Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928)

The setting is the town of River Junction sometime during the mid 1800s. The town is welcoming a new steamship, "The King" a virtual floating palace owned by town magnate J.J. King (Tom McGuire). William Canfield aka Steamboat Bill(Ernest Torrence) owns the rundown steamer Stonewall Jackson and faces ruin.Canfield receives a telegram from his long lost son Junior (Buster Keaton) which raises his hopes. Expecting a robust take action son, he instead gets a puny Ivy League college boy complete with ukulele and pencil mustache. Canfield decides to try and make a man out of Junior. Of course J.J. King has a comely young daughter, Kitty (Marion Bryan) who has taken a liking to the hapless Junior. Canfield and King get into a fight and Canfield is arrested. Junior vows to help him escape, but the a fierce storm comes up and all hell breaks loose and.......................The first two thirds of the film move slowly. The arrival of Junior, his father's attempts to make a man of him and the conflict between the two ship owners kind of drags in spots. The whole storm sequence though, is some of the best work ever done by Keaton. It's loaded with several hilarious sight gags, pratfalls and stunts including the famous one where the side of a house falls on Buster with him left unhurt and standing where a window should have been."Steamboat Bill Jr." was Buster Keaton's last film under his arrangement with producer Joseph P. Schenck who gave him full rein to make his pictures. Following this, Keaton's pictures were produced, directed and controlled by MGM. The quality of the films suffered and Keaton was reduced to playing the stooge for Jimmy Durante in an ill fated series in the early thirties. He never made a meaningful film after "Steamboat Bill Jr.".There was one little inside joke where Junior is trying on several hats and the clerk slips him Buster's trademark pork pie hat which "Junior" quickly discards."Steamboat Bill Jr." is, in my humble opinion, next to "The General", Keaton's greatest film.

It is ironic that the greatest film stunt ever pulled by comedy's finest man in motion, Buster Keaton, involves Keaton doing little more than rubbing the back of his neck as he stands perfectly still.Perfect stillness is hardly apt in describing "Steamboat Bill, Jr.," Buster's final and finest independently-produced comedy. For nearly the entire length of the film, he's stumbling, falling, somersaulting, and splashing around like a total madman. What you get is a distillation of Buster as he made his name in his short-film days, filled out with the help of a riverboat yarn to develop his sentimental side in surprisingly winning ways. Stone face, yes, but stone heart, never!Bleak days are upon Steamboat Bill Canfield (Ernest Torrance), captain of the once-proud, now-near-derelict riverboat Stonewall Jackson. His rival, John James King (Tom McGuire) runs both the town of River Junction as well as a fancy riverboat which he plans to use to put Canfield out of business. With a kind of optimism we recognize at once as misplaced, Steamboat Bill anticipates the arrival of his son from Boston, expecting a tall, strapping lad and not at all someone like Buster outfitted with beret, pencil mustache, and ukulele."If you say what you're thinking," Steamboat Bill Sr. warns his first mate, "I'll strangle you!"A fish-out-of-water comedy that ends up putting everyone in the water, "Steamboat Bill, Jr." spends a surprisingly long time setting the scene and the final 20 minutes sorting it out in a wild, anarchic way that recalls classic Buster shorts like "One Week" and "Cops." It's not an easy Buster film to characterize, requiring the audience to know Buster's history in getting in and out of trouble.You expect he will win over his gruff father, but how? You just know he'll find a way to pay off his affection for King's sweet daughter Kitty (Marion Byron), but how will he square things with her likewise stern dad?There are a bevy of winning scenes in this gag-packed film. Just watch Buster's eyes in an early scene when a barber (played by Buster's real- life father) shaves off his 'stache while Papa Bill glowers over his shoulder. He's so alive to the hilarity of the moment yet gives nothing away, even after the barber plucks a loose hair off his cheek.Demonstrating the unseaworthiness of the "Stonewall Jackson," Buster accidentally knocks a life preserver into the water only to watch it sink like a millstone. Later, trying to impress Kitty, he stands at the deck barking orders to people she can't see aren't really there, only to bid a quick retreat when the first mate approaches to see what he's up to.Torrence is a riot, too, mortified at the Eastern fop he has sired and pushing him about, then getting violently enraged whenever he sees anyone else doing the same. His temper (and King's machinations) finally land him in prison, which Buster tries to help him break out of by baking him a giant loaf of bread stuffed with files and other tools. Big Bill, not knowing what's inside the bread, wants nothing to do with it or his disappointing son."I'll just wait around until he's famished," Buster says, then performs a pantomime for his father mimicking a jailbreak with two fingers and a thumb that reminds me of Charlie Chaplin's similar hijinks with baked goods in "The Gold Rush." Again, Buster's eyes are key to the comedy.I don't know what to believe about the famous story where Buster, told he was about to lose his independence as a filmmaker, allowed himself to be filmed in a life-threatening stunt where a building facade falls on his head, only to leave him unscathed as the open attic window lands directly upon him. It reads too perfect to be believed, because it's the ultimate gesture of a filmmaker's faith in his vision overcoming grim reality. But there it is, Buster's most vividly remembered stunt, as astonishing the 50th time you see it as the first.It's also astonishing how the scene is mere preamble to a lengthy hurricane sequence that amazingly sets all to rights in Buster's topsy- turvy world, a triumph of comic imagination over harsh reality. If Buster never got such a break in real life, it's some compensation to see him effortlessly wind up on top in this sterling comedy milestone.

William Canfield Jr. (Buster Keaton) arrives in River Junction from Boston to see his father Captain William Canfield who he has never seen before. The captain runs an old steamboat, and is in a fight with the powerful JJ King and his new ship. The captain trains the tiny Jr to work on his ship, and he soon falls for Kitty King, daughter of the captain's competitor. When a hurricane blows into town, it sets off one of the most amazing physical comedy that is quintessential Buster Keaton.Buster Keaton is one of greats from the silent era. This is one of his most iconic movies. It's has some fairly funny gags. The story has some good humor. Then the storm comes. The movie explodes in unbridled physical demolition and hilarity. Is there a more iconic silent movie image than the building falling over on him?

"Steamboat Bill, Jr." stars Buster Keaton as the effete son of a riverboat captain who visits his father after years apart. Bill Sr., embarrassed by his son's lack of manliness, immediately sets out to teach him the ways of a riverboat crewman. Meanwhile, Bill Jr. is more interested in the daughter of his father's chief competitor.I found the story to be pretty interesting though the pacing left a little to be desired. The film's extended climax, however, is spectacular. I only wish that the rest of the film was as exciting and inventive.Keaton's acting is solid throughout and the film features his single most famous stunt; one whereby an entire building facade falls on top of him with only an open window preventing him from being crushed. The supporting cast is satisfying as well, particularly Ernest Torrence as Bill Sr. and the foxy Marion Byron as Keaton's love interest.Visually, the film's direction is well handled, especially in the climactic scenes which make use of special effects. The score that accompanied the film when I saw it was by the Alloy Orchestra, which I thought was pretty good but not outstanding.In the end, I enjoyed this film more than Keaton's most acclaimed film, "The General". However, while the film's climax is a definite must-see the rest of the film doesn't quite live up to the same standard.