Our Hospitality (1923)

Directed by: John G Blystone & Buster Keaton
Written by: Jean C Havez & Clyde Bruckman
Starring: Buster Keaton, Natalie Talmadge, Joe Keaton

Our Hospitality was quite different from Sherlock Jr. That film mostly dealt with a fantasy, where Keaton's character was a clever man who used his ingenuity and tenacity to outwit the villains. In Our Hospitality, Keaton's character is a young man thrust into a bad situation. Unbeknownst to him, he's the youngest member of one of two families in a blood feud. Returning to the town of his birth to take over his father's estate, he runs afoul of the Canfields who try their hardest to kill him while not breaking the rules of hospitality. You see, the Canfield's daughter Virginia has fallen for our hero, and invites him to dinner. Once he's outside the property however, the rules of hospitality no longer apply, and a death defying chase ensues.

This final chase scene is the centerpiece of the movie. Keaton scales down a cliff, and saves Virginia from going over a waterfall by swinging from a rope attached to a rickety log at its edge. Some of the cliff stunts looked like they may have been filmed on a sound stage, especially since the landscape behind the cliff does have a painted backdrop quality to it, but that could be the quality of the film. It wouldn't surprise me if all the stunts were filmed on location. And yet, nothing that Keaton accomplishes here made my jaw drop like certain sequences from Sherlock Jr. I think it might be the film's tone. While there were plenty of little chuckles to be had in Our Hospitality (the train ride to the town, and when the dam gets blown up and hides Keaton from the Canfields comes to mind), there's a grim spectre lurking behind the comedy. The blood feud. That these men are willing to kill a young man they don't know because of the family he's from. It's a grim premise to base a comedy on.

At least it has a happy ending. Willie (Keaton) and Virginia are married as the Canfields are about to kill him. A priest is in the room. He witnessed Willie saving Virgina, the two are in love and now they're family. For one final gag, when they accept Willie, he takes out all their missing guns from his belt, implying that if the blood feud had continued, he might have had the upper hand. Willie McKay is at least as resourceful as Sherlock Jr, even if his victories amount to dumb luck for comedic purposes. Here, Keaton didn't get to escape into fantasy while things worked themselves out. The victory was more hard fought and perhaps should be all the sweeter because of it, but I'd rather go back and watch Sherlock Jr.

Personal enjoyment: ★★