Buster Keaton stars as a bumbling photographer who, in order to win the favor of a beautiful woman, takes a job as a newsreel cameraman. Hilarity ensues as he stumbles through a parade, a Chinese Tong war, a yacht club regatta, a crowded dressing room and a solo baseball game. —Film Affinity

Director

Edward Sedgwick

The son of actors Edward Sedgwick Sr. and Josephine Walker, Edward Sedgwick made his own show business entree as one of the Five Sedgwicks, a circus and vaudeville acrobatic act. Two of the “other” Sedgwicks were Edward’s twin sisters Eileen and Josie, who later pursued successful silent-movie acting careers. In 1915, Sedgwick broke into films as a comedian, frequently cast as a zany baseball player. He became a serial director in 1921, then moved on to the Tom Mix western unit. Sedgwick’s lifelong love of baseball came in handy as he helmed the ballpark sequences of Mix’s Stepping Out (1923), Buck Jones’ Hit and Run (1924), William Haines Slide, Kelly, Slide (1927), Buster Keatons The Cameraman (1928) and the 1934 mystery Death on the Diamond. While at MGM in the late 1920s, Sedgwick found a kindred spirit in fellow baseball buff Buster Keaton. At Keaton’s insistence, Sedgwick directed all of Keatons silent and sound MGM features, including the aforementioned The Cameraman. Spite Marriage… read more

The son of actors Edward Sedgwick Sr. and Josephine Walker, Edward Sedgwick made his own show business entree as one of the Five Sedgwicks, a circus and vaudeville acrobatic act. Two of the “other” Sedgwicks were Edward’s twin sisters Eileen and Josie, who later pursued successful silent-movie acting careers. In 1915, Sedgwick broke into films as a comedian, frequently cast as a zany baseball player. He became a serial director in 1921, then moved on to the Tom Mix western unit. Sedgwick’s lifelong love of baseball came in handy as he helmed the ballpark sequences of Mix’s Stepping Out (1923), Buck Jones’ Hit and Run (1924), William Haines Slide, Kelly, Slide (1927), Buster Keatons The Cameraman (1928) and the 1934 mystery Death on the Diamond. While at MGM in the late 1920s, Sedgwick found a kindred spirit in fellow baseball buff Buster Keaton. At Keaton’s insistence, Sedgwick directed all of Keatons silent and sound MGM features, including the aforementioned The Cameraman. Spite Marriage (1929), Free and Easy (1930), Dough Boys (1930), Parlor, Bedroom and Bath (1931), Speak Easily (1932), Sidewalks of New York (1933) and What, No Beer? (1933). This proved a mixed blessing: though the MGMs were, as a group, Keatons most profitable features, they also contained some of his worst moments on screen. In the mid-1930s, Sedgwick was briefly a producer/director at Hal Roach Studios, responsible for the Jack Haley vehicles Mister Cinderella (1936) and Pick a Star (1937). The latter film featured a guest appearance by Laurel & Hardy. who in 1943 reteamed with Sedgwick for the MGM feature Air Raid Wardens. Considered a relic of a bygone era by the 1940s, Sedgwick sat out the waning years of his MGM contract, chumming around with such old cronies as Buster Keaton. In 1948, Keaton, employed as a gag man for Red Skelton, suggested that Sedgwick would be an ideal director for the upcoming Skelton vehicle A Southern Yankee. Alas, Sedgwick was not up to the challenge: though he receives solo directorial credit on Southern Yankee, the film was directed in its entirety by S. Sylvan Simon. Edward Sedgwick’s final film was Universal’s Ma and Pa Kettle Back on the Farm (1951). —allmovie guide

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Buster Keaton

Joseph Frank Keaton was born on October 4, 1895, to a pair of vaudeville performers. Spending his childhood on the road with his family, he earned the nickname Buster at the age of six months. By the age of three, the youngster was appearing as part of his parents act whenever they could evade child labor laws. In vaudeville, Keaton developed remarkable talents as an acrobatic comedian with a superb sense of timing, and became a rising star by his teens. In early 1917, Buster left his act with his parents, and appeared in a Broadway comic revue later that year, but the key to Keaton’s future came when he met a fellow vaudeville comedian. Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle was starring in a low-budget two-reel screen comedy, The Butcher Boy, and invited Keaton to play a small role in the picture. The two hit it off and became a successful onscreen team, starring in a long string of comic hits. Fascinated by the medium of film, Keaton soon began writing their pictures, and assisted in directing… read more

