Any spoilers are in references to Buster's sight gags. The inventive genius of Buster Keaton never ceases to amaze. Though not one of his greats, this short is full of some brilliantly observed gags, many of which are cleverly set up during the film: (a) being chased by the Indians and all stopping while he inspects a wasp which stings him; and the gag with the butterfly net and the chief; (b) moving the stake while the firewood is being piled up to the consternation of the wood gatherer who eventually gets knocked out by the stake when Buster bends over; (c) the rope bridge across the canyon which Buster crosses by moving the few slats one at a time; (d) when Buster is caught by the oil executive who wants to change clothes with him, Buster produces a small leafless tree to provide no privacy; (e) whilst doing the war dance in the oil company office, stopping to explain to an Indian how the dance should be done; (f) crawling after an escaping executive and about to scalp him, when the exec lifts off his toupee. Buster takes it to the chief who is mightily impressed; (g) when he jumps out of the tree, the Indians suddenly produce a firemen's mat for him to land in (as used by Eric von Stroheim in Foolish Wives); (h) the gates to the Indian encampment, knocking out pursuers by swinging the locking bar up then down. Many of the sight gags done for real, and hardly ever bettered, will, as one reviewer notes, turn up later as staples for everybody's cartoons. For example all the ones on the mountains. Also, the film is certainly not racist: it is clearly on the side of the Indians, and Buster takes an Indian girl and kisses her for two years(!) at a time when he couldn't have done that with a black girl. (The reference to the scantily clad tribe having lost their clothes in a game of strip poker is not racist.)
Review of The Paleface
