Critics reviews

Seven Chances, although seldom cited as a Buster masterpiece on the level of Sherlock Jr. or The General, remains a work of relentless hilarity and visual invention of another order, highlighted by a majestic chase scene in which our hero must escape the violent indignation of a small army of would-be brides. (Hell hath no fury like a woman who responded to an ad in the newspaper…)

I know it is not right for me to want to take away someone else’s experience or enjoyment of these films and yet, at the same time, there I sit, aghast, quite honestly shocked to hear my shared audience howl with laughter at the very idea of Keaton cosying up to a black woman.

The result is another of the extended, intricate chase sequences that tend to grace Lloyd’s and Keaton’s features, and to a lesser extent Chaplin’s. In fact Seven Chances has a double chase.

Buster Keaton is a bachelor who stands to inherit a fortune if he finds himself a bride by seven o'clock in this 1925 silent feature, which Dave Kehr has described as "a cubist comedy…based on a principle of geometric progression" from the number seven. Adapted from a stage-bound play by David Belasco, it takes off into the stratosphere only at the climax, but that outlandish chase sequence alone is well worth the price of admission.