Wasser hat Balken

This follows a pattern that Keaton would follow in a few of his most amazing films. The first half would just set up the situation and incidentally give a few mild jokes along the way. The second part is structured around a frantic set of stunts that are both comic and athletic. These must have astonished when they were new; its an odd thing that all the really interesting effects in films of this era were not for science fiction or action, but comedy.

Today, these effects and particularly Keaton's, astonish ever so much more. Jackie Chan is the closest we have now, or recently. Chan knows that when we see something that we know is real: Chan jumping off a helicopter for instance, and when that is done with a comic tone, for some reason we chuckle more deeply.

(Stephen Chow's projects are a twist on this. We know the stunts aren't real, but they are much more extreme, and they deliberately reference other movies.) This collection of stunts has Keaton take a large river steam paddlewheeler, a rig it up to operate the boiler room by ropes from the pilothouse. Keaton's agility is absolutely phenomenal: today such acrobatics would surely be computer generated. Its not obvious that the man is risking his life. But as with his railroad movie, it is obvious that this is a real machine in a real raging river during real serious wind, though the wind might be generated with machines.

This is big stuff, important to watch and real thrill.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

These early Buster Keaton movies are always both fun and charming to watch.

The movie is mostly fun because of its physical humor and charming because of the almost childish innocence that is in Keaton's performance. The movie also has a lot of comedy in its dialog. Surprising for a silent movie. Like often, the movie also further more features a cute little love-story involving Keaton and the young Marion Byron.

The story isn't much special and it's very typical for a '20's silent genre movie. It's however fun and interesting enough to hold your interest throughout but of course the movie is not dependent of it. The concept and its settings provides the movie with a couple of entertaining, silly and also original moments.

Once more Keaton also shows us his skills as a stuntman. He does some extreme dangerous stuff here. Of course stunts in those days were also much more dangerous than now, no matter how often much more spectacular it's looking all. Some of the things he does in this movie are really amazing, with of course the spectacular classic ending as the highlight- and most impressive of them all, when a cyclone hits the town and Keaton manages to run across collapsing buildings without getting hit and without him getting blown away, while also other large object are flying at him.

A great watch.

8/10

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Buster Keaton was a lunatic. He had to have been. The stunts he was able to pull off in this movie leave me questioning his sanity. This film has moments where you won't believe his stunts weren't done via some nifty camera forgery. It's just amazing that his stunts were accomplished while one camera(yes, just one) was aimed at a spot that was marked for Buster to hit. This precision had to be met or death and disaster could follow. This was most apparent in the cyclone scene with the wall of a house that fell to the ground. Any deviation by an inch from the mark and a house could fall on top of Buster's head. I had to watch that scene over and over again. This film is filled with great gymnastics from Buster, as he did hit all of his marks. Although this movie has some of Buster's best comedic gymnastics, there are a couple of memorable scenes of pantomime. There's the scene near the beginning of the film when Buster is trying on an array of hats for his father. Buster looks right into the camera as if looking into a mirror, just a great effect. And later there's another scene where Buster tries to break his father out of jail by pantomiming the instructions of escape by using only his hands and a loaf of bread. By the end of the film you'll be marveling at Buster's dexterity while he operates the steamboat by climbing up and over or jumping down and around the ship, running the ship by himself and with the help of a few helpfully placed ropes. This movie has it all for Buster fans. 10/10.

Clark Richards

For the first time since he was a baby, an effete Buster Keaton comes home from Boston to visit his steamboat captain father, who's being troubled by the head of the other, finer steamboat, J.J. King. Of course King's daughter is home to visit her father, too! This completely delightful comedy glides right along, with outstanding physical comedy from Keaton. The lightness of the film is a benefit, as is the short 70m running time. There's no shortage of brilliant gags, my favorite being Keaton trying to get his jailed father to accept his homemade loaf of bread. ("That must of [sic] happened when the dough fell in the tool chest.") I loved the opening, as well, with Bill going along to different shops with his son in order to prepare him for the boat, and the hilarious scene in the hat shop as Junior eyes himself in the mirror as his father suggests these awful hats. The ending is just amazing (and dangerous!), as buildings fall apart due to an awful wind, with Buster doing a disappearing act and fighting to stand up straight and retain his composure. 8/10

Okay. Obvious bit first.

This is indeed the source of the most famous scene in all of silent comedy (alongside, perhaps, Chaplin's cogs and Lloyd's clock). Caught up in a hurricane, hiding under a bed that's whisked away in the wind, Buster staggers to his feet only for the front of a house to fall all around him. Except - the tiny window falls directly over Buster. Who just stands there, staring.

We've all seen this a thousand times or more. Before I even knew who Keaton was I'd seen this scene. But even now, going back to watch it (again and again) - it's an extraordinary moment. Keaton had two nails hammered into the ground, marks for his feet, and two inches of room either side. Two inches left, two inches right, Buster would have been killed. Dead centre, and it's wondrous. Perfection. It had to be.

And he doesn't even FLINCH.

But there's something else about it...

Here's a scene, the big scene, not just expensive but incredibly dangerous. Half the crew refuse to watch. Anywhere else, you might imagine this stunt as the grand conclusion, milked for all it's worth. But that was never the Buster Keaton way. Everything had to be done perfectly (the golfing accident in Convict 13, for example, 78 takes...), and if that meant nearly killing yourself for a few seconds three quarters of the way through, so be it. Do the perfect gag, move on, do some more.

Extraordinary. Staggering. Unbelievable.

But, heavens, there's more, so much more... from Buster throwing away his own hat in disgust, to the dough that fell into the toolbox, to Buster's seemingly limitless capacity for wearing clothes under his nightshirt, to all those stunts in the hurricane, to the ingenious ending - a joy, an absolute joy. Unremittingly wonderful.

So this makes him better than Chaplin? Forget it. All I hear is competition, comparison, Keaton better/not better than Chaplin, Laurel better/not better than Lloyd, and all combinations in between. IT DOESN'T MATTER. This could only be a Keaton film, in the same way that Chaplin's best is unmistakeably Chaplin, Lloyd's best unmistakeably Lloyd, Laurel's best unmistakeably Laurel (and Hardy). There's no point bickering. There aren't any prizes to be won. Just accept - just rejoice - that for a brief few years, some of mankind's darkest years, the world was blessed with four unique comic geniuses. It probably never happened before, it maybe never will again. We were, are, will be, all of us, amazingly lucky to have them. And to always have them. So pull up a chair, grab a drink and a loved one, and settle down to this glorious film. And when it's done, stick on 'The Kid' for good measure... and 'Liberty'... and 'Never Weaken'...

... and rejoice ...