Microblog: A very long article Wikipedia article on the orientation of toilet paper [Jun 7th, 22:52] [R]

Tuesday, October 3rd, 2023

Seven Chances

Categories: [ TV/Cinema/Buster Keaton ]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Chances

Wikipedia

Jimmie is in love with Mary but does not dare telling here. The brokerage firm where he's a junior partner is in financial difficulties. When a lawyer visits him to tell him he's going to inherit money, he and his partner Meekin first run away believing he is summoning them to a trial. They finally sit together and read the will, that would give Jimmie seven million dollars if he gets married before 7 PM on the day of his 27th birthday, which is today. Jimmie immediately asks Mary in marriage, but clumsy wording about his motivations causes her to immediately break up with him. She however changes her mind and sends a hired hand to deliver a note to Jimmie. Meanwhile, Meekin convinces Jimmie to propose to any of the seven women he knows at the country club restaurant, to save the firm. One by one, they refuse and mock him. Meekin then publishes Jimmie's predicament and potential inheritance in the evening newspaper, announcing that Jimmie would marry any woman who presents herself at the church at 5 PM. A crowd of veiled woman gathers at the church, but the priest refuses to perform any ceremony, announcing it was a bad prank. Escaping the angry women, Jimmie finally receives Mary's note. Followed by the mob of women, Jimmie runs first through the city then through the countryside (escaping an avalanche of rocks) to reach Mary's house where Meekin is also waiting. Alas, Meekin's clock show he's a few minutes too late. Mary still wants to marry him, money or not, but Jimmie refuses to let her share his impeding disgrace. As he leaves, he sees from the church's clock that Meekin's watch was fast. He and Mary wed just in time.

[ Posted on October 3rd, 2023 at 11:41 | no comment | ]

Friday, May 5th, 2023

Steamboat Bill Jr.

Categories: [ TV/Cinema/Buster Keaton ]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steamboat_Bill,_Jr.

Wikipedia

Steamboat Bill's steamer business now has to compete with the steamer of JJ King's, who already owns half the town. The same day, Bill's son arrives by train from Boston, where he has finished his studies. King's daughter, whom Bill Jr. also knows, arrives the same day by car. Kitty expects Bill Jr. to meet with her on her father's boat in the evening, but Bill Sr. is obviously opposed to it, and Junior's attempt fails. Bill Sr.'s boat is then declared unsafe, and when Bill assaults him, King manages to get his competitor thrown into prison. The day gets very wet and windy. Junior tries to get his father to escape, first with a bread containing hidden tools, then by accidentally knocking the sheriff out. When the cyclone hits, buildings are torn away and JJ's steamer sinks. The jail slides into the river, with Bill Sr. in it. Junior is flown into the air by the storm and lands into the river. He manages to climb aboard his father's steamer, rigs remote controls with ropes so that he can pilot the boat and control the propeller at the same time. He manages to first rescue Kitty who is clinging to a house that ended in the river, and then to rescue his father by driving the boat through the floating jail. Junior then quickly jumps into the river, leaving a puzzled Kitty. But his intentions become clear when he returns towing a minister.

[ Posted on May 5th, 2023 at 17:36 | no comment | ]

Sunday, September 11th, 2022

The Navigator

Categories: [ TV/Cinema/Buster Keaton ]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Navigator_(1924_film)

Wikipedia

Rollo, a wealthy man, proposes to his neighbour Betsy, but she refuses. He then decides to go alone on the honeymoon cruise, and because he does not want to get up early, boards the ship the night before departure. He however boards the wrong ship, that happens to just have been sold by Betsy's father to a small country at war. Betsy's father boards the ship to get back some papers that were left onboard, just as enemy agents of that country set the ship adrift. The father is captured, and Betsy boards the ship when she hears him cry for help just before it gets cut loose. Rollo and Betsy are then stranded at sea and learn to survive with the food found in the kitchen. The ship eventually grounds itself and springs a leak near an inhabited tropical island. Using a diving suit found aboard, Rollo dives to repair the ship, but Betsy is captured by the natives. Rollo scares them of when he emerges from the ocean and brings Betsy back to the ship. The natives then attack and board the ship, Rollo and Betsy fight them back with fireworks, then escape on a dinghy that starts to sink. They are saved by a submarine that surfaces just in the nick of time.

[ Posted on September 11th, 2022 at 11:57 | no comment | ]

Saturday, September 3rd, 2022

Go West

Categories: [ TV/Cinema/Buster Keaton ]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_West_(1925_film)

Wikipedia

Buster has no money and no friends. He sells his last possessions, loses most of his money and goes to New York by freight train, then decides to go to the West. He finds a job as a cow boy (for which he's not qualified), and becomes friend with a cow named Brown Eyes. When the farmer decides to sell his stock because he needs the money, he puts all the animals on a freight train headed for Los Angeles, including Brown Eyes. Buster goes on the train, hoping to save his friend. The train is stopped by the men of a neighbouring farmer who does not want the animals to be sold yet, because it would get a higher price if all farmers would sell them at a later time. Buster accidentally manages to stay alone on the train and stop it at a station in the big city. He frees Brown Eyes and, Feeling for the farmer's situation, he decides to take the cows to the stock yard, causing quite a panic in the city, but eventually manages to take all the animals to their destination. Upon learning from his men that the train has been robbed, the farmer had gone by car to the stockyard. At first there was no animal there, and suddenly it was full of them. He understands he has to thank Buster for it and tells him he can have anything; Buster asks him for Brown Eyes.

