Customer Reviews

Our Hospitality/Sherlock Jr.

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Two of Buster Keaton's best feature films are showcased on this cassette, in beautiful video trasfers. OUR HOSPITALITY is Buster's take on the Hatfield and McCoy feud (the families here are called Canfield and McKay). Perhaps even more impressive than the very impressive comedy are the production itself: the sets, costumes, and props seem more authentic than those for most dramas set in the mid-1800's. This attention to detail truly enhances the comedy. SHERLOCK, JR. gets my vote as Buster's best feature. A wild film that parodies the detective films of the era, SHERLOCK, JR. contains some eye-popping effects that were done live on the set (the JURASSIC PARK age of special effects being some 70 years off). Fortunately for Keaton, he was his own best special effect. The film has been influential to modern film makers: Woody Allen stated that THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO was inspired by SHERLOCK, JR., and Arnold Schwarzenegger's THE LAST ACTION HERO is a reworking of SHERLOCK, JR.'s basic plotline.

I am a Buster Keaton fan, even though I had only seen a few of his films until now. My favorite remains "The General" which is a great Civil War adventure with a lot of laughs, too. This Kino DVD, a combo of Sherlock Jr and Our Hospitality, is hilarious! Our Hospitality is the first on the DVD and tells the tale of Buster Keaton's woes when he wanders into an old blood feud between families and spends half the film blissfully unaware that he is a walking bullseye. The film is set in the 1830s and has some hilarious scenes, such as the early railroad trip back to the old homestead (some of the jokes in this part are a prelude to The General) and some great stunt work (Keaton on the edge of a REAL waterfall). And Keaton does all his own stunts, it's amazing he didn't hurt himself more often!

Sherlock Jr. is probably one of Keaton's more famous works, but to be honest, I liked the first movie on the DVD more. This one is funny, too, but it's kinda scattered, plot-wise. Keaton plays a movie projectionist who enters his movie (in a dream), solves the mystery, and saves the girl. It's really an excuse for some great special effects (back in those days, at least!). I guess some things never change (I wonder if Sherlock Jr. was a summer film...) but this film is still really really funny. Back to back, these films are funnier and more original than almost anything you'd see in theaters today.

Just a few words about the DVD itself - these films are 70+ years old, so they aren't in perfect condition. Our Hospitality has scratches and dust. The source print is ok but looks its age. At least the image is clear with good contrast, unlike a lot of silent films which look all black with patches of white. Sherlock Jr's print source is great! It almost looks new and has great contrast. Plus, the best part is the soundtrack. The Sherlock Jr soundtrack is really jazzy with bits of James Bond/Batman/saxophone music; it doesn't have the typical ragtime piano or organ music you usually hear and it really makes the movie sound fantastic (that's something you don't hear much about silent films...) Too bad there are not extras on the DVD, except for chapter search. I would have liked to see a Keaton biography or filmography, especially since this DVD is a little pricey.

Still, a great DVD, and a must for Buster Keaton fans! Get the General, too! Or any of the Chaplin feature films (get them from Image, which has access to the Chaplin vaults and has the best looking films as a result).

If you know your Keaton, you know you're in for a treat on this one. The stunts are absolutely marvelous and astounding, this is top-notch physical comedy -- regardless of it being a silent movie from 1923.

However, the soundtrack to "Sherlock Jr." is a modern score by The Club Foot Orchestra that simply doesn't belong here. Some may perhaps like it, but myself I'm a bit conservative and prefer the original music. Occasionally there is an electric guitar, a sax, in one scene there is bluegrass, and in a chase scene there is a hint at 007... Sorry, but I find it absolutely out of place, I actually preferred muting the sound on this one.

Apart from that: Great!

The thing that sets Buster Keaton's films above most other silent films is that the stories are always easy to follow, inventive and entertaining. Though the second half of the film Sherlock, Jr. - when Buster leaps through the screen and into the movie inside a movie - is more often celebrated, I found the first half to be the more humourous. The bits with the sticky paper and the dollar in the trash are laugh-out-loud funny, as is the scene where he is trailing his adversary.
Our Hospitality is truly delightful film with a simple, yet entertaining, story and a number of very comical scenes. The best of these occur on the train ride at the beginning of the story and during Buster's attempted escape at the end. The former segment is constructed around a fascinating primitive locomotive and the ridiculous placement of the train tracks. The latter contains many great moments, but the climax of Buster swinging from a log and catching his love in mid-air is truly magnificient.

