Our Hospitality
Our Hospitality, directed by and starring Buster Keaton, was Keaton’s second feature, released in 1923. The film provides a comic view of the notorious blood feud between the two Southern families of Hatfield and McCoy, during the late 1800s. The Hatfields of the film are portrayed as the Canfield family, whose daughter Virginia gains the affections of Keaton’s character, young Willie McKay, who is returning from New York to claim his father’s estate. The film follows Willie’s attempts at wooing Virginia, and his eventual discovery of her identity as a Canfield. |
The film’s title refers to the code of honor the Canfields display, which states that while Willie McKay is Virginia’s guest in their home, they cannot kill him. This becomes the basis of the film’s body. Willie McKay cannot leave the Canfield home, lest he be shot by Virginia’s father or two brothers. Our Hospitality was highly regarded for its attention to period detail, which was oftentimes absurd to the contemporary viewer. This accuracy, toeing the line of the ridiculous, would become a hallmark of Keaton’s feature films. Other Keaton hallmarks can be observed in this film. His signature blank expression persists through hilarity and physical harm, even when it appears he’s being expressive through minor facial tics. |
The film itself shows improvements in film editing. Tracking shots are frequent, filmed with apparent ease. The method of simultaneity, or cross-cutting, is expanded beyond the boundaries of a single set, and shows characters both inside and outside the prevailing set, as the first scene of the movie shows a Canfield peering in at Willie’s father through the window of the house. Keaton put obvious effort into proper comedic timing. There are lengthy sequences that show Keaton’s dedication of physicality to the film. Willie McKay is washed down a river, having escaped the Canfield brothers, or is dangled off an improvised cliff-face. During such sequences, Keaton suffered effects of water inhalation, and apparently broke a bone. His dedication and editing techniques are likely what made his films so brilliant.
Safety Last!
Safety Last! was Harold Lloyd’s most beloved film, produced in 1923. The film tells of a young man looking to make a name for himself in the city. He eventually resorts to climbing the side of a department building to draw business to the store he works in, so he can earn a thousand dollars to impress the woman he wishes to marry. The extended climax of the movie is Lloyd’s climb to the roof of the department building. This sequence was shot with several clever editing techniques. The building facade Lloyd is seen climbing was actually a two-story height built on the roof of another tall building. Lloyd then climbed two stories for the close-up shots. His co-star, Bill Strother, was the inspiration for the climbing sequence, and was the climber observed in the shots taken from far away. |
Tracking shots were more defined, often taken from an aerial point of view. Simultaneity had been extended from room to room, and routinely stretched across great distances. as shown in the sequence where Lloyd’s character climbs the department building in place of Strother’s character, who is evading a police officer out to arrest him. Lloyd and Strother are shown communicating from windows and ledges, at considerable distances from each other. |
The comedy of films had also advanced. Irony and sarcasm had heavy presence in the intertitles, and physical humor was nearly non-stop. Laughter was often derived from subtle gestures or facial expressions, and jokes regularly spanned the length of a sequence rather than staying confined to a single scene. It was a very developed comedy for its year.
City Lights
Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights follows Chaplin’s Little Tramp character on a wild journey through his infatuation with a blind flower girl, and his attempts to raise money for an operation that will allow her to see again. The film was released in 1931, and is Chaplin’s most beloved feature. His films managed to maintain their popularity throughout the Great Depression due to Chaplin’s Tramp, who was down on his luck and often portrayed as homeless, or disastrously poor. City Lights, while technically a silent film, could be considered Chaplin’s first attempt at a sound film, though no clear words are ever spoken. Chaplin feared he would become old-fashioned in the realm of film, and incorporated synchronized music, sound effects, and a humorous parody of speech into the film. A crowd at the beginning of the film loudly berates Chaplin’s character for sleeping on the statue they have just unveiled. Their speech patterns are gibberish loosely based around the words they are meant to be saying. |
The comedy of City Lights is derived mostly from drunkenness, unfortunate timing, and prolonged physical peril. Chaplin’s character, while observing a nude statue, repeatedly and narrowly avoids stepping into an open manhole while distracted. The drunken millionaire is first seen trying to commit suicide on the waterfront, and Chaplin’s attempts to rescue him lead to an amusing sequence in which both Chaplin and the millionaire fall into the water more than once. Chaplin’s films are quite distinctive from the comedies of Keaton or Lloyd, whose main characters often have everything they dreamed of when the film began. Chaplin’s Tramp, after spending months in prison for stealing money from the millionaire (a crime he did not commit), is reunited with the blind flower girl. She can now see, thanks to the money the Tramp gave her for the operation, but she doesn’t recognize Chaplin as the man she fell in love with until their hands touch, at which point they are both tearful and elated at finding each other again. The film fades to black with the promising mystery of what might happen next. |
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Meridian Donnelly believes in the existence of alien civilizations, improbable sea creatures in the deep, and the healing powers of salt baths. She is a Creative Writing student at the Alabama School of Fine Arts, and also a student of almighty classic rock.