[ Posted on September 3rd, 2022 at 19:12 | no comment | ]

Sunday, August 21st, 2022

The Scarecrow

Categories: [ TV/Cinema/Buster Keaton ]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scarecrow_(1920_film)

Wikipedia

Buster is a farmhand living in a small one-room house with his housemate. They have lots of mechanical devices to make their life easier (the stove doubles as a gramophone; the sofa hides the bathtub; the top of the table, where the plates are affixed, can be hung on the wall and washed with a water hose…). Both men try to win the love of the farmer's daughter, but Buster is chased by a dog he believes to be rabid. Having destroyed his clothed during the chase, he has to borrow a scarecrow's clothes. Buster then accidentally kneels in front of the girl who believes he is proposing marriage. They steal a motorcycle and while being chased by Buster's roommate and the girl's father, the scoop up a priest and are married while riding the motorcycle.

[ Posted on August 21st, 2022 at 14:43 | no comment | ]

Sunday, August 14th, 2022

Sherlock Jr.

Categories: [ TV/Cinema/Buster Keaton ]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherlock_Jr.

Wikipedia

Buster is a cinema projectionist and wannabe detective. After giving a box of chocolates to his sweetheart, he is framed by the “local sheik” who had stolen the girl's father's pocket watch and pawned it in order to buy a larger box of chocolates. Buster, being found with the pawnshop's slip in his pocket is banished from the girl's home. He later falls asleep during a projection and dreams he walks into the film through the screen. He then dreams himself as a detective, Sherlock Jr., investigating the theft of a pearl necklace. The thief and the butler attempt to kill Sherlock with poison, traps and an exploding 13 pool ball. When all attempts fail, they escape and are tracked down by Sherlock to a warehouse, where he saves the girl (who had been kidnapped) and recovers the necklace with the help of his assistant. When Buster wakes up, the girl tells him that she had found out the identity of the real thief (by asking the pawnbroker to describe the man who brought the watch), and he finally kisses her.

[ Posted on August 14th, 2022 at 15:55 | no comment | ]

Sunday, January 30th, 2022

The Haunted House

Categories: [ TV/Cinema/Buster Keaton ]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Haunted_House_(1921_film)

Wikipedia

The manager of a bank plans a robbery, but their attempt is thwarted by the clumsy teller. The latter is then believed to be the robber and is chased by the police to the haunted house used by the robbers as their hideout. The house is full of tricks that makes it appear to be haunted, but as a troupe of terrible actors dressed to play Faust also seek refuge in the house, the robbers start to believe that is is really haunted. The teller however succeeds in capturing the gang.

[ Posted on January 30th, 2022 at 20:54 | no comment | ]

The High Sign

Categories: [ TV/Cinema/Buster Keaton ]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_High_Sign

Wikipedia

Keaton plays a drifter who cons his way into working at an amusement park shooting gallery. Believing Keaton is an expert marksman, both the murderous gang the Blinking Buzzards and the man they want to kill end up hiring him. The film ends with a wild chase through a house filled with secret passages and trap doors. (From Wikipedia).

[ Posted on January 30th, 2022 at 20:54 | no comment | ]

Monday, October 25th, 2021

The Frozen North

Categories: [ TV/Cinema/Buster Keaton ]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Frozen_North

Wikipedia

A bad cowboy arrives in Alaska through a subway terminal. He first attempts to rob a saloon by scaring the people with a picture of a man holding a gun, but has to flee when his trick is discovered. He then goes home, finds his wife in the arms of another man and shoots them both, only to discover that it was not his home. He then goes to his house but has no interest in his wife, and when she is knocked unconscious by a falling vase, he dresses up and goes wooing his neighbour until her husband arrives and they leave. The cowboy gets a taxi driven by a friend to follow them, plays a dirty trick on the policeman trying to arrest them for dangerous driving. They spend some time in a very large igloo, and the cowboy attempts to fish through a hole in the ice. Later he goes the woman's hut, but is chased by the husband and escapes by disguising himself as a snowman. The cowboy and the husband fight again and the former is wounded, but the wife then accidentally kills her husband. The cowboy the draws a gun. Suddenly, Keaton is woken up in the cinema by the janitor.

