Rent Buster Keaton: Our Hospitality / Sherlock Junior (1924)

A Feud, a Train, and a Very Polite Death Wish - Buster Keaton: Our Hospitality / Sherlock Junior review by griggs

I expected pure knockabout Keaton — quick gags, a few falls, job done. Instead Our Hospitality is sneakily sophisticated, and every so often it goes darker than you’d expect from a 1923 comedy.

It’s not his most gag-packed film, but it might be the first time he feels like the full auteur package in feature form (even co-directing with John G. Blystone). Keaton turns the frame into a little liar: what you think you’re seeing isn’t always what’s happening, and the laugh comes from the reveal. The train stuff is especially smart, and the “hospitality” rule turns the whole house into a trap.

The jokes land, but the craft is the real treat. It’s a tight 75 minutes in Keaton’s company — even when he’s being quietly nasty.

on Our Hospitality. - Buster Keaton: Our Hospitality / Sherlock Junior review by Steve

Charming early Buster Keaton feature set in a vague US rural interior of the early 19th century; the sort of place where arcane feuds are conducted between rival families. He is the amiable big city tenderfoot who arrives at his remote ancestral home to find himself in conflict with his neighbours, while pursuing their lovely daughter (Natalie Talmadge).

Though the rules of hospitality mean the enemies won’t kill him while inside their house visiting the girl. Much of this is sweetly amusing, particularly the long introduction as the young man travels south on a Puffing Billy style steam engine which is so slow his faithful dog arrives first (the mutt almost steals the show).

It has historic interest for Buster enthusiasts. This is his second feature length film as director/star, but the first with a single unified story, rather than a collection of linked shorts. And it’s among his best. He’s excellent as the winsome innocent, and (of course) he is extraordinary at the acrobatics in the action scenes.

The romance explodes into a classic blockbuster climax when our hero has to save the girl from drowning. The famous set piece in a waterfall is literally (yes!) breathtaking. It’s an ambitious film of imaginative situations and sight gags. Buster emerges as one of the great comic stars in cinema.