I’ve
come to realize that Our Hospitality is
one of my absolute favorite Buster Keaton films, and Willie has a lot to do
with that. He has a strong dose of
Buster’s usual “little fellow” in him, but he’s also a bit more of an actual
leading man type, which makes for an interesting blend.
The
only son of the late John McKay, city boy Willie returns to the South when he
comes of age and inherits his father’s house.
Evidently one to get down to business, he manages to 1) fall in love, 2)
unknowingly rekindle an age-old feud with his girl’s family, 3) evade numerous
murder attempts from her dad and brothers, and 4) be the Bustery version of a
licensed badass, all in about 48 hours. Apparently,
though, he doesn’t learn the last
name of the new love of his life until he comes to her house for supper and
basically finds himself trapped in a pit of gun-wielding vipers. There’s always something, I guess.
There
are plenty of ways in which Willie fits Buster’s standard character. Naturally, he’s prone to getting into increasingly
huge scrapes, and disaster follows him as closely as his faithful dog. He has that particular Buster energy, with
the slight but super obvious facial
reactions, the odd mixture of awkwardness and boldness, and the funny little “don’t
mind me – just going for a stroll” walk he does when he’s in trouble and is trying
to nonchalantly bluff his way out of it.
However, Willie might also be the most atypical character Buster plays
in his silent features. While Willie was
raised in New York in ignorance of the feud, he’s not a dandy a la The Navigator or Battling Butler, and of the copious laughs in the film, only a few are
derived from Willie not knowing the ways of the South. And Willie may be disaster-prone, but it’s not
so much that he causes disasters;
more so, he just tends to attract them. Buster’s
characters often start out well-meaning but clumsy and hapless, and they grow
into their more heroic qualities (complete with the graceful athleticism) over
the course of the film. Bad things happen
to them, but they usually bungle a lot on their own, too.
Willie
really isn’t clumsy, and he’s not all
that hapless, either. He has his moments
here and there – I get such a kick out of him trying in vain to put on his top
hat in the low-ceilinged train car, and his fishing adventure doesn’t exactly
go over as planned – but in general, he has it pretty together. Once he realizes that he’s blundered into the
Canfield home and figures out the loophole that they can’t hurt him inside the
house, he comes up with an endless supply of smart ways to keep himself
safe. And later, as he’s trying to get
away, he has some major obstacles to
deal with and handles himself like a Buster boss. That waterfall scene is just incredible.
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