It has the name of his collaborator on the Director's credit, but this film has Buster's signature all over it. Despite being the final silent feature directed by (or "directed" by, if MGM prefers) this film has gotten overlooked. This happened because of rights issues more than anything else; along with The Cameraman and Free and Easy, it is owned by MGM, so it has ended up not being canonised along with the other Keaton films that always get collected together by Kino or Masters of Cinema or such-like.
Compared to Parlor Bedroom and Bath, this is The General. It has that same eloquence and poetry as Buster's earlier films, with the main differences being 1) no pork pie hat and 2) facial expressions. It is seriously strange to see Buster pulling faces, even mugging a little bit. Its still quite funny when he does it, and it remains classy, unlike in the talking pictures, but still... So many films without a single expression...
The best bit is the sequence near the end when Buster's boat is boarded by pirates, there's a hilarious sequence where the girl distracts the pirates and Buster bonks them on the head with those sugarglass bottles they used in silent films. Had me laughing out loud a few times and won me over by the end.
7/10
Compared to Parlor Bedroom and Bath, this is The General. It has that same eloquence and poetry as Buster's earlier films, with the main differences being 1) no pork pie hat and 2) facial expressions. It is seriously strange to see Buster pulling faces, even mugging a little bit. Its still quite funny when he does it, and it remains classy, unlike in the talking pictures, but still... So many films without a single expression...
The best bit is the sequence near the end when Buster's boat is boarded by pirates, there's a hilarious sequence where the girl distracts the pirates and Buster bonks them on the head with those sugarglass bottles they used in silent films. Had me laughing out loud a few times and won me over by the end.
7/10