Battling Butler

In this film, Keaton once again plays the pampered son of privilege. Annoyed by his son's inability to do anything for himself (he even has a servant to remove his cigar ash), the father sends Keaton out onto a camping trip, hoping that fending for himself will toughen him. Unfortunately for the father, the son brings his manservant with him who provides Keaton with a luxury tent with all the amenities. Soon, Keaton finds himself impersonating an up-and-coming boxer with whom he shares the same name. He must keep the deception going in order to impress his girlfriend/fiancé/wife. I'd continue with the plot summary, except that, by now, the way the rest of the film unfolds should be fairly obvious.

The best jokes come in the film's first half, where the inept and spoiled Keaton is trying to come to terms with the outdoors. The second half isn't quite as good, although it does give Keaton the chance to show off his athleticism (one of the more obvious flaws is that the supposedly soft, pampered rich boy has the hard body of a skilled gymnast). The ending, with an out and out fistfight (I doubt it's a spoiler to reveal that a movie about boxing ends with a boxing match), is surprisingly brutal and almost sinister. I can't say I liked that scene very much, even as entertaining as Keaton always is.

THE HAUNTED HOUSE, a short film from 1921, is the highlight of the disc. It's another of those types of films with trapdoors, collapsing stairs and where pulling on a rope releases all kinds of hilarious terrors. Chasing a group of bank robbers back to their lair, Buster finds himself trapped in a bizarre house with the burglars and an utterly random group of actors, the cast of a production of "Faust". Men in obvious skeleton costumes or covered in large white sheets terrify the participants. It's extremely silly, but wonderfully entertaining.

THE FROZEN NORTH apparently only exists in pieces, and the version on this disc is a reconstruction of the surviving material. It holds together fairly well, but I must admit that I just didn't care for it. I think the biggest problem for me is that it's satirizing movies that I've never even heard of, much less seen. It's a bit rude of me to fault the film for that, but I honestly don't know if the film was funny or not. Many of the jokes flew right over my head. Maybe in a few years time, when I've seen a few more silent classics, I'll be more disposed towards liking the film. Still, it's nice to see Keaton playing against type, as a genuine bad guy.

This is one of the weaker entries in the "Art of Buster Keaton" collection, which is to say that while it has some brilliant parts, doesn't quite hold together well. I liked the HAUNTED HOUSE, but I would probably recommend one of the other discs in this series to someone unfamiliar with Keaton's work.