La guigne de Malec

Original title: Hard Luck

1921
22m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

Strange things ensue after a young man attempts to take his own life.Strange things ensue after a young man attempts to take his own life.Strange things ensue after a young man attempts to take his own life.

Directors
- Edward F. Cline
- Buster Keaton
Writers
- Edward F. Cline
- Buster Keaton
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.9/10

2.8K

YOUR RATING

Directors
- Edward F. Cline
- Buster Keaton
Writers
- Edward F. Cline
- Buster Keaton
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 nomination total

User reviews21

Featured review

7/10

This was Buster's favorite?

Buster Keaton often cited Hard Luck (1921) as his favorite among his independent short film work, the reason being that the twist ending gave him the biggest laugh of his career, with people still laughing over it on their way out of the movie house. In hindsight, the film is not that wonderful, including the ending, but it is not without merits. The first part is a classic example of "suicide comedy," a controversial subject for us nowadays, but back then, an inept fellow trying to rub himself out in humorous ways was rather common in short subjects. Harold Lloyd and even Mickey Mouse indulged in this sort of gallows humor too. The rest of the film is funny, but not as imaginative or clever as Keaton's best short film work.

Photos54

+ 48

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Storyline

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Trivia
This film was considered to be Buster Keaton's major lost film for over 60 years until it was discovered in 1987. The recovered print had dozens of shots and scenes and gags missing throughout the film, making many of the extant gags non-understandable, including the final two gags missing entirely: the pool dive, which Keaton said got his biggest laugh at the time it was originally released, and the Chinese family. The print was preserved in the Raymond Rohauer Collection and later released on home video.

Over a decade later a tinted print was discovered complete except for the final Chinese family scene. That final scene was discovered in a badly degraded Russian copy. The now complete film, with tinting, was restored by Lobster Films in 2001 and released on DVD.

In 2015 the tinting was restored to the original B&W, and new completely rewritten intertitles were substituted throughout with many new ones added, and this version was re-released on Blu-Ray.