OUR HOSPITALITY is an amusing little film. Buster Keaton is a New York gentleman returning to his family's ancestral seat in order to collect an inheritance. However, he falls afoul of an old rivalry; his new neighbors have vowed to kill all remaining McKays (they themselves are, of course, the Canfields), and Buster appearing in the town has given them opportunity of ridding the world of the last member of the family. Oblivious as ever to the danger he is in, Keaton ends up falling for the daughter of the house. He has a temporary reprieve during his courtship -- the Canfields won't kill a man while he's enjoying their Southern hospitality. In other words, while he stands in their house, he's safe; if he puts a foot out of the front door, he's a dead man. Catching on to the situation, Keaton goes to extraordinary lengths to avoid exiting their abode.

Any summary of OUR HOSPITALITY makes it sound like a one-joke movie, but that would be a misleading impression, as there are lots of quick little sight-gags and set-pieces that make up this film. Keaton's journey from his New York home to the Deep South of Trenton, New Jersey is a surreal voyage on a ramshackle train that travels as well on its tracks as it does on a dirt road. He faces a variety of physical obstacles, the most famous being his rescue of a woman in midair as she falls over the lip of a waterfall. Okay, so he's actually rescuing a prop rather than a real person, but the stunt is still quite impressive: Keaton with a rope around his waist swings from above the waterfall straight down into the downpour, plucks the doll from air, swings back towards a rocky outcrop and delivers it to safety.

Keaton testing the limits of the Canfield hospitality (figuratively and literally) is quite a treat. Joe Roberts, a regular in these Keaton films, makes a welcome addition to the cast playing a sort of demented Colonel Sanders. The chase scenes (a staple of any good Buster Keaton film) are fast and well executed.

Also included on this disc is SHERLOCK, JR. Sherlock Jr. is the name that Buster Keaton's character goes by in his dreams. By day, he's a rather put-upon projectionist at a cinema. But he yearns for a more exciting life. He reads books on becoming a private detective and even has a magnifying glass and a false mustache for his undercover work. However, he's quickly accused of a crime that he didn't committed, and, having lost the affections of his beloved, is soon stuck back at work with nothing to do but change reels and sleep. While napping, he dreams, and places himself inside the story of the rather dull-looking melodrama that is playing in front of him.

The first thought that strikes me about the dream sequences of SHERLOCK, JR. is that they have a very 60s feel to it, which just goes to show you how ahead of his time Keaton was. At first Buster just walks through the screen to interact with the action. But the scenes change quickly, and he remains in the center of the picture. It's a neat metaphor for the way Buster Keaton character always seemed to stay calm and collected regardless of the madness of the world around him. But you could imagine these camera tricks being done in a student film, although they'd probably be much less inspired.

The film then moves on from its surreal scene/camera changing jump cuts, and Keaton begins to interact with the movie and its characters directly. This is where the movie really feels like a 60s production. It's a James Bond spoof, nearly forty years before the premier of DR. NO! It's uncanny. We have exploding billiard balls, booby-trapped chairs, a damsel in distress, motorcycle and car chases, and a suave, sophisticated hero. I thought myself extremely clever for noticing this... until the orchestra suddenly burst into a snatch of the James Bond theme at the moment when Buster Keaton's car turns itself into a boat. These Kino Video releases usually claim to have used the original score performed by a modern orchestra. Obviously, the score here isn't from the original, but it certainly made me laugh at that point.

You can see the filmmakers (mostly Keaton, I assume) really letting loose and experimenting. One of the movie's most notable features is the film within a film, where Keaton takes great pains to point out that his character is dreaming the action. It's interesting to view in comparison to the way movies have since developed; a modern audience would have had no trouble picking up on the clues, but Keaton couldn't rely on his viewers having enough familiarity with the medium. The clues that audiences today notice without even thinking about were still being developed at this time.

