Convict 13

I've seen better Buster Keaton short films, but this one still manages to portray the rather dreary fate of a man who finds himself in prison because an escaped convict switched clothes with him after he knocked himself unconscious with a golf ball. His is ultimately to be hung, and I think the film deserves respect for keeping you laughing even while a man gets a noose wrapped around his neck. The story involves Keaton's efforts to escape from the prison, oppressed at first by the prison guards holding him prisoner and then by a massive behemoth of a convict, who takes control of the small prison by knocking out all of the guards with a sledge hammer (in a rather entertaining sequence where he smacks them all one by one and they pile up like the police cars in Blues Brothers 2000) at right about the same time that Keaton manages to switch clothes with one of them in order to help himself escape. Lots of clever slapstick gags, some of which may have influenced Chaplin's work in Pay Day, made a couple years later, make this an entertaining short from one of the giants of silent film comedy.

Buster is out golfing with his girlfriend when Convict 13 escapes. The whistle sounding the alarm at the jail is mistaken by his caddy as the lunch whistle, and he sits down and begins to eat. Buster continues on alone to golf, single-minded, when a ball he hits ricochets off a building and hits him in the head, rendering him unconscious. The escaped convict sees Buster lying there and changes clothes with him. Buster regains consciousness and continues to golf, not noticing that he is wearing a convict's uniform until the armed guards appear to apprehend him. He manages to land himself in jail without the guards capturing him. He hits some luck when his girlfriend sees him there - she turns out to be the warden's daughter. But unfortunately for Buster, Convict 13 is scheduled to be hung that day.

Sybil Seely, who is the girlfriend here was also the bride in Keaton's "One Week". A large trouble-making convict is played by Big Joe Roberts who played burly villains in a multitude of Keaton films. The dog that appears here and steals Buster's golf balls was not Luke, Fatty Arbuckle's dog, who did appear in one Keaton short after he and Arbuckle went their separate professional ways.

Not as well known as Cops from two years later, it has a similar structure and some common gags, and is definitely worth watching. And even though there are much better safeguards against executing the wrong person today, Keaton's comedy has really lost nothing in the century that has passed.

I'd like to add to Claudio's plot synopsis that this film is total surrealism. I was so struck by its superficial resemblance to reality but the story is really taking place in a crazy imaginary world where Keaton as the golfer can grab a fish out of the river (when the ball is knocked there), shake it around and have his golf ball pop out the fish's mouth. The film has a charm all it's own - so different from what Chaplin or Harold Lloyd were doing. I wonder if the European Dadaists were looking at Keaton's early stuff. The time frame is just right. The film is available, by the way,on the Kino Steamboat Bill Jr. DVD. But in an unrestored version, alas.

Buster Keaton short Convict 13 is as close to a live-action cartoon as you could get: it's one crazy scene after another, with only the slightest of plots to tie all of the scattershot comedy together.

The film opens on a golf course, as Keaton struggles with his game, landing his shot in a lake. He doesn't give up though, climbing onto some wood, paddling out with his club, and diving into the water to retrieve the ball, which has been swallowed by a fish. Having found the ball, he continues his round, but knocks himself out when a shot rebounds and hits him on the head. While Keaton is unconscious, an escaped convict swaps clothes with the golfer; moments later, guards arrive and take Keaton-now wearing distinctive striped prison-wear-back to pokey where he is to be hanged.

From here-in, it's rapid sight gags and buffoonery galore, with an elastic noose preventing Keaton's neck from being stretched, and a prison riot leading to all kinds of silliness, including an altercation with a gigantic inmate (Keaton still in danger, having swapped his prison garb for that of a guard). There's loads of fun to be had, with never a dull minute in the whole thing, which makes it easy to excuse the rather abrupt 'it was all a dream' ending.

7/10.

An early Buster Keaton short, this begins with Buster attempting to play golf and obviously not being too familiar with how to play the game. Where else but in a silent comedy can you see a golfer trying to hit the ball out of a lake while standing on a raft...and then diving in for fish to find out which fish swallowed his golf ball?! Keaton gets it on the third try and gives the fish a spanking after retrieving the ball! Insane stuff, as that's just the first five minutes!

Along comes an escaped convict (crazy things just happen out of the blue in a lot of these old silent comedies) who sees Buster lying the ground, having knocked himself out with a golf ball. The convict switches clothing and now Buster is wearing stripes. Cops notice him (HE didn't notice what he was wearing?!) and begin chasing him. Buster winds up back at the penitentiary. Since he's wearing number 13 on his jail outfit, he's scheduled to be hanged the next day. His girlfriend saves him by putting elastic gymnasium rope in place of the noose, so Buster bounces up and down after the trap door operates. Watching all of this are the other inmates who are sitting in bleachers while a vendor sells peanuts and popcorn.

It goes on from there, with a prison riot the next day and Buster and some humongous goon knocking out a bunch of uniformed guards and the other prisoners via some strange methods. It's pure disjointed chaos but it makes for a wild and fun 20-minute film.