Top Five Gags: Convict 13

October 27^th, 1920 – the day Convict 13 was released. While I wouldn’t put it up there with Buster Keaton’s best independent shorts, it’s still really funny. There are lots of little details throughout that just make it pop (spoilers.)

Navigating the Water Hazard

Before the actual “convict 13” part kicks off and Buster’s just golfing, he hits his ball into a water hazard, of course. Using some floating boards as a makeshift raft, Buster catches one fish after another until he finds the one who swallowed his ball and extracts it. He then sets the ball on a lily pad or something, takes his next shot from within the water hazard, and and heads back for shore. I especially love him using his club as both an oar and a rudder as he “rows” his raft back.

Trying to Evade the Guards

This is probably the best gag sequence in the short. Buster’s acting as he slowly realizes an escaped convict swapped clothes with him while he was knocked out (golfing accident, naturally,) with guards already flanking him on both sides, is so funny. From there, we launch into a fun sequence of gags that builds to the delightful capper of Buster slipping inside somewhere the guards won’t find him… only to realize that he’s inadvertently locked himself inside the prison. The bit where he uses the wet paint on the bench to set up a decoy to distract the guards, pushing the painter onto the bench to paint black stripes across his clothes, is a delight.

Facing the Gallows

The most iconic gag in the short, I’d say. Upon learning that convict 13 is to be hanged, Buster’s girlfriend (conveniently, the warden’s daughter) replaces the noose with a stretchy exercise cord so that, when Buster is “hanged,” he falls through the gallows but bounces back repeatedly from the ground. There’s a little moment prefacing this gag that I really love, where the executioner is brushing off Buster’s neck in preparation for the noose and Buster lifts the shirt of his prison uniform to help out, wiping his neck clean.

Breaking Rocks

Oh man, this bit is hilarious. The ending of it, wherein Buster accidentally knocks out the guard with his sledge hammer, springboards us toward the major action of the second half of the short, but my favorite part is the funny, Bustery business that comes before it. Buster first infuriates the guard with how delicately he breaks rocks, choking up on the sledge hammer and gently tapping off tiny chunks of rock (and sometimes even just fragments – I love how fastidiously Buster sweeps away a little handful of dust.) Buster radiates humor so effortlessly; I think in both his time and ours, he remains one of a kind.

The Double Somersault

A small, great moment of comic acrobatics. When Big Joe Roberts punches Buster in the jaw, he staggers back through the open door of the warden’s office and backward-somersaults twice to land in the exercise room across the hall, doing his signature landing flat on his bottom with his legs spread wide in front of him.