Our Hospitality

     Many of Buster Keaton's finest films are shorts (or what we would consider shorts today, typically less than 45 minutes). This film, one of his infrequent full-length features, stars Keaton as the last surviving member of a Southern clan whose other members were killed in a feud with another family. It's basically a riff on the famous Hatfields and McCoys, but here it's the Canfields and the McKays, and it takes place in the 1830s instead of the 1870s, when many of the most infamous feuds occurred. He's William McKay, who was raised in New York City in ignorance of his family's violent past by his mother, who fled after her husband was killed in a shootout. When he comes of age, he is notified that he is the heir to the McKay "estate," which he envisions as a large Southern plantation house, but in reality is a broken down shack that hasn't seen occupancy for twenty years. He journeys off to the South on a newfangled (at the time) train, which is an almost exact replica of the original Stephenson Rocket, one of the earliest passenger trains.

This review might start to look like a history lesson, and I apologize. However, Keaton forced me to do it, because he went to such lengths to make his films historically accurate. He had the train built and had a lot of track laid (some of the best jokes early in the film deal with the hazards of early train travel, such as moveable track, bumpy rides, and the fact that a trotting dog could easily pace the early trains). The towns his character visits were constructed at great cost to the studio to his exact specifications. All of the costumes were perfect as well. Anyway, back to the story.

On the train, he meets a young woman, with whom he falls instantly in love (this extended beyond the film, as he married leading lady Norma Talmadge). He doesn't realize that she's the daughter of his sworn enemy; of course, he doesn't yet realize that he has a sworn enemy. He stumbles obliviously through the small town where his father died, unknowingly introducing himself to the youngest Canfield boy, who pretends to guide him through town while stopping in every shop to ask if he can borrow a pistol.

The five second summary is this: he is invited to dinner at the Canfield house, where he learns about the feud but also about a trick of Southern hospitality--that the Canfields cannot kill him when he is a guest in their house. The proverbial hijinx ensue.

Keaton is at his dour best here, playing his usual "everyman" who sticks his chin out and resolutely attempts to prevail over life's circumstances. The "trajectories," Keaton's own word for the elaborate stunts he performs, are pretty good too, especially an extended sequence where he is caught in a flooded river and has to brave rapids and a waterfall. Apparently, the seemingly death-defying stunt at the waterfall almost killed him. Keaton is quickly turning into my favorite silent film director and star, and one of my favorites overall.

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