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Just Out For a Swim
Today’s scene comes courtesy of our favorite silent comedian, Buster Keaton!
Tyler Clark
July 06, 2023
Good morning Consumers. This is please consume, the film newsletter that will never pay full price for Peacock.
The Cameraman (1928)
Today’s scene comes courtesy of our favorite silent comedian, Buster Keaton!
The Cameraman (1928) was Keaton’s first film with MGM and the one that marked the beginning of the end. The studio and the executives wanted Buster Keaton the name, not the artist, and though he had starred in some hits at the studio, they had not been his films.
This film is the last to be considered truly his own and it’s Keaton at his best. MGM, the studio responsible for killing Keaton, even showed this film for training new writers as a “perfectly constructed comedy”, according to Marion Meade who wrote a biography on Keaton.
In other words, the ball don’t lie. Or in other, other words, screw MGM.
Just Out For a Swim
In this scene, Keaton is trying to woo his love interest, Sally. At the same time, he’s attempting to get a job at a newsreel office the head of which is in love with Sally as well.
But the film as a whole plays better if Sally, the object of Keaton’s desires, is replaced with his camera, the only other thing he loves as much as Sally.
Rather than being another story of longing, of pining after the girl, it becomes the tale of a man consumed with a dream and artistic passion.
This is not to say that the film as it is isn’t great. It is! But I’m simply offering what I find to be a fascinating alternate route that one can look for as they watch this film.
Laughin’ and Splashin’
One thing that I find astounding is just how fresh and funny this scene actually is.
With old movies, the fear is often that their intentions will fall flat before modern eyes; comedies will be painful and horror will be silly.
For example, Nosferatu was no doubt terrifying to audiences at the time, but today it’s not frightening at all.
Not so with this movie.
It’s slapstick, but it’s clever. The modern viewer can enjoy watching it because there's so much thought and ingenuity put into the gags.
You see something like Keaton swimming from a deep end to an extremely shallow part of the pool and watch him stroke in mid-air for a few seconds and it’s just delightful.
It’s not the same humor as a witty one-liner or some gratuitous poop joke that catches you off guard. No, it’s just baseline humorous, bedrock comedy, and that’s why it works.
Today’s Scene
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