Steamboat Bill Jr.
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| Steamboat Bill Jr. | |
|---|---|
 Steamboat Bill Jr. DVD cover |
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| Directed by | Charles Reisner |
| Written by | Carl Harbaugh |
| Starring | Buster Keaton Tom McGuire |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
| Release date(s) | May 12, 1928 (USA) |
| Running time | 71 min. |
| Country |  United States |
| Language | Silent film English intertitles |
| IMDb profile | |
Steamboat Bill Jr. (1928) is a feature-length comedy silent film featuring Buster Keaton, one of the masterpieces of American silent film comedy[citation needed]. Released by United Artists], the film is the last product of Keaton's independent production team and set of gag writers.
The story concerns a young man straight out of college making good as a Mississippi steamboat captain, trying to follow in his father's footsteps, and falling in love with the daughter of John James King (Tom McGuire) who is his father's business rival.
But Steamboat Bill's finest moments come during its cyclone sequence. The film was shot in Sacramento, building $135,000 worth of breakaway street sets on a riverbank and then filming their systematic destruction with six powerful Liberty-motor wind machines and a 120-foot crane. Keaton himself, who calculated and performed his own stunts, was suspended on a cable from the crane and hurled him from place to place, as if airborn. The resulting sequence on film is astonishing and still watchable as spectacle, if not comedy. And it comes punctuated by Keaton's single most famous stunt. Keaton stands in the street, making his way through the destruction, when an entire building facade collapses onto him. The attic window fits neatly around Keaton's body as it falls, coming within inches of flattening him. Keaton did the stunt himself with a real building section and no trickery. It has been claimed that if he had stood just inches off of the correct spot Keaton would have been seriously injured or killed. The stunt has been re-created several times on film and television, though usually with facades made from lighter materials.
The director was Charles Reisner, the credited writer was Carl Harbaugh (although Keaton wrote the film and publicly called Harbaugh useless but "on the payroll"), and also starred Ernest Torrence, Marion Byron, and Tom Lewis.
The movie was parodied by Walt Disney's Steamboat Willie, which also was the first Mickey Mouse movie to become commercially successful..
[edit] External links
- Watch the Movie at the Internet Archive
- Steamboat Bill Jr. at the Internet Movie Database
- thorough Epinions description
- Choice clips from this Public Domain classic (in Windows and Real Media format)
| The films of Buster Keaton |
| Full Lengths |
| Three Ages - Our Hospitality - Sherlock, Jr. - The Navigator - Seven Chances - Go West - Battling Butler - The General - College - Steamboat Bill Jr. - The Cameraman - Spite Marriage - Hollywood Cavalcade - Easy to Wed - In the Good Old Summertime - Excuse My Dust |
| Shorts |
| The Rough House - Convict 13 - One Week - The Scarecrow - Neighbors - The Haunted House - Hard Luck - The High Sign - The Goat - The Playhouse - The Boat - The Paleface - Cops - My Wife's Relations - The Blacksmith - The Frozen North - The Electric House - Daydreams - The Balloonatic - The Love Nest - The Gold Ghost - Allez Oop - One Run Elmer - Tars and Stripes - Grand Slam Opera - Blue Blazes - Mixed Magic - Love Nest on Wheels - Life in Sometown, U.S.A. - Hollywood Handicap - Streamlined Swing - The Railrodder |