I wasn't overly wild about the two films on this disc, although they are still a hell of a lot of fun. Upon reflection, I think I prefer Buster Keaton's faster paced short films, which isn't to say that there aren't some great gags here. SHERLOCK JR. seems to be the better regarded of the two, and I'll agree with conventional wisdom on that one.

I don't think filmmaking has reached the peak of genius set by "Sherlock Jr." since. The sheer volume of imagination on display dazzles even the most jaded modern viewer. I showed the climactic chase scene from this film to some high school students and they were flabbergasted and awed by the stunts, the set ups, the effects (including some seemless in camera special F/X that go undetected by most viewers!). "Our Hospitality" is also wonderful, though the climactic waterfall is a set (someone else on this page claimed it to be a real one-- it isn't) the risk was certainly real. And the dress on the horse gag gets me every time. The picture quality on these films is variable, with SJ looking better. I wish someone would invest $$$ to make all of Keaton's work as pristine as modern technology will allow. However, I must lament the musical score on SJ. the rest of the Keaton Kino releases have very tasteful, very supportive scores, but SJ's is so out of touch with the rhythms, feelings, and pulses of the film that it kills many gags and deadens the entire effect. OH's score is fine, however. It's not that I am such a purist I can't abide anything that deviates from the standard organ/piano meanderings, but the score has to support the film, has to punch the gags, not shift the punchlines. The atonal scratchings during the billiards scene belong in a Chaney horror film, not in one of the funniest, most awe inspiring and sublime stretches in film history.

"Our Hospitality" and "Sherlock Jr." are two of Buster Keaton's finest silent films.

In "Our Hospitality", Buster plays Willie McKay, a naive New York City resident (if you can call New York a city in 1830) who returns to his native south to collect an estate from his mother who has just recently died. Unfortunately, McKay's family has been involved in a backwoods feud with the Canfield family who are determined to kill off the last surviving McKay.

Further complicating matters, Willie finds himself falling in love with the elder Canfield's daughter who invites him to dinner. The Canfields will not shoot McKay in their house as this violates their code of honor (there is apparently nothing dishonorable about shooting McKay outside). This leads to a series of hilarious comic situations as Willie must find ways to prolong his visit. Later, when he runs out of excuses, he must find a way to sneak out without being recognized. Wait till you see what he uses for a disguise!

The film leads up to a hilarious and exciting chase sequence ending on a river. Buster Keaton was quite the acrobat. It's amusing how throughout the film he pokes fun at the south's twisted sense of hospitality. There's also a surprisingly touching finale.

"Sherlock Jr." is another great, albeit short film. Buster plays a hapless movie projectionist and amateur detective who is wrongly accused of stealing his girlfriend's father's watch. Ostrasized by his girlfriend, Buster falls asleep in the projection room and in his dream, walks into the movie and interacts with the characters. In his dream, he imagines himself as the great detective Sherlock Jr. and attempts to find the culprit of a stolen watch.

"Sherlock Jr." is an interesting film as it deals with Keaton's fascination with the film medium. The special effects for the scene where Buster walks into the screen were incredible for their time. This scene has been copied a lot in subsequent films. Unfortunately, the film is marred somewhat by the inane music score which someone decided to tack on. Nevertheless, it's well worth viewing.

Buster Keaton was a genius. His best films matched, if not surpassed those of his rival Charlie Chaplin. They were cinematically superior and had better stuntwork (nothing wrong with Chaplin mind you). A must for any lover of silent comedies.

