TCM at 12:45am: Buster Keatons OUR HOSPITALITY (1923) is one of Busters most romantically adventurous films on the physical level. The film is generously sprinkled with period satire and historic invention of the most eccentrically visual nature, yet the best gags are tightly integrated with the narrative. The title itself refers to a Southern mountaineer familys code that prevents revenge on a hated foe while he is under their roof, but makes him fair game once he is outside. This ingenious running gag of handshakes within and fisticuffs without offers Keaton the kind of hilarious variations that are more frequently found in the carefully carpentered plots of Chaplin and Lloyd. Keatons strenuously chivalric feats, especially the breathtaking timing of a trapeze rescue by a waterfall, establish him, even more than Douglas Fairbanks Sr., as the most gracefully effective acrobat of the silent cinema.
Posted on: Sun, 18 Jan 2015 23:42:18 +0000
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