| Steamboat Bill, Jr. | |
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Swedish film poster (detail) |
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| Directed by |
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| Produced by | Joseph M. Schenck |
| Written by |
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| Starring | Buster Keaton |
| Cinematography |
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| Editing by | Sherman Kell |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
| Release date(s) | May 12, 1928 (US) |
| Running time | 71 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | Silent film English intertitles |
Steamboat Bill Jr. is a 1928 feature-length comedy silent film featuring Buster Keaton. Released by United Artists, the film is the last product of Keaton's independent production team and set of gag writers. It was not a box-office success and proved to be the last picture Keaton would make for United Artists. Keaton would end up moving to MGM where he would make one last film with his trademark style, The Cameraman, before all of his creative control was taken away by the studio.
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 featured Ernest Torrence, Marion Byron, and Tom Lewis.
The film was named after a popular Arthur Collins song, "Steamboat Bill".
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"Steamboat Bill" is the owner and captain of a paddle steamer that has seen better days. He eagerly awaits the arrival of his college student son, whom he has not seen since the lad was a baby, expecting a big, husky man like himself to help him compete with businessman John James King and his brand new, luxurious riverboat. He is sorely disappointed with his slight, awkward offspring, who shows up with a pencil mustache, a ukelele and a beret. He becomes outraged when he discovers that Steamboat Bill Jr. and King's daughter Kitty, also visiting her father, know each other and are in love. Both business rivals are determined to break up the relationship.
When Steamboat Bill's ship is condemned as unsafe, he accuses King of orchestrating it. He assaults his enemy and is put in jail. His son tries to free him by bringing him a loaf of bread with tools hidden inside, but his scheme is detected. The sheriff hits Steamboat Bill Jr. on the head, sending him to the hospital.
Then a cyclone hits, tearing down buildings and endangering the ships. As Steamboat Bill Jr. makes his way through the town, a building front falls all around him - Keaton's best known stunt. He reaches his father's ship and rescues first Kitty (stranded on a floating house), then his father (by ramming the ship into the sinking jail, which has also been blown into the river), and finally Kitty's father. When Kitty goes to her hero, she is puzzled when he jumps into the water. However, his purpose becomes clear when he returns, towing a minister in a lifebuoy.
The cyclone sequence was shot in Sacramento, California. Original plans called for an ending with a flood sequence, but the devastating 1927 Mississippi River Flood caused a rewrite on short notice. $135,000 worth of breakaway street sets were built on a riverbank, to be systematic destroyed with six powerful Liberty-motor wind machines and a 120-foot (37 m) crane. Keaton himself, who calculated and performed his own stunts, was suspended on a cable from the crane which hurled him from place to place as if airborne.
The sequence is punctuated by Keaton's single most famous stunt. He stands in the street, making his way through the destruction, when an entire building facade collapses onto him. The open attic window fits neatly around Keaton's body as it falls, coming within inches of flattening him. (Keaton had performed a similar, though smaller scale, stunt eight years earlier in the short film One Week). 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 the correct spot, Keaton would have been seriously injured or killed. Keaton's third wife Eleanor suggested that he took such risks due to despair over financial problems, his failing first marriage, and the imminent loss of his filmmaking independence. Evidence that Keaton was suicidal, however, is scant.
The stunt has been re-created several times on film and television, though usually with facades made from lighter materials. One example is the 1991 MacGyver episode "Deadly Silents". Legendary Hong Kong film star Jackie Chan has often cited Keaton's acrobatics—and this stunt in particular—as one of his primary influences.
An early version of the film showed the perpetually stone-faced Keaton with a wide grin during the final scene. The gag, however, tested very poorly and was cut. No footage of the scene is known to have survived.
It is one of the few Keaton films to play on the stature of Keaton himself. At the time of filming, he had stopped wearing his trademark pork-pie cap. During an early scene in which his character tries on various hats (something that was copied several times in other films), he briefly has the trademark cap set on his head. Upon glancing in the mirror, the character quickly removes it.
Steamboat Bill, Jr. received mixed reviews upon its release. Variety described the film as "a pip of a comedy" and "one of Keaton's best."[2] The reviewer from The Film Spectator appointed it "as perhaps the best comedy of the year thus far" and advised "exhibitors should go after it."[3] A less enthusiastic review from Harrison's Reports stated "there are many situations all the way through that cause laughs" while noting that "the plot is nonsensical."[4] The New York Times called the film a "gloomy comedy" and a "sorry affair."[5]
Over the years, Steamboat Bill, Jr. has become regarded as a masterpiece of its era. Currently, review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes reports that 100% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 16 reviews, with an average score of 9.1/10, with an audience rating above 90%.[6] The film was included in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.[7]