The Cameraman (1928)

 

As I’ve said before, Buster Keaton’s first two films with MGM are far better than the unfortunate, sometimes painful movies that follow them.  The mere fact that they’re silent allows for more physical comedy and the large scale seen in so many of Buster’s independent films.  Also, both movies have at least a few places where they break free of MGM’s tight, preplanned structure and let Buster improvise.  You can tell that the wind is starting to shift, but on the whole, these two films – The Cameraman in particular – hold up well beside Buster’s earlier work.

 

In this movie, Buster plays a tintype photographer who, having fallen head over heels with Sally, a secretary in a newsreel department, sets out to win her heart.  He arms himself with a dilapidated secondhand camera and films anything and everything in the hopes of being hired in Sally’s department.  Naturally, there are setbacks and obstacles.  Just finding news to film is no small task – the lift he catches on a fire truck doesn’t work out like he plans, and he later shows up at a baseball stadium… when the Yankees are playing out of town.  And once he does find something to shoot, the steep learning curve between tintypes and film recording proves to be a challenge.

 

The Cameraman’s only real noticeable deviation from Buster’s usual formula is an undercurrent of sentimentality.  While in Go West, Friendless’s situation – trying to save his beloved cow – is tinged with sentiment, the camera doesn’t capture it as such.  Does that make sense?  The circumstance elicits sympathy, but the story isn’t told in such a way that you’re compelled to say, “Oh, poor Friendless!  Poor Brown Eyes!”  By contrast, this film lingers on shots of Sally’s pained face when the other cameramen guffaw over Buster’s screw-ups and generally seems framed to provoke an “Aww!  Poor little guy!”  This character feels downtrodden in a way that most of Buster’s protagonists don’t, even in the face of incredible and ridiculous odds.

 

Ultimately, though, he has Buster’s trademark pluckiness and persistence to keep him going.  His solution to the aforementioned empty-stadium problem may not be entirely effective, but it’s creative, impressive, and amazingly funny.  So many of Buster’s best scenes come from this place of inventive resolve, and it’s equally true here.  While he’s out with Sally and a huge crush of commuters puts them on different levels of a double-decker bus, he climbs down the side of the bus and takes a casual seat over the wheel on the fender.  Even in small things, like another man trying to take his changing room at the public pool, Buster doesn’t give an inch.  (Side note – watching Buster and another man irritably trying to change their clothes in the same cramped cubicle is a riot.  Oh my goodness gracious.)

 

So, not a bad little film.  Some fantastic gags, some impressive shots that are Buster through and through, and some old-timey bathing suits, which always make me smile.  Quite enjoyable.

 

Warnings

 

Slapstick violence, and a street fight.