A wonderful short film with Buster Keaton as wanna-be detective. There are plenty of laughs, with most of them generated by Keaton's shy, sad little character. There are not as many stunts in this as there are in his later films but there are still a few that are jaw-droppingly amazing. His comic timing is impeccable and this story is heartwarmingly cute. It wasn't intentional, but it looks like this film is 100 years old at the time of my viewing.
I’ve watched YouTube videos longer than this, which is a nice change of pace after the 3+ hours movies I’ve watched in the past days.
Anyway… Another original and creative movie by Buster Keaton. Silent films are still a bit of a challenge for me, but like this, it’s actually quite fun.
Delightful from start to finish. Some really staggering shots: the sequence when he jumped into the movie screen was gasp-inducing; the pool shots where he avoided the exploding 13 ball were super impressive, and the rooftop deposit into the back of the car was just plain fun. I loved this movie.
One of the best Buster Keaton movies I've ever seen
With its 24 FPS presentation of the Eureka/Masters Of Cinema BluRay running for just over 45 minutes, you can hardly call this one a full length feature… although i’ve read somewhere that Buster Keaton preferred this flick to be shown at even faster speeds - like 26 or 27 frames per second. Well, i think 24 FPS is already plenty fast for this action-packed wannabe-detective fantasy. Speaking of action, this is - as is the case for much of Keatons best work - an action film as much as a comedy.
Shout by Ezequiel Rodríguez AndinoVIP EP 4BlockedParent2013-02-14T05:22:43Z
Rewatching this one because it was expiring on Netflix....
I had forgotten this movie had a movie within the movie and some elaborate editing techniques that are used for some very clever comic moments.
Also a very bravura shot where we follow Keaton while he barely misses a train running him over while not driving a motorcycle....
Buster did it all here, even his own stunts wich are still a hoot to watch and staged perfectly.
Interesting to read that even then Keaton decided to cut this film short because of some early adverse reactions by viewers....