#Buster keaton movies directed series#
Critic Roger Ebert wrote of Keaton's "extraordinary period from 1920 to 1929, he worked without interruption on a series of films that make him, arguably, the greatest actor-director in the history of the movies."Unfortunately, his career declined afterward with a dispiriting loss of his artistic independence when he hired on to MGM which fueled a crippling alcoholism that ruined his family life. Perhaps nostalgia will shift to Cottage Grove’s role in Stand By Me - another picture in which trains loom large.Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton (Octo– February 1, 1966) was an American comic actor, filmmaker, producer and writer. He was best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the nickname "The Great Stone Face".īuster Keaton (his lifelong stage name) was recognized as the seventh-greatest director of all time by Entertainment Weekly. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Keaton the 21st-greatest male star of all time. The General enjoys a sterling reputation with silent film buffs, though its Civil War storyline is out of step with 2021 - Keaton’s character aspires to join the Confederacy, and the Union soldiers are the bad guys whose train plummets into the Row. A mural in town commemorates The General, its star, and the 10 weeks of 1926 when Cottage Grove was the “HOLLYWOOD OF OREGON” (or so the Cottage Grove Sentinel claimed at the time.)
According to a representative of the Cottage Grove Historical Society, a few leftover pieces of track and steel were still visible as recently as 2006. The train remained where it had landed until WWII, when it was fished up and salvaged for its iron. It caused studios to rethink how much control to grant Keaton. Its domestic box office returns were a mere $50,000 above the $750,000 it cost to make. The stunt went off without a hitch, its one and only take captured by six strategically positioned cameramen, but The General, one of the American Film Institute‘s top 20 films of all time and Keaton’s personal favorite, flopped with both critics and the public. ( The Sentinel noted how earlier in the summer Keaton himself approached overzealous onlookers to “courteously request, ‘Will you please stand back so as not to cast a shadow on the picture?’”)
#Buster keaton movies directed free#
The community was so invested by the time cameras rolled, the local government declared July 23 a holiday, so the entire town would be free to attend. Engineers constructed a downstream dam so the water level would be high enough to receive the train. Carpenters spent two weeks building a 215-foot-long trestle 34 feet above the Row River, then sawed partway through the supporting structures to make them extra vulnerable to the explosive charge that would be triggered soon after action was called. (At least one of the 3000 spectators who lined the banks to witness the stunt was fooled, when the dummy’s severed head floated past.)Īnd although the sequence cost a shockingly expensive $42,000 - roughly $600,000 in today’s money - it left little to chance. When his wife raised objections to his plans to ride the locomotive across the trestle as cameras rolled, he capitulated, installing a papier-mâche dummy as engineer. His relationship with his his 24-year-old costar, Sennett Bathing Beauty Marion Mack, was strictly professional. 1500 locals - half the town’s population - found work behind the scenes or as extras. Keaton ingratiated himself with the residents of Cottage Grove, hosting weekly baseball games and presiding over the wedding reception of a local and a crew member. The making of silent film’s most expensive stunt seems like it would make an excellent subject for a movie, but for the fact there was very little drama surrounding it.
The Cottage Grove, Oregon Sentinel reported that the silent legend, having spent the summer filming on location in and around town, was “happy as a kid” to have nailed this most challenging shot. The fact that he had but one chance to get it right must’ve upped the ante in a good way.
0 kommentar(er)
