Convict 13

Convict 13 is definetly one of Buster's better shorts. Fatty Arbuckle is rather oddly absent in this one (probably too busy dealing with the Virginia Rappe case at this point), and his presence is greatly missed. He would have added much to this film. There are some brilliant sight gags, like I said, particularely involving the crowd of coppers chasing Buster around and almost every frame of the scenes at the gallows. It was the ending that more or less let me down. I won't reveal it. I just think it was too abrupt and convenient. It was disappointingly unresourceful, compared to the rest of Keaton's work, which is put on display quite nicely in all the other scenes. One of the best moments is in the very beginning and involves a pond and a golf ball and a piece of drift wood (and a golf club used as an oar).

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.

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.

Convict 13 has an interesting concept; here, our Buster is totally hell- bent on getting his ball to its hole and literally fishes out the golf ball from a fish's little mouth when his ball drops into the lake. His game is interrupted when a convict escaping death row finds Buster unconscious (after one of his attempts at golf gone awry) and swaps clothes with him to make it seem as if Buster's the real convict. There's a sparkling sequence where Buster, unaware that he is wearing prisoner's uniform, readies himself to hit the ball as two cops stand to his left and right looking incredulously at him.

On realizing the change in his appearance, he gives them a slip and does manage to evade the not-so-bright cops until he finds shelter… in a prison! Then begins the prison saga, beginning with Buster meeting the love of his life - the socialite daughter of the prison guard – who tries to save Buster from death by switching the hanging noose with exercise rope. Another unforeseeable circumstance – a heavyset prisoner creating chaos in prison – leads to further mayhem. We wait and watch how Buster wriggles his way through each problem only to land into another until the film finds a fitting resolution to his tale.

Along with The High Sign, Convict 13 is probably one of my favorite Keaton shorts. It's like a harmless firecracker that sets off a chain of bombs, missiles and then the nuclear weapon itself! What was especially marvelous about watching Keaton was that while his character always had a smart solution for his problem, he never anticipated the possibility of a worse problem to occur. Consider the scene where he tries to escape from the army of cops; Buster walks in front of them as they follow him like a marching army, so when Buster turns in the opposite direction the cops stupidly follow turn along with him. That's when Buster sneakily escapes and finally hides behind a gate. Before he can take a sigh of relief, he turns to see where he is and finds out that he has reached right into a prison.

Later, when there's a riot in the prison and all the guards have been beaten unconscious by the burly cop, our Buster, again in dark about the riot, tries escaping the cops by knocking out one and wearing his uniform. He confidently enters the section wearing prison guard uniform, where the burly prisoner's waiting to knock him down thinking he's a cop. But Buster's not a prisoner and neither is he a cop; he is no professional golf player either so what is he?

This is answered in the next short: The High Sign. He's a man going nowhere, you'll find him anywhere and he'll land up somewhere. In a way, he's a wandering gypsy living probably the most adventurous life you can imagine. He's very unlucky, as evident by the number 13 given to his prisoner, but he never loses hope that he'll find a way out… almost.

A prisoner escapes from prison and steals and changes clothes of a golf player (Buster Keaton). The policemen wrongly arrest the player instead and once in prison, he realizes that he is going to be hanged in the afternoon. The player swaps clothes with a guard and fights against a rebellion in the prison.

"Convict 13" is a very naive and silly, but also funny Buster Keaton's short comedy. The gags are very similar to Charles Chaplin style, and most of the time the situation looks like a cartoon. It is not among my favorite works of Buster Keaton, but it worth watching and it is a good entertainment. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "O Condenado No 13" ("The Convict no. 13")