Un duel à mort

I have no idea what the background is to "Un duel à mort" ("A Duel to the Death"), but Buster Keaton made a French language short. There is a copy on YouTube and it lacks captions, but don't worry if you don't understand French...it's still very watchable and you'll understand it.

The film begins with Buster going fishing and, as you'd expect, it's not a quick nor simple thing. Soon after catching a tiny fish, however, three jerks show up...crowding Buster. He doesn't seem upset by it but eventually when he appears to catch another film, one of the men becomes enraged and challenges Buster to a duel.

Despite this film begin made decades after Buster's best movies and shorts, you can see he still has excellent comic timing...which also is sad because he really had very little opportunity to show this off in his American films during the talking pictures era.

While I would never consider this to be a great short, it is a must see for Keatonites. He is quite good even if the material is just okay...and not even close to the quality of "Cops" or "Seven Chances", his best shorts.

Buster grappling with his fishing gear in the opening sequence is very funny. Not so much the duel, although it too has some big laughs. A pity someone though it necessary to "sell" the gags with sound effects. Still, it's Buster's show, and he is the best.

You can find it as a bonus extra on Kino's 2019 Blu-ray of Our Hospitality.