A happy crowd… Buster’s Shorts, Talkies Community Cinema, Christ Church, Southgate with David Hinitt and Adam Dickson

“Not long ago a friend asked me what was the greatest pleasure I got from spending my whole life as an actor. There have been so many that I had to think about that for a moment. Then I said, ‘like everyone else, I like to be with a happy crowd’.” – Buster Keaton

This was an irresistible first for me: the chance to watch silent comedy in a church with live improvised organ accompaniment.

Talkies organised the event superbly and silent activist Michelle Facey programmed perfectly. There were packed pews for this premier of Keaton comedies at Christ Church in leafy North London; just a dash down the A10 and a few dozen minutes of male hit-and-hope navigation (it’s really quite easy to find if you have the humility to pre-plan Paul…) from home.

Sybil never loses faith...well almost

The venue is lovely with the warmest of welcomes: this is a community cinema in all senses and there were eager helpers ready to serve the kind of refreshments required after your husband has just given you a de-tour of Enfield. This was not entirely the usual audience for a silent screening - there were a fair number of “civilians” here for the opportunity to share something different and to laugh at a man repeatedly falling over in a church.

Sometimes people can treat silent film with too much reverence (sorry) but the aisles were truly alight almost the second Roscoe and Buster started their larks in the first film: this audience were here for an unqualified good laugh. They were here to share. 

Molly Malone watches as the wall falls on Roscoe Arbuckle

Back Stage (1919)

First up was one of the 15 two-reelers Buster made with Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle a huge star at the time soon to be on a $1 million a year contract. Back Stage deals with a subject very close to Buster’s heart: small-town vaudeville. Keaton had been on stage almost his entire life with his presence in the family act enabled a combination of childcare and commercial opportunity.

Buster and Roscoe play a couple of stage hands trying and failing to keep the motley performers happy. There’s a crazy-legged dancer (Jack Coogan Sr. in the days before his son made him more famous) and a giant strongman (Charles A. Post) whose strength is matched only by that of his petite assistant (Molly Malone).

Charles A. Post

Buster and Roscoe electrocute the brute but he just won’t stay down. In the end their cast go on strike and they have to complete the show on their own. Things go so badly they go really well and amongst the hilarity a stage scene house falls onto Roscoe who survives by the good fortune of an open window… the first, if not even the last time tonight, Buster deployed that device.

It was a treat to see these two in their early adventures. Now, wouldn’t it be god to see some more of Mabel Normand with Roscoe?

Roscoe Arbuckle

The Goat (1921)

The Goat was another astute choice from Michelle featuring another iconic Buster Keaton moment…

Buster thinks he's seen a ghost not a goat!

Buster gets confused with Dead Shot Dan (played by co-director Malcolm St. Clair) and all heck breaks lose as he goes on the run. Dan simply ducks as Buster watches on through the bars looking for all the world as if he’s the con.

Much confusion reigns in what could be considered a demo for Cops only with a handful not hundreds of LA’s finest in pursuit. Eventually Buster annoys the Police Chief himself – BIG Joe Roberts – and ends up romancing his daughter (Virginia Fox) or at least trying… the chase is almost all...

Buster and some Cops!

One Week (1920)

All under control

Directed by Eddie Cline and Keaton this was the first film to be released with Buster on his own. Not for long though as he is quickly wed to Sybil Seely and then off to build a new house on a plot provided by his uncle. All looks swell for the newly-weds until a jilted ex swaps the numbers round andthe pieces fall neatly out of place.

Big Joe Roberts features again as a piano mover who drops his cargo onto its relatively tiny recipient: more jokes about size not being everything: Buster always finds a way even if it leads to further complications.

I’ve previously raved about One Week and it hasn’t lost its charm or impact: the audience gasped at the ending as Keaton provides the classic gotcha moment of jeopardy-relief and then… smash!!

Looking good

The Boat (1921)

This was another Keaton revelation: I knew he had a boat called the Damfino, I just never knew what it really meant or, indeed, how it was pronounced or rather, mouthed. It was a punch-mime well worth waiting for and I’ve never heard so many people laugh whilst lip-reading.

Sybil launches the Damfino!

Buster has built his boat in his house and, best laid plans and all that, it just won’t squeeze out of the front door. He makes a few adjustments and pulls the Damfino through only for his house to collapse just behind. Undeterred the Keaton family, two boys in pork pie hats and the long-suffering Sybil Seely head sea-ward.

It’s interesting to see the character Keaton had devised across these four films. He was a go-getter, trying to sort things out for himself and in spite of every reversal he just keeps coming. A constructive clown and a man after our own hearts. Your boat’s sinking? Climb into the bathtub! Lessons we should all heed…

Buster and Sybil take a bath

In a world in which mistakes happen and you have to improvise your way ahead: and in Buster we trust!

The organists David Hinitt and Adam Dickson performed admirably on what was only their second or third silent accompaniment. It’s no mean feat especially trying to capture the mood of quicksilver comedy: take your eyes of Buster and you risk missing the punchline!

All in all a splendid time was had by all in Southgate and lets’ hope Talkies shows more silents in future.