[ Posted on October 25th, 2021 at 20:10 | no comment | ]

Wednesday, October 20th, 2021

Cops

Categories: [ TV/Cinema/Buster Keaton ]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cops_(film)

Wikipedia

The Young Man is told by his fiancee that she would marry him when he has become a successful businessman. He accidentally gets the money from a wallet he was trying to return to its owner, and with that money he buys from a crook furniture that is on the pavement with the intent to resell it for a profit, unaware that it belongs to a family that is about to move and is waiting for the moving cart. He gets a cheap horse-pulled cart, and starts loading the furniture, helped by the family that believes him to be the moving man. He then leaves, very slowly as the horse is not fast. After a while, he finds himself in the middle of the yearly police parade, accidentally catches the bomb thrown by an anarchist and throws it away. After the explosion, he is chased by the police across the city, always hiding, but always found again. He eventually manages to lock up the whole police force into the police station and comes out disguised as a policeman. His fiancee arrives just at that moment and is disappointed that her man is only a policeman. In despair, he gives himself up to the police.

[ Posted on October 20th, 2021 at 16:32 | no comment | ]

Tuesday, October 19th, 2021

Battling Butler

Categories: [ TV/Cinema/Buster Keaton ]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battling_Butler

Wikipedia

Alfred Butler is the gentle son of a wealthy family. To toughen it, his father sends him on a camping trip (with his valet and all the comfort). There he meets a young lady that he wishes to marry, but her father does not want a wimp for son in law. As it happens, a boxer named Alfred “Battling” Butler is due to fight soon, and the valet claims to the father that his master is that person, thinking that the boxer will lose his fight and that he will soon be forgotten. Alfred travers to the city where the fight takes place, and the boxer alas wins the fight, he is welcomed back as a hero by his girl's family and married on the spot. As a new fight is alrealy announced, Alfred has to go to the boxer's training camp to pretend writing to her from there. As she unexpectedly follows him there, the valet agrees with the boxer's trainer that the latter would train Alfred for the actual fight to which Alfred would have to participate. Before the fight, Alfred is very worried, until the trainer tells him that the boxer is actually fighting his own fight and only wanted to teach Alfred a lesson. The boxer however fights Alfred in the dressing room and when the latter sees his wife looking at him he starts fighting and eventually knocks the boxer out. Alfred then confesses to his wife, who is relieved that her husband is not actually a boxer.

[ Posted on October 19th, 2021 at 12:41 | no comment | ]

Sunday, February 16th, 2020

The General

Categories: [ TV/Cinema/Buster Keaton ]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_General_(1926_film)

Wikipedia

When the Civil War reaches Georgia, train engineer Johnnie Gray wants to enlist to impress his fiancee Annabelle, but he is rejected because he's more useful as an engineer. Mislead by her brother, Annabelle claims she won't talk to him until he's in uniform. A year later, Johnnie's train is stolen by a commando of Union soldiers. Annabelle, who was still aboard the train, is taken prisoner. Johnnie chases his train first on foot, then by handcar. He warns the army at the next station, then chases his train using another train, dodging the Union soldiers' attempt to stop him. He then finds himself in a territory occupied by Union soldiers, leaves the train and hides in the forest. By nightfall, he finds shelter in a house, which happens to be the Union's headquarters, where he learns of their plan and where Annabelle is kept prisoner. Disguised as a soldier, he rescues her and they hide in the forest. By morning, they steal the General back, knocking out an officer who was onboard the train, and flee to the south to warn the Confederate army of the planned attack, chased by confederate soldiers on two trains. Johnnie eventually gets rid of his pursuers by setting fire to a bridge and manages to reach the army. A battle ensues, where the Union soldiers are pushed back. Johnnie then delivers the knocked-out Union officer to the Confederates, and is enlisted as a lieutenant as a reward. Annabelle is finally proud of him.

[ Posted on February 16th, 2020 at 11:58 | no comment | ]

Sunday, March 4th, 2018

Buster Keaton Short Movies

Categories: [ TV/Cinema/Buster Keaton ]

One_Week_(1920_film)

A young couple builds their build-it-yourself house, but a rejected suitor modifies the building instructions. The house-warming party ends in a disaster, and they eventually find out they built the house on the wrong plot. A train destroys the house as they try to move it.

Neighbors_(1920_film)

Young lovers living on neighbouring houses are trying to see each other, but their fathers do their best to keep them apart. They finally attempt to get married, but the hostile fathers do their best to prevent the ceremony to get to its conclusion. They do get married in the end, though.

The_Goat_(1921_film)

A man is mistakenly identified as a dangerous criminal. He tries to escape the police and find refuge in a nice girl's home (who lives with her parents). The father happens to be the policeman chasing the poor man. She eventually helps him escape.

The_Playhouse_(film)

Keaton plays several roles in this film, many of them appearing on screen simultaneously. The characters are in a variety theatre as several muscians, singer, dancer and choristers. He also plays the part of the prop master, who tries to court a woman, but repeatedly confuse her with her twin sister.

The_Paleface_(1922_film)

A butterfly collector enters the territory of Indians who are being kicked out by crooked oil sharks who have stolen their land deed. He manages to survive being burned at the stake buy making an asbestos suit. Awed by this, the Indians treat them as one of their own. He then helps them face the oil sharks, but he is caught by their boss, who forces him to change clothes with him. The Indians (and a rival tribe) chase him, but eventually recognize him. In the boss's jacket, he finds the land deed, allowing the Indians to stay on their land.

[ Posted on March 4th, 2018 at 23:03 | no comment | ]