Joseph Frank Keaton was born on October 4, 1895, to a pair of vaudeville performers. Spending his childhood on the road with his family, he earned the nickname Buster at the age of six months. By the age of three, the youngster was appearing as part of his parents act whenever they could evade child labor laws. In vaudeville, Keaton developed remarkable talents as an acrobatic comedian with a superb sense of timing, and became a rising star by his teens. In early 1917, Buster left his act with his parents, and appeared in a Broadway comic revue later that year, but the key to Keaton’s future came when he met a fellow vaudeville comedian. Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle was starring in a low-budget two-reel screen comedy, The Butcher Boy, and invited Keaton to play a small role in the picture. The two hit it off and became a successful onscreen team, starring in a long string of comic hits. Fascinated by the medium of film, Keaton soon began writing their pictures, and assisted in directing them; Keaton was soon starring in his own films, as well, though he and Arbuckle remained lifelong close friends.

Keaton developed a distinctive comic style which merged slapstick with a sophisticated sense of visual absurdity, and often included gags which made the most of the film medium, involving props, sets, and visual trickery that would have been impossible on the vaudeville stage. Keaton also developed his personal visual trademark, an unsmiling deadpan demeanor which made his epic-scale gags even funnier. Beginning with his first solo short subjects in 1920, The High Sign and One Week, Keaton became a major star, and after a series of successful two-reelers, including Cops and The Balloonatic, Keaton moved up to feature-length comedies in 1923 with the farcical The Three Ages. Keaton reached the peak of his craft with the features which followed, including Sherlock Jr., Seven Chances, The Navigator, Steamboat Bill, Jr., and the Civil War comedy The General, now universally regarded as Keaton’s masterpiece.

Independent producer Joseph M. Schenck was the man behind Fatty Arbuckle’s comedies when Keaton came aboard, and they continued to work together when Keaton struck out on his own. Schenck believed in the comic’s talent and allowed him to work without interference, resulting in a string of creative and popular triumphs. Then, in 1928, with Keaton’s approval, Schenck sold his contract to the biggest studio in Hollywood, Metro Goldwyn Mayer. While Keaton’s first vehicle for MGM, The Cameraman, was up to his usual high standards, he chafed at the studio’s interference and insistence that the filmmaker work within the same boundaries as its other employees. With outside writers and directors controlling Keaton with a strong hand, his work suffered tremendously. With the advent of sound, MGM seemed to have even less of an idea of what to do with the actor/director, and starred him in a series of second-rate comedies with Jimmy Durante, whose broad style did not mesh well with Keaton. By 1934, Keaton had hit bottom; MGM fired him, declaring him unreliable after he refused to work on scripts he felt were inferior.

Keaton eventually got his drinking problem under control, but his career in Hollywood was in dire straits. He starred in a series of low-budget short subjects for the tiny Educational Pictures and later Columbia Pictures, none of which made much of an impression. Keaton also appeared on-stage in touring productions of such comedies as The Gorilla, and, ironically, found himself employed as a gag writer and director at MGM, albeit at a fraction of his former salary. He also appeared in a few European comedies, where audiences held him in greater regard than in the U.S. But that began to change in 1949, when a cover story in Life magazine on great clowns of the silent movies reminded audiences of his comic legacy. Keaton began making guest appearances on television shows, and the now sober star made his way back into supporting roles in major movies (most notably Around the World in 80 Days and Charlie Chaplin’s Limelight). In 1957, Keaton sold the rights to his life story to Paramount Pictures, who hired him as a technical advisor for The Buster Keaton Story. While the film was a severe disappointment, the financial windfall was enough for Keaton to buy a new house, where he and his third wife, Eleanor Norris, lived for the rest of their lives. Keaton found himself in increasing demand in the ‘60s, appearing in several of American International Pictures’ “Beach” musicals and a number of television ad campaigns. He also starred in a short film created by playwright Samuel Beckett, appearing in a loving tribute to his silent films, The Railrodder, and landed a memorable role in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Sadly, Keaton’s second wave of success came to an end on February 1, 1966, when he lost a lengthy battle with lung cancer. —AllMovie guide

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