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A BUSTER KEATON Silent Short.

Buster's romance with the pretty girl across the back fence leads to great trouble with the NEIGHBORS.

Keaton's superb athletic abilities are highlighted in this very funny little film. The backs of the tenement houses were constructed to Buster's exact physical specifications, giving him hand & foot holds precisely where he would need them, allowing him to climb, slide, cling, tumble, etc., culminating in the hilarious three-man high stunts that climax the film. Big Joe Roberts plays the beefy papa of Buster's beloved.

Born into a family of Vaudevillian acrobats, Buster Keaton (1895-1966) mastered physical comedy at a very early age. An association with Fatty Arbuckle led to a series of highly imaginative short subjects and classic, silent feature-length films - all from 1920 to 1928. Writer, director, star & stuntman - Buster could do it all and his intuitive genius gave him almost miraculous knowledge as to the intricacies of film making and of what it took to please an audience. More akin to Fairbanks than Chaplin, Buster's films were full of splendid adventure, exciting derring-do and the most dangerous physical stunts imaginable. His theme of a little man against the world, who triumphs through bravery & ingenuity, dominates his films. Through every calamity & disaster, Buster remained the Great Stone Face, a stoic survivor in a universe gone mad.

In the late 1920's Buster was betrayed by his manager/brother-in-law and his contract was sold to MGM, which proceeded to nearly destroy his career. Teamed initially with Jimmy Durante and eventually allowed small roles in mediocre comedies, Buster was for 35 years consistently given work far beneath his talent. Finally, before lung cancer took him at age 70, he had the satisfaction of knowing that his classic films were being rediscovered. Now, well past his centenary, Buster Keaton is routinely recognized & appreciated as one of cinema's true authentic geniuses. And he knew how to make people laugh...

Neighbors (1920)

*** (out of 4)

Buster Keaton does the Romeo and Juliet storyline as he falls in love with his neighbor but it'll be hard to get married since the families hate one another. There are plenty of good gags here including the human fly swatter gag and the stuff dealing with Keaton trying to avoid the police. Keaton also delivers one of his best stunts and three people on one another's shoulders try and walk from house to house with Keaton being three stories up.

Available on Kino's The Art of Buster Keaton Collection, which is one of the greatest box sets out there.

Buster is in love with his next door neighbor, but her father hates Buster and won't allow them to see each other. As a result, again and again, Buster does a lot of crazy stunts in order to see her--as well as eventually kidnap her so they can elope. The stunts are amazing and this is a very good movie. However, if it weren't for all his better brilliant films, I might have scored this a bit higher. But films such as STEAMBOAT BILL, JR., COPS, OUR HOSPITALITY and THE PLAY HOUSE (among others) are simply better than NEIGHBORS. So, I would recommend you try watching these other films and then come back to it. Still, it's enjoyable and fun.

A viewer who has never seen a Buster Keaton comedy might get the wrong idea of what to expect from this film's introductory title card, which reads: "The Flower of Love Could Find No More Romantic Spot in Which to Blossom Than in This Poet's Dream Garden." We are then shown a grungy courtyard between two tenement buildings divided by a fence, and on opposite sides of the fence we find The Boy (Buster) and The Girl (Virginia Fox), sweetly in love but kept apart by feuding parents. But fear not, for the flowery wording of that introduction is meant in jest: Neighbors is no exercise in Griffith-style sentimentality about poor people. (For one thing, if D.W. Griffith had directed this he'd have called it "Romeo & Juliet of the Slums" or perhaps "Pyramis & Thisbe of Pig Alley.") This isn't a melodrama of life among the lowly, it's Buster in his youthful prime, and it's funny. There's action and comedy galore, and it's interesting to observe that the attitude expressed towards love and marriage is far from sentimental --which is a little surprising, considering that 24 year-old Buster was still a fun-loving bachelor when he made this movie.

In any event, once the situation is established we are treated to a series of fast-moving gag sequences emphasizing the hostile relationship between The Girl's father (played by Buster's frequent screen nemesis Big Joe Roberts) and The Boy's father (played by Buster's own dad Joe Keaton). It is clear that the two fathers hold each other in contempt, and vigorously oppose any closer relationship between their respective families. There's a great example of Keaton's special brand of physical comedy early on when Buster attempts to visit Virginia in her third floor room. When he's caught by her father he promptly flings himself out her window, across a clothesline that leads to his own window across the way, down a banister and back across the clothesline to Virginia's building, right smack into Big Joe. The sequence flashes by in seconds and may leave you blinking in amazement, but before you can catch your breath Buster has been forcibly hung upside down by his feet from the clothesline, hauled back across the courtyard like dirty laundry, and then (accidentally) beaten by his father, who has mistaken his own son for a rug. Moments later, Buster is dumped head-first through a rain barrel into sopping wet mud. And so it goes! Welcome to This Poet's Dream Garden.

Neighbors is a comedy better seen than described. At times it feels like a live-action Warner Brothers cartoon, but instead of Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam we're watching actual people perform these stunts. The premise of feuding families is a simple and effective framework for Keaton's terrific set-pieces. (He would return to the family feud motif on a much grander scale in Our Hospitality a few years later.) The rougher slapstick material is briefly held in check as the brawling families are dragged into court, chastised by a judge, and ordered to permit their offspring to wed. But needless to say the ceremony is a disaster, and the action resumes with a wild finale in which Buster and Virginia escape from their families to elope. The best gag sequence is saved for last, as Buster takes part in a three-man balancing act racing through the streets, a bit that required the participation of the Flying Escalantes, a team of acrobats Buster knew from his vaudeville days. Latter day cartoon directors such as Chuck Jones and Tex Avery often gave credit to the influential silent era comedians they'd admired as kids, and the finale of this film must surely have been the sort of thing they were talking about.

While Neighbors may not rank in the very top tier of Keaton's output it's an exhilarating, highly amusing comedy that holds up well today. Besides, Buster's second-echelon efforts are better than most anyone else's masterworks!

"Neighbors" is a very entertaining Buster Keaton short comedy featuring some hilarious slapstick and some good stunts. It takes place in a tenement complex, with Buster and Virginia Fox playing young lovers who live in buildings separated by a wooden fence. Their families don't like each other, and do what they can to undermine the romance, but without success. It's very funny right from the beginning, with Buster and Virginia slipping love notes through a knothole in the fence, and having them intercepted by one parent after another. There are lots of slapstick antics, and one of the funniest wedding scenes you will see. There are also some good stunts and brief chase scenes - in other words, a little bit of everything that Keaton was known for. It would probably be best appreciated by those who are already fans, but if you enjoy Keaton, don't miss this one.