| Seven Chances | |
|---|---|
Theatrical poster |
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| Directed by | Buster Keaton |
| Produced by | Joseph M. Schenck and Louis B. Mayer Buster Keaton |
| Written by | Story: David Belasco Roi Cooper Megrue Screenplay: Clyde Bruckman Jean Havez Joseph A. Mitchell |
| Starring | Buster Keaton |
| Music by | Robert Israel (1995) |
| Cinematography | Byron Houck Elgin Lessley |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as Metro-Goldwyn |
| Release date(s) | March 11, 1925 |
| Running time | 56 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | Silent film English intertitles |
Seven Chances is a 1925 American comedy silent film directed by and starring Buster Keaton, based on a play written by Roi Cooper Megrue, produced in 1916 by David Belasco. Additional casts members include T. Roy Barnes, Snitz Edwards, Ruth Dwyer, and others. The film also stars Jean Arthur, a future 1930s screwball actor, in an uncredited supporting role as a telephone operator. The film's opening scenes were shot in early Technicolor, and this rare color footage still survives on the Kino International special edition DVD print.[1]
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Jimmy Shannon (Buster Keaton) is a partner in a financial brokerage firm that is on the brink of financial ruin when he is presented with his grandfather's will, according to which he is bequeathed seven million dollars on the condition that he marry by 7:00 p.m. on his 27th birthday, which happens to be that same day. Shannon, with the help of his partner and a lawyer, must find a bride.
When released, Mordaunt Hall, the film critic for The New York Times, gave the film a mixed review, and wrote, "After viewing Buster Keaton's latest comedy, Seven Chances, one is justified in assuming; that there is a slump in the fun market...it took the combined efforts of three experienced gag men to turn the stage effort into screen material. The result inclines one's belief in the old adage concerning too many cooks, as although there are quite a number of good twists some of them have been produced in haste. The ideas did not have time to ripen and are therefore put before the audience in a rather sour state."[2]
Film critic Dennis Schwartz liked the film and wrote, "A less ambitious but, nevertheless, hilarious Buster Keaton comedy. It's taken from the play by David Belasco and scripted by a team of writers. This minor film is based on a one-joke premise, but it has one of the greatest ever chase scenes. Keaton proves he's a master at building the comedy until it reaches its absolute breaking point."[3]
Time Out London gave the film a positive review and wrote, "Less ambitious and less concerned with plastic values than the best of Keaton, this is nevertheless a dazzlingly balletic comedy in which Buster has a matter of hours to acquire the wife on which a seven million dollar inheritance depends...From this leisurely start, the film takes off into a fantastically elaborate, gloriously inventive chase sequence, in which Buster escapes the mob of pursuing harridans only to find an escalating avalanche of rocks taking over at his heels as he hurtles downhill. Added only after an initial preview, the rocks make for one of the great Keaton action gags."[4]
The story was reworked several times, notably by the Three Stooges twice in the films Brideless Groom and Husbands Beware, and in The Bachelor, a 1999 film starring Chris O'Donnell and Renée Zellweger.
Wins
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