Balloonatic

This minor offering from Keaton is really just a collection of sketches cobbled together to make a 20 minute short; as such, it lacks any cohesion and struggles to hold the viewer's interest despite containing a number of decent sight gags and Keaton's ever-reliable comic timing. In this one he finds himself atop a hot air balloon that has drifted from its moorings and which transports him deep into the countryside where he encounters young Phyllis Haver, a rather strapping young wench whose initial coolness towards him thaws after a number of escapades. There's very little that is memorable here, and probably the best moment is Keaton's reaction when he realises he is standing beneath a chute that dispatches visitors from the 'House of Trouble' fairground ride just after a heavy young lady has entered.

Here, Buster Keaton accidentally gets on top of a hot-air balloon. When he shoots himself out of the sky, he lands near a stream filled with fish. Also, there is a young woman camping nearby. Funny scenes follow, which contain, among other things, bears, burning canoes, and waterfalls. See this film because it is yet another one that displays Keaton's mechanical ingenuity. Surely, you will also find it quite humorous.

Buster Keaton is at an amusement park. First he's in the House of Trouble and then he gets slapped in a tunnel ride. He finds a large balloon. The balloon gets loose and he gets taken for a ride. He tries his hand at duck hunting and shoots his own balloon. He crash lands and tries to do some fishing. He gets into a constant fight with a woman fishing until they run into a bear.

I really laughed when he brought out the duck decoys. It would have been better for Keaton to extend the balloon ride. That is fun and something different. Once he gets on land, the story isn't quite as much fun. It's interesting to have the bear but that's to see if he's getting bit or not. I really the balloon but it's far too short.

This is not one of Buster Keaton's best short features, but it has some good moments. Most of the gags are of good quality, and most of the sequences work well enough. The main thing it really lacks is that, unlike most of Buster's movies, it never really builds on itself or gets much momentum. In his best features, the setting and story help make the decent gags very funny and the good gags hilarious.

Buster becomes "The Balloonatic" when he is trying to help a balloonist prepare his craft, and it accidentally takes off with Buster on top of the balloon. He winds up in the wilderness, where he and a young woman that he meets (Phyllis Haver) have to fend for themselves.

Although this one doesn't fit together quite as well as his best comedies, being mostly a series of only loosely-connected gags, some of them are very good in themselves. If nothing else, it has enough that it should probably be of interest at least to those who are already Keaton fans.

Buster Keaton produced many wonderful short films – 'The Love Nest (1923)' is my favourite so far – but, unfortunately, 'The Balloonatic (1923)' isn't one of them. Despite a fair share of funny jokes, the film is basically comprised of a number of different gags strung together with a flimsy pretense, and so it lacks any narrative cohesiveness. Considering that this was released in the same year as the feature 'Our Hospitality (1923),' which had a terrifically-dark storyline to complement the jokes, this short really does come across as disappointing. Indeed, even the title promises more than the film actually delivers, with barely a quarter of the running time concerned with hot-air balloons. However, cast aside these trivial complaints, and you can simply enjoy Buster's antics for what they are. The actor/director's comedic work still sparkles with imagination and creativity, and few entertainers could have achieved such hilarious results with something as simple as a collapsible canoe. Also, it beats me how he avoided drowning on at least one occasion.

The story opens at a carnival, where hopeless romantic Buster goes out looking for love in a "House of Trouble." As always, it's interesting to note just how stone-faced he remains as numerous ominous figures emerge from dark doorways; his body language communicates fear and panic, but his facial expressions remains astonishingly deadpan. After finding his way out of the attraction, Buster then ruins a perfectly good jacket in being kind to a beautiful lady, before earning a black eye from another pretty girl (Phyllis Haver) who presumably rejected his advances. Buster then inadvertently catches a ride on the top of a hot-air balloon, which brings him down in the middle of the wilderness, where – surprise! – the girl who punched him is enjoying a lonely fishing trip. The pair try their best to ignore each other, thinking up elaborate techniques to survive comfortably in the forest, until all that remains is for Buster and Phyllis to fall in love. This silly story makes for some enjoyable enough gags, including, most memorably, Buster's face-to-face meeting with two curious bears.