Top Five Buster Keaton Stunts: Independent Shorts

More fabulous Buster Keaton stunts!  In general, I’d say the Fatty Arbuckle stunts are more impressive physically.  These, though, are more impressive creatively.  In his own work, Buster’s style and imagination really shines, and it’s that inventive flair that comes through here.

One Week

Okay, so the originality here is more set than stunt – I just love the mishmash house.  The stunt itself isn’t too wild, and you can see the ground give a bit where they dug down to hide a slightly softer landing.  This one gets points for sheer nerve.  Yeah, there’s a bit of a cushion, but this is Buster’s can-do philosophy in a nutshell.  What does he do if he wants his character to fall from a second story?  He goes up to the second story, opens the door, and falls out, “simple” as that.

Neighbors

A tag-team effort here, with Buster pulling in some acrobat pals as ringers.  The walking human ladder is just utterly wonderful – a visual spectacle, an athletic wonder, and so blame funny!  While Buster’s best stunts in the Arbuckle-Keaton shorts are more like Easter eggs, just dropped in for a bit of fun, the human ladder sequence is well incorporated into the story and nicely augmented with extra gags.  Plus, I can’t believe how long Buster stays perched atop the other two and all he gets up to while he’s there.  Amazing!

The Goat

This is a small moment, but I love it.  The buildup is great, as Buster and the police chief both slowly rise from their seats and Things Look Bleak for Our Hero.  Then, out of nowhere, bam!  Buster springs into action, leaping onto the table, onto the chief, and through a small, high-placed window.  I feel like if Buster were alive today, they’d have him making action films.

The Boat

This is similar to the famous water wheel scene from Daydreams, but I like the version in The Boat better.  As the Damfino constantly overturns in a revolving barrel roll, Buster is tossed around the cabin like popcorn.  While the Daydreams scene hilariously evokes the idea of a hamster wheel, it’s much more absurd here in that it’s an entire room, the cabin of the Damfino, that’s rotating end over end.  I also love when he finally decides enough is enough and nails his shoes to the floor, which keeps him rooted to one spot as the boat continues to flip.

Cops

Comic and athletic masterpiece all the way through.  Buster’s deftness on the ladder, twisting his body and shifting his weight to teeter it onto one side of the fence or the other, is staggering.  I can’t imagine the precision that went into getting the ladder to pivot exactly how he wanted it.  And when he goes full-on seesaw with it, camping out on the fulcrum while more and more Keystone Cops start trying to yank it down at either end?  Fantastic.  I love everything about it.