Seven Chances (1925)

Dem stunts!Keaton is subjectively my favorite. Objectively, Chaplin has him beat by a mile in the pathos department. But I'd still rather watch BK.This movie is great, so much economy in the storytelling, but yet so rich and always engaging.Not my favorite BK film, but the last 15 minutes are almost unparalleled in practical effect movie history. I can't even imagine filming that hill scene with the gear those dudes had.Amazing to think that the tech these guys had and they could create such great story, contrasted to all the advancements in modern film making that produces much dreck.BK4EVA#Keatonzilla

A young businessman in financial trouble learns he can inherit a fortune if he marries by 7 p.m. on his 27th birthday, giving him scant hours to find a willing candidate after his fiancé rejects what she considers a purely mercenary proposal. Silent clown Buster Keaton was working from someone else's (contrived) idea, originally a failed Broadway play, and despite the exquisite timing to some of the gags the source material never measured up to Keaton's usual high standards of comedy (even his character is atypically bland: a wealthy, conventional role better suited to Harold Lloyd). Only after he wakes up in a chapel surrounded by a bloodthirsty mob of would-be wives do Keaton's unerring comic instincts kick in, and the rousing climactic chase down a hillside strewn with falling boulders would have to rank among the funniest sequences he ever devised; never has one man's instinctive, unconscious dread of matrimony been so hilariously exposed.Note: before the advent of DVD technology the film was rarely revived (surviving prints included an odd, tinted prologue subtitled in French), but even minor Keaton is in a class all its own.

Based on the hit Broadway show by David Belasco and foisted upon him by his longtime collaborator and producer John M. Schenck, Buster Keaton regarded Seven Chances as his least favourite of his films, so much so that he tried to prevent a restoration from the one known copy. This is all considerably surprising and perhaps indicative of the professionalism the former vaudeville daredevil regarded his film work with, that despite his personal disaffection for the project, Buster Keaton turned it into a bonafide classic so very representative of his work. The basic story of a young man who must get married by seven o'clock that afternoon in order to inherit a vast fortune left to him by his deceased grandfather, becomes a setup, as Keaton tries his luck proposing to "anything that wears a skirt, including a Scotchman", for a huge uproarious chase scene in the second half on roads, mountains, land and water. Keaton being chased by an irate throng of brides through city streets and countryside is as iconic an image as Keaton being chased by the swarm of cops in his one-reeler Cops while many of the pratfalls and visual gags recall the breathtaking daring-do and ingenuity of his earlier SHERLOCK JR.

Buster Keaton catapults himself down a steep hillside, an avalanche of pebbles, rocks and boulders tumbling in his wake. If any one of these objects were to strike him down, he would certainly be killed by the impact. He is almost escaping the rocks now; just a few more seconds of frantic sprinting is required. Suddenly, Keaton looks up, only to find a massive horde of woman striding purposefully towards him. He is stuck between a rock and a hard place: an avalanche behind him, and a flock of would-be brides ahead. Quickly and delicately weighing his chances of survival either way, Keaton turns determinedly towards the barrage of boulders. It is hilarious little moments like this that make Buster Keaton's silent comedies such a joy to watch, and 'Seven Chances' is certainly one of the funniest I've seen, brimming with the talented actor's trademark deadpan humour.The premise on which the story is based is singularly ridiculous, and so this allows Keaton to have a great deal of fun, placing his character in appropriately bizarre situations. Young Jimmy Shannon (Keaton) loves his sweetheart Mary Jones (Ruth Dwyer), but can never quite muster up the courage to tell her, and most certainly could never take that plunge into marriage. However, one day he discovers that his grandfather has left him the princely sum of $7 million, but only if he gets married… by 7 PM that day! After he is rejected by Mary (due to an unfortunate misunderstanding), Jimmy seeks out another would-be bride, ultimately realising that finding a wife isn't as easy as he had hoped. The first half of the film is admittedly light on Keaton's patented stunt-work, but it remains a clever and witty situation comedy, with poor Jimmy suffering the laughter of onlookers as he moves from one girl to the next, tentatively asking for their hands in marriage.When all this fails, an advertisement in the afternoon-edition newspaper brings hundreds of women to Jimmy's side, but by now he's realised that Mary is the only girl he could ever marry. As he struggles desperately to get to her home by 7:00, he is pursued by a horde of money-crazy ladies: big and small, young and old, beautiful and ugly. This is truly where Keaton comes into his element, and a hectic scramble down a hillside – pursued by an avalanche of rocks – is the film's most memorable moment {the idea for this scene came by accident, when Keaton inadvertently dislodged some rocks while he was running. The preview audience responded so favourably that he decided to re-shoot an extended sequence}. The paper-mâché rocks look quite convincing, and I was pretty much fooled into thinking that Keaten was really dodging the real thing (until I noticed him get bowled over by one of the boulders, without any apparent ill-effects!) 'Seven Chances' moves by at such a frenetic pace that there isn't a moment that could be trimmed. Though it runs for just 56 minutes, I had a huge smile on my face for every single one of them.