" at the store, then he overhears the general manager wracking his brain how he can get more bodies to the store (which doesn't appear to be a problem as the counters are always over-crowded with fighting customers). Harold says he'll climb the side of the building like a human fly for enough money to stake a wedding, and puts his room-mate—a high-rise construction worker—up to the task.

Last minute complications set in, as the room-mate is trying to run from the law, so it's up to Harold to climb the building, but only for one floor until they can switch clothes and his buddy can take it the rest of the way.

Doesn't happen that way. It's still an impressive sequence, no matter how—and there is still some conjecture about that—they did it. But between Lloyd and stunt man Robert Golden the sequence is hilariously nerve-wracking, constantly inventive, and keeps building complication upon complication.  It is deservedly one of the most remembered films of the silent era (and not just for the last twenty minutes), and made it into the National Film Registry in 1994, five years after they started making the selections.