Steamboat Bill, Jr.

The riverboat captain Steamboat Bill is waiting for the son he has not seen in years. The boy who arrives is from the city: slight, in a beret, playing a ukulele and knowing nothing about boats. His father tries to make a man of him. In the same town is a rival steamboat owner, and the girl the boy loves is his daughter. Then a cyclone hits the town. The subject is not comedy but a father accepting his son. Bill is ashamed of him and the film never softens that; nothing changes until the boy saves him in the storm. The form is Keaton's method: the stunts are real, the camera is wide and there is no trick. The most famous moment is the front of a house falling on him; the open window on the upper floor lands exactly where he is standing and he does not flinch. The facade was full weight and the clearance was a few centimetres; some of the crew refused to watch the take. It is among the last films Keaton made independently; immediately afterwards he signed with MGM and lost creative control. It lost money on release. Ernest Torrence plays the father and Marion Byron the girl. Who it is for: viewers who like silent comedy and real physical stunt work. Who it is not for: anyone wanting a fast narrative; the first half is slow and all the weight is in the cyclone at the end.