Buster Keaton’s Bag of Tricks (Filmmaker)

Time for another look at the tools of Buster Keaton’s trade.  We’ve already talked about him as a performer, but today is about his work as a writer, director, and gag man.  (He really was quite the auteur, wasn’t he?)  Spoilers for certain almost-100-year-old gags.

 

Rube Goldberg Devices

I doubt Buster ever met a machine that didn’t fascinate him.  Throughout his career, he came up with all sorts of clever mechanics from the bell-ringer in The High Sign to the inventive breakfast-making gadgets in The Navigator.  His best are the contraptions that do double duty; most famously, there’s the Rube Goldberg house in The Scarecrow, where everything serves dual functions (the bookcase/refrigerator and stove/record player are my favorites.)

Chase Scenes

Could anyone stage a chase like Buster?  He dives through trap doors, scrambles up fire escapes, hides in plain sight as statues, executes tricky moves with elevators, forms human ladders, tries to make getaways on wooden horses, leaps between buildings, and uses ladders like seesaws, and that’s just off the top of my head.  I’ve never seen anyone so creatively fleet-footed.

Circular Gags

Buster liked riding a comic sequence back around to its starting point.  There’s the moment in Neighbors when he zips over the clothesline to escape his girl’s father, but then slides down the bannister and rides the clothesline right back over.  One Week has another great example when, after he and his bride hop out of the car driven by her jealous ex, Buster whacks a police man on the head, blames the ex, and gets back in the car as the policeman drags the ex out of it.  Sometimes, while working with elaborate sets, he pulls the camera back far enough to see the literal circles he makes as he treats the set like his own personal jungle gym.

Going Out on a Punch Line

Buster’s films are usually good for ending on one final joke, like he can’t give up the chance to make you laugh once more before you go.  I love the ending of Our Hospitality, where he throws off his blanket to reveal all his concealed guns, and Sherlock Jr.’s terrific last sequence, where he takes cues from a movie to woo his girl, ends on a fantastic shot of him perplexedly trying to figure out how the characters onscreen got from sharing a kiss to raising twins.

Planes(Boats), Trains, and Automobiles

Put Buster in the vicinity of a vehicle, and you know you’re in for comic gold.  There’s a reason The General is considered his masterpiece – the train gags are sharp, hilarious, and endlessly inventive.  The Navigator and The Boat are basically just excuses for doing as many sea-vessel jokes as possible, and there are plenty of Buster movies with memorable car gags (it’s hard to beat the collapsing car in Three Ages, but I also love the drive-by proposal in Seven Chances.)