The 'High Sign' (1921)
Country: US
Technical: bw 20m
Director: Buster Keaton, Edward F. Cline
Cast: Buster Keaton, Bartine Burkett, Joe Roberts
Synopsis:
A luckless drifter sees an ad in a newspaper for a marksman, and so after some cursory target practice presents himself at the shooting gallery, only to find that it is a front for a secret criminal organisation that wants him to perform an assassination.
Review:
Motivated by nothing more romantic than self-preservation, Keaton's 'hero' here exhibits far less socially desirable traits, such as theft, cruelty to animals and fraud, or rather they appear to be so in the absence of a dramatic imperative. In fact, of course, a moment's thought would establish how implausible the central premise would be, given the gang has nothing with which to coerce him and is offering nothing in the way of financial incentive. We are left then, to enjoy Buster's inventiveness as he exhausts the shooting gallery and the victim's house, with its various escape routes, for their comedic potential. As usual, gags are divided between the 'logical' and the 'impossible' or surreal. This was actually the star's first self-directed venture, though he shelved it because he didn't think it was funny enough; curious, since it contains some gags in his best style, such as the dog tied to the bell at the shooting range, and concludes with a superbly orchestrated chase from room to room in a house he had cross-sectioned to create a split-screen effect. This last suggests an artist already at the peak of his visionary and performing powers. (The title refers to a code sign used by the 'Blinking Buzzards' in the film, subverted by Buster into a thumbed nose at the end.)
Country: US
Technical: bw 20m
Director: Buster Keaton, Edward F. Cline
Cast: Buster Keaton, Bartine Burkett, Joe Roberts
Synopsis:
A luckless drifter sees an ad in a newspaper for a marksman, and so after some cursory target practice presents himself at the shooting gallery, only to find that it is a front for a secret criminal organisation that wants him to perform an assassination.
Review:
Motivated by nothing more romantic than self-preservation, Keaton's 'hero' here exhibits far less socially desirable traits, such as theft, cruelty to animals and fraud, or rather they appear to be so in the absence of a dramatic imperative. In fact, of course, a moment's thought would establish how implausible the central premise would be, given the gang has nothing with which to coerce him and is offering nothing in the way of financial incentive. We are left then, to enjoy Buster's inventiveness as he exhausts the shooting gallery and the victim's house, with its various escape routes, for their comedic potential. As usual, gags are divided between the 'logical' and the 'impossible' or surreal. This was actually the star's first self-directed venture, though he shelved it because he didn't think it was funny enough; curious, since it contains some gags in his best style, such as the dog tied to the bell at the shooting range, and concludes with a superbly orchestrated chase from room to room in a house he had cross-sectioned to create a split-screen effect. This last suggests an artist already at the peak of his visionary and performing powers. (The title refers to a code sign used by the 'Blinking Buzzards' in the film, subverted by Buster into a thumbed nose at the end.)
Country: US
Technical: bw 20m
Director: Buster Keaton, Edward F. Cline
Cast: Buster Keaton, Bartine Burkett, Joe Roberts
Synopsis:
A luckless drifter sees an ad in a newspaper for a marksman, and so after some cursory target practice presents himself at the shooting gallery, only to find that it is a front for a secret criminal organisation that wants him to perform an assassination.
Review:
Motivated by nothing more romantic than self-preservation, Keaton's 'hero' here exhibits far less socially desirable traits, such as theft, cruelty to animals and fraud, or rather they appear to be so in the absence of a dramatic imperative. In fact, of course, a moment's thought would establish how implausible the central premise would be, given the gang has nothing with which to coerce him and is offering nothing in the way of financial incentive. We are left then, to enjoy Buster's inventiveness as he exhausts the shooting gallery and the victim's house, with its various escape routes, for their comedic potential. As usual, gags are divided between the 'logical' and the 'impossible' or surreal. This was actually the star's first self-directed venture, though he shelved it because he didn't think it was funny enough; curious, since it contains some gags in his best style, such as the dog tied to the bell at the shooting range, and concludes with a superbly orchestrated chase from room to room in a house he had cross-sectioned to create a split-screen effect. This last suggests an artist already at the peak of his visionary and performing powers. (The title refers to a code sign used by the 'Blinking Buzzards' in the film, subverted by Buster into a thumbed nose at the end.)