Personality diviners: which Beatle is your favorite? did you think *The Big Lebowski* was funny? Coke or Pepsi? Keaton or Chaplin? If you answered John, Yes, Coke, and Keaton, you're my type of person. But to focus on the topic: Keaton's films have unarguably aged better than Chaplin's. Whereas the latter's films have a good-for-you, culturally-enriching aura, Buster's movies happen to still be unpretentiously entertaining. Kino, with this double-feature set, offers a great showcase of Keaton's many talents:

*Our Hospitality* (Four Stars): Somewhat primitive but still accomplished comedy about a city boy (Keaton) who embarks on a journey Down South to claim his ancestral inheritance. The joy of the thing is in the journey, which involves an amazing, diminutive, jerry-rigged "train", replete with roof-chairs on which passengers bob and sway like reeds in a high breeze. Once arrived, Keaton discovers that he has also inherited participation of a blood feud, of the Hatfied-McCoy variety, with another family. (Of course, the girl he falls for on the train ride is the daughter of the enemy family.) Much humor (and irony) is derived from Keaton's character taking advantage of the fact that the enemy clan must not, out of Southern Honor, shoot him down like a dog as long as he's a guest in their home. Other points of interest: costumes and architectural details are surprisingly accurate (the movie takes place in the 1830's); and Keaton's stunts in this movie are among his most death-defying.

*Sherlock Jr.* (Five Stars): The first movie turns out to be a starter for the main (yet smaller, at 45 min.) course, the masterpiece *Sherlock Jr.*. Falsely accused of stealing a watch, wanna-be detective Keaton returns to his dreary projectionist job at the local movie-house and has a dream that begins with him leaping into the movie screen and becoming master detective "Sherlock Jr.", a hero of his own film. I could put my egghead's cap on and blather about the movie's postmodern immersion in its own medium; how it influenced filmmakers like Woody Allen; how it's arguably the greatest achievement in silent comedy. Or: I can tell you that the scenes involving an explosive billiards-ball and a daffy motor chase through the city are laugh-out-loud hilarious. Many of the special effects (this is 1924, mind you) still defy easy detection . . . which is more than can be said for 2002's *Spider-Man*, to use just one current example.

[The DVD is adequate. *Sherlock Jr.*, actually, has somewhat better-than-adequate picture quality. Good job, guys. And I'm rather more glad than not that there are no "special features": the last thing I need is some film scholar stripping away, piece by piece, Keaton's layers of artifice.]

SHERLOCK JR. IS BRILLIANT! There are some very funny scenes like the one where the women have "lost a dollar". But the film within a film concept and plot are the factors that make Sherlock Jr. exceptional. Fantastic stunts by Buster, believable vs. unbelievable depending on if you are viewing the film or the "film within the film". Sherlock Jr. alone should qualify Buster as a genius. In my view, this is without a doubt one of Buster's best and one of the best movies I have ever seen. *Having said that, Sherlock Jr. is the only KINO tape that has a distracting musical score (every other Kino musical score rates from very good to exceptional).

OUR HOSPITALITY. This is an excellent movie. Our Hospitality contains some of Buster's greatest stunt work and it has a great plot. The plot , for the second-half of the movie, revolves around Big Joe Roberts and his two sons going after Buster. Natalie Talmadge (Buster's first wife) plays "the girl".

Buster Keaton's stone-faced persona works to its greatest effect in "Sherlock Jr," his best film (just barely topping "The General") and one of the top comedies of all time. More than just tremendously funny, "Sherlock Jr" is heartfelt and sweet. Everything comes out of a scheme to make Buster appear to be a criminal in front of his love, while he is all the while attempting to imprese her with a present on a meager salery. Poor Buster is sent away dejected, with a competitor for his love's affection taking credit for his gift and his love thinking him a bad person. Buster attempts to rectify the situation by using his skills as an amateur detective to find the real criminal. This soon fails and he is forced to return to his job as a film projectionist, showing a mystery/detective story and daydreaming, the spot where one of the most perfect comedy scenes in film history takes place. Of course it all turns out well in the end-- who thought it wouldn't?--but the way that it gets there is funny and memorable, and shouldn't be missed by any movie fan.

Even those who usually do not enjoy silent films will like Buster Keaton's "Sherlock Jr." I know this because my eight-year-old brother loves the movie, and he is patently againt black and white movies, much less silent films. If he likes it, so will everyone.

"Our Hospitality" is also a lot of fun, but it is not on the same level as "Sherlock Jr." Buy this for "Sherlock Jr" and think of the other feature as a pleasant bonus.