Joseph M. Schenck Movies

In what is perhaps Buster Keaton's most fatalistic short subject, the comedian portrays a husband who has been diligently building a boat in his basement. It's finally done, and he, his wife (Sybil Seely) and their two boys prepare to tow it to the harbor for its first run. The car slowly pulls the craft, which is too big to fit, through the basement doorway, and the house just as slowly collapses. But this is just the beginning -- at the pier, the car sinks, the christening bottle dents the hull, and then the boat itself sinks, with Buster aboard. But as the title says: "You can't keep a good boat down." Finally the little boat is at sea (even if its life preserver sinks and anchor floats), and Buster and his family try valiantly to makes themselves at home as the waves toss them to and fro. Of course this can't go on forever; in the darkest part of the night, a storm fiercely blows and the boat begins to sink. Buster desperately radios for help, but when the telegraph operator (played by Keaton's co-director, Eddie Cline) asks for the boat's name, and Buster replies "Damfino" (which is, in fact, its name), the operator angrily replies, "Neither do I!" As Buster and his family cram into their makeshift lifeboat, the situation looks very bad, but somehow they wind up on land. "Where are we?" the wife wants to know. There's no need for a title card to record Buster's reply: "Damned if I know!" This is one of Keaton's best two-reelers, which was almost lost to the ravages of time and deterioration -- when Keaton's work was first being restored, only one print of The Boat was found, and several scenes were nearly past the point of salvaging. But the picture squeaked through intact, and its indelible images have become a part of silent film's heritage. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

The first film that Buster Keaton made independently, High Sign portrays the filmmaker as a drifter in search of a job. Passing himself off as a skilled marksman, he finds employment at a shooting gallery in an amusement park. But he gets more than he bargained for -- a girl (Bartine Burkett) talks him into being a bodyguard for her father, who has run afoul of a gang. Meanwhile, the gang, called the Blinking Buzzards, forcibly recruits him to snuff out...yes, the girl's father. Keaton hated this two-reeler when it was done and shelved it. It was released only because he was laid up with a broken leg seven months later and production had halted. While not as good as the next film Keaton made (the top notch One Week), it still has many classic sequences, including a chase through a series of trapdoors at the gang's hideout and Keaton pouring through the want ads in an endlessly unfolding newspaper. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

This two-reeler is one big chase film -- or, rather, it's two chases in one film. A drifter (Buster Keaton) is already on the run from the cops when he's mistaken for murderer Dead Shot Dan (portrayed, incidentally, by Keaton's co-director Mal St. Clair). Keaton has eluded the previous group of policeman, but he's no match for the ill-tempered, heavyweight detective Joe Roberts who's hot on his trail...or is he? The battle of wits and punishing physical stunts is a pleasure to behold -- Keaton wrings every bit of mirth from props such as an old-fashioned dump truck, an elevator, windows and, of course, the passing train. A delightful, fast-moving film. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

In 1922 Norma Talmadge was one of the most popular stars of the silent screen, but every now and then she'd wind up in a clinker; this cliched drama, made shortly before her production company moved from the East to the West Coast, was certainly one of them. Even Anthony Paul Kelly, a noted playwright and scenarist, couldn't do much with the story, which was based on a novel, On Principle, by Andrew Soutar. Jennie Dobson, a Jamaican native (already it's obvious that Talmadge is miscast), is housekeeper for Clifford Standish, the alcoholic younger son of British nobles (perennial leading man Harrison Ford). Jennie helps him win his battle with the bottle and he proposes. But just then word arrives that he has inherited a fortune. He marries Jennie anyhow and brings her back to England. Once she's thrust into civilization, Jennie miraculously acquires the ability to wear fancy clothes and behave stylishly. Nevertheless, Standish's family is mortified that he has marr! ied a Jamaican girl and they snootily insist that there is no way she can fit into proper society. Eventually the couple agrees with them and they return to Jamaica where it is assumed that they live happily ever after. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Buster Keaton stars in the short black-and-white silent comedy The Neighbors, also known as Backyard and Mailbox. The story is basically a variation on Romeo & Juliet set in a regular working-class neighborhood. Keaton falls in love with his neighbor, played by Virginia Fox. Joe Roberts and Joe Keaton play their battling fathers. Their families fight over the fence that separates their buildings. The Neighbors was released in 2000 by Kino Video on the DVD Seven Chances, along with the short The Balloonatic. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

One Week was the first Buster Keaton-directed film to be released to the public (The High Sign was made earlier but shelved for several months). Based on a now-obscure educational short called Home Made, it involves a build-it-yourself house given to Keaton and his new bride (Sybil Seely). Unbeknownst to the couple, the wife's disgruntled former suitor has changed the numbers on the boxes containing the building materials. Keaton does make the house in one week, as the instructions have promised, but what a house! Right off the bat, this early Keaton film shows his penchant for big props (the cockeyed house, a passing train). Even though it's only a two-reeler, it still managed to become one of the top-grossing movies of 1920. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

This is the final two-reeler that Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle and Buster Keaton made together. The two of them portray co-workers at a garage/fire house (guess which building, out of the whole town, catches fire?). This film shows a marked development in director Arbuckle's comedy; instead of frantic slapstick, the gags build slowly with a determined, but twisted, logic. Arbuckle and Keaton work seamlessly together, with a rapport that at times resembles the later comic duo Laurel and Hardy. After The Garage's completion, Arbuckle went on to make feature-length comedies, and Keaton began making his own two-reelers. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Long believed lost, the Fatty Arbuckle two-reeler Good Night, Nurse resurfaced in fragmentary form in the late 1970s. Seeking refuge from a torrential storm, Fatty ends up befriending an organ grinder and a street dancer and takes them home with him. His wife arrives, assumes that Fatty has been staging a drunken party, and bundles her husband off to the local sanitarium to take the liquor cure. Here he finds himself at the mercy of overenthusiastic doctor Buster Keaton, who looks and acts more like a butcher, and goofy intern Al St. John. After much hectic running about, Fatty escapes from the doc's clutches, only to get mixed up in the problems of pretty patient Alice Lake. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In cinema's first few decades it was common for Caucasians to play Asian roles, and here Norma Talmadge is San San, the daughter of a Chinese mandarin (in fact, no Asians hold any major roles in this film). San San is in love with John Worden (Thomas Meighan), the secretary of the U.S. consulate, and they secretly marry. But while Worden is away, her status-seeking father gives her to the emperor (L. Rogers Lytton). But when the emperor finds out she has a child, he has her killed. The little girl, Toy (played as an adult by Talmadge), grows up and escapes from China to be a Red Cross nurse in Manila. There she meets Lieutenant Philip Halbert (Reed Hamilton) and they fall in love. However, Halbert's boss is Worden and he forbids them to marry. After sending Halbert away on a mission, Worden falls ill and is nursed back to health by Toy. He discovers that Toy is his own daughter and, remembering his own tragic young romance, changes his mind and gives his blessing to the couple. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide