It was
hard picking a Top Five for Our
Hospitality, because it doesn’t just have great gags – it has great gag sequences, long stretches of the film
with nonstop killer comedy or terrific recurring bits that crop up throughout. In the end, here’s what I came up with.
The Great Train Ride
Honestly,
I could have made a Top Five just of train gags in this movie. I love everything about the train ride so
much. The whole thing is fantastic, but
if I had to pick one bit – okay, two – it would be the scenes where the engine
variously winds up behind the rest of
the cars (don’t ask) and tooling down the untracked dirt road. The guy on the back car blowing his horn at
the engineer and pointing to the front like, “You’re supposed to be up there, dummy!” just kills me.
Old-Timey Pistols
This
film has a lot of fun playing with
the early-19th-century setting (the train sequence is packed with
these jokes,) and I just love the running gag of how long it takes the brothers
to reload their pistols. The first time,
Willie winds up saving himself accidentally by “helpfully” firing the round in
one brother’s jammed gun, but he later uses it to his advantage, pinching a gun
and firing it to buy himself a little time.
An Awkward Dinner
Willie’s
just realized he’s trapped in a house with a family that wants him dead, and he
has to sitting down to dinner with them.
All the men keeping tabs on each other while the parson says grace is
way too funny, and Willie’s all-around jumpiness – especially when Mr. Canfield
starts vigorously sharpening his knife to carve the roast – is great, too.
Permanent Houseguest
Willie’s
initial attempts to keep from leaving (including missing-hat lies and lame dog
tricks) are funny enough, but his efforts to stay in the house, and so stay
safe by the hospitality code that prevents the Canfields from killing him while
he’s under their roof, are even better the next day. His expression when his girl’s sheet music
blows out the patio door onto the lawn is priceless, and I like his sneaky way
to secure himself a bit of alone time with her.
End of His Rope
Naturally,
there’s plenty of humor to be mined from two men tied together with a long
rope, one of whom wants to kill the other.
Put them on a high rocky outcrop over water, though, and it’s
amazing. Absolutely best moment of this
scene is when Buster sees the brother go sailing past him over the edge, and he
just braces himself against the rocks and gives the most panicked-yet-deadpan
look to the camera. Perfect.
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