The three Buster solos are available on the Kino Blu-ray Short Films Collection: 1920-1923 set and also with the Arbuckle collaborations on Complete Buster Keaton Short Films (1917-1923).

Christ Church's Lady Chapel complete with William Morris stained glass and decoration

Blockbuster! The General (1926) and One Week (1920) with Carl Davis and Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Festival Hall

“He seems like a modern visitor to the world of the silent clowns.” Roger Ebert

A big night for Buster as the film buffs and concert crowd gathered together to watch Carl Davis conduct the mighty Philharmonia Orchestra in playing his own scores for two of stone face’s finest. We may have clashed sartorially – and I did have visions of a potential Mods vs Rockers conflagration, though thankfully things didn’t “kick off” – but, ultimately we all grooved to Mr Davis and the band and we all laughed together, out loud and a lot.

Silent films were often shown in large auditoriums and with full orchestral backing so this grand occasion was not unbefitting especially given the scale of Keaton’s comic adventure. I hadn’t watched The General for a long time and here, presented in the recent upgrade, it was indeed re-masterful.

"If you loose the war, don't blame me..."

Having watched or rather, been assaulted by, the new Avengers film earlier in the day with my son, I thought I’d been all punched out but Keaton can still compete with the modern thriller with all of its technological advantages. In the language of that film he’s “augmented”: someone who has super-human qualities that are a special effect all of their own. Allied to this is his creative energy which ensures that not only is there always something happening it’s also funny. Other directors of the time cut very quickly and whilst he and co-director Clyde Bruckman do just that Keaton also has an action-reaction-action loop switched to fast forward.

Amidst all of this chaos, there remains that face: impassive, at peace… absorbing every blow whilst immediately figuring out a way to respond. As David Gill once said to Carl Davis, Keaton is a problem-solver and his stories are a triumph of resolute improvisations against all odds: the comedy of hope.

Buster sets off in lone pursuit

Carl Davis understands this on an orchestral scale and his compositions, which could easily overwhelm the 90 year-old subject matter, are subtle and leverage the power inherent in the film as much as any hyper-produced Danny Elfman or Alan Silvestri score. If anything the modern sonics are over-loud cheats to get a cheap animal response whereas Buster and Carl are so much smarter than that. Together they project in emphatic unison and you are drawn into rather than enveloped.

So it was that The General’s true nature was revealed as an action adventure as much as a comedy. It is a great story based on William Pittenger’s book about actual events in the Civil War and it is superbly filmed. Cinematographers Bert Haines and Devereaux Jennings shot on a parallel line and the narrative is steam-powered by the constant motion of machine, men and horses.

Buster misses the Northern advance and the Southern retreat

At one point Buster is so busy trying to stoke the loco’s fires that he completely missed the mass retreat of the Confederate forces and the thousands of Unionist soldiers in pursuit – a large scale replica of Buster’s persona: calm amongst the chaos.

Then as Buster and his true love Annabelle Lee (Marion Mack) try to steam their way to safety, they start rowing as she gets over picky about which bits of wood to use and then starts sweeping the cab. Only Buster would place a domestic quibble in the middle of a war.

Marion Mack

Keaton is an equal-opportunities comedian and he always ensures that his leading ladies carry a fair share of the pratfalls and his southern belle is as daft and brave as he. Meanwhile the generals of the North are sillier still as it takes them ages to work out how to fix the tracks and their engineer a few seconds. Maybe Buster wasn’t so impressed with Generals in general?

By the mid-twenties, Buster could do pretty much what he liked, resulting in this film… one of the most expensive ever made and, at the time, a relative flop that was to curtail his creative freedom. Those guys at the top, they didn’t really have a clue.

Home sweet home...

On the under-card tonight was One Week (1920) Buster’s first solo effort after years of duetting with Roscoe Arbuckle.

Directed and written by Keaton along with Edward F. Cline the film was a smash and began his establishment as a major star in his own right and you can see why as it hurtles along with the same wit and rapid improvisations as the longer, later film.

Sybil and Buster on the swing

The film was a parody of the Ford Motor Company documentary, Home Made (1919), an educational short about prefabricated housing: it all looked far too easy for Buster who set out to show how things could all wrong so very easily…

Again he puts his female lead through her paces, this time a young Sybil Seely, who flies up in the air as their pre-fab wall spins Buster down and gets thrown in the dirt as the storm spins them round. She also gets featured in a bathroom scene so daring the cameraman eventually puts his hand over the lens.

Sybil's impressed with the man at work...

But it’s Buster who takes the big risks as he battles to erect their flat-packed house only to be flattened by the arrival of their piano, dropped from a great height and, famously, almost obliterated by an on-rushing locomotive. There was something about Buster and trains…

Before the green screen, a real train and a big smash!

By the end of the evening the taste of those digitized Avengers was washed away as the real super heroes were revealed: Buster and Carl took flight.

The General is now available complete with Mr Davis’ score on Kino Blu-ray direct or from Amazon whilst One Week is also on a Kino Blu-ray  through Amazon.