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.)

Buster Keaton’s Bag of Tricks (Performer)

New blog feature today!  Bag of Tricks looks at the signatures and preferences of a particular performer/director/writer/etc, and where better to start than with Buster Keaton?  Now, Buster was quite the cinematic Renaissance man, and as such, one post won’t cover all the hats he wore.  Today we’re looking at Buster the performer – actor, showman, and, of course, stuntman.

The Stone Face

As I’ve said, it’s so much funnier when Buster doesn’t smile, and I don’t even know why.  It’s true, though – that stoic face cracks me up hard.  Yet, even with the deadpan, he’s so expressive.  The tiniest twitch of his mouth or widening of his eyes conveys a huge amount.

Silent Movie Gestures

I love these.  While Buster’s facial acting is subtler than most of his contemporaries, he still uses plenty of the huge, pantomimic gestures of the period.  I get a kick out of him slumping into a faint, wooing a girl on bended knee with outreached arms, or, my favorite, interlacing his fingers in rapture.  These gestures crop up throughout his career, even in the ‘50s and ‘60s when they’re out of fashion.  So, seeing him in a guest role on a random TV show, he still seems so Buster.

The Flying Flip

This is a great tumble.  It can happen swinging a golf club, baseball bat, or hammer, or even just taking a punch.  Given the slightest bit of encouragement, he flings himself sideways into the air, twisting 360 degrees while simultaneously revolving as if on a spit.  The whole thing is topped off with a hard land on his bottom, sitting up straight with his legs splayed out at right angles. 

The Twisting Tumble

(I never realized how alliterative his stunts are.)  Another Buster classic.  Instead of just tripping or stumbling, he again puts so much more into it, diving headfirst into a fluid fall with his legs in the air as he spins on his shoulder (or sometimes his neck!) before landing in his usual seated position.  There are so many great examples of this stunt, but the best comes in Steamboat Bill Jr. when, catching his foot, he executes it twice in an instant.  Now that’s “falling with style!”

The Walk-to-Run

This one’s fun.  Someone’s after Buster and he knows it, but he tries not to let on.  He keeps walking, faster and faster until he’s running pell-mell and you can’t even tell when he started doing it.  Plus, it’s always so perfectly timed with the increasing pace of this pursuer – too funny.

The Slant

To quote My So-Called Life, “Don’t you just love how he leans?”  Really, he can just stand aslant and I’m marveling at how he does it.  They broke the mold when they made Buster.