Day Dreams

Since 7/10 seems too high and 6/10 seems too low. Daydreams has Keaton as an unskilled man seeking the hand of the girl he loves. Her dad says that he can't marry her unless he proves himself able to earn a living. Keaton says he will go to the city to earn his fortune. If he fails he will return and shoot himself. Dad promises to loan him his revolver.

You see Keaton writing letters about one sequence of events- He is a doctor performing operations in a hospital (he actually works at a veterinarian's), he is "cleaning up" in the financial sector (he is a street sweeper), and he is performing Hamlet onstage (he is an extra in a male chorus line in vaudeville). The big sequence is the same as that in Cops, with Keaton being chased by hundreds of cops for what seems like a minor offense. Aren't there burglaries and robberies to solve?

What probably weakens this short a little bit is that only stills remain of some of the sequences such as Keaton as a surgeon and as a stock broker. But it has enough good gags to be worth it for any fan of Buster Keaton. Featuring Keaton regular Big Joe Roberts as a menacing bully, Keaton's own father as his best girl's father, and Renee Adoree as Keaton's girl, who never seems to ask herself how exactly Keaton could be performing operations if he has never gone to college or medical school.

The most sad short film of Buster Keaton. Not only as unhappy love story but as portrait of a poor man. without any chance to have a reasonable job. Sure, letters, and dreams and gags and a bizarre end. And the scene of Hamlet. But the message of film, bitter and far to be comfortable, is so precise than it is far to be the familiar comedy A young man and his strange, absolutely unluck. Gived in most inspired way by Buster Keaton.

A young man (Buster Keaton) proposes a young woman (Renee Adoree), but her father questions how he might support his daughter after the marriage. The youth informs that he will move to New York, find a job and marry the girl. If he fails, he would commit suicide. Once in the big city, he works in many professions and writes to his girlfriend; and his imaginative girl reads each letter and thinks in her beloved being successful on each trial.

"Daydreams" is a very creative short comedy, showing how the imagination is able to fly, in funny situations. In accordance with the information in the beginning of the DVD, this film is totally fragmented, without being possible the restoration of many parts; therefore the story was completed in the restoration process with pictures and inter-titles to keep the original sense. Buster Keaton is again very hilarious with many gags. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Sonhos e Realidade" ("Dreams and Reality")

Sky Movies just screened this in UK ; 2001 restoration by Lobster Films, with some great tints and hues. Running time about 23 minutes makes it pretty complete, overall not too much nitrite decomposition on the print either. It did seem to drag in places, today's audiences seem a bit less able to take the pace, although there are some great sequences. The best scene is probably the elongated one on the run from the law, particularly on the riverboat where Buster is caught on the wheel as it sails and apparently walks on water. The gag ending falls kind of flat, but overall a pretty complete print to my knowledge - 6/10 for the film and 10/10 for the folks at Lobster Films !

Buster Keaton and Renee Adoree team up in a comedy in which our hero tries to make something of himself for his girl back home. Trouble is, as he's writing her of his successes she dreams of something far different than he's actually doing! Funny in places with the usual emphasis on stuff going wrong and the odd stunt, and some good camera work. Entertaining little movie.