Buster Keaton

From 1920 to 1965, the great Buster Keaton made spectacular use of locomotives in his films. This video essay charts the course of his iconic cinematic career across the many tracks he rode along on screen: as a young man in the surge of his silent movie ascent in Our Hospitality, while making his masterpiece The General, and traversing the width of Canada on a railway speeder car as an old man in The Railrodder.

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Video essay detailing Buster Keaton's motivation and construction of his 1927 film, The General. Made up almost entirely of silent scenes from the film.

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Andrew Richter shares odd celebrity encounters from his years of working in hotels.

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The amazing story of stunts, men and women who risk their lives every day on set to get the perfect action scene.

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A look at the life and work of Charlie Chaplin in his own words featuring an in-depth interview he gave to Life magazine in 1966.

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The whole world knows him. Burlesque comedy genius, popular actor, author, director, producer, composer, choreographer, Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977) used his talent to serve an ideal of justice and freedom. But his best scenario was his own destiny, a story written into the political and artistic history of the 20th century.

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Time Travelers, a new documentary by Daniel Raim featuring interviews with John Bengtson and film historian Marc Wanamaker, reveals newly discovered connections between Buster Keaton’s MGM debut and the earliest films of his career.

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What makes a rebel? This 78 minute documentary probes the psyche of bad-boy publisher and free speech warrior Barney Rosset, whose mid-century legal and cultural battles smashed sexual and political taboos in the United States — unleashing the counter-culture of the 1960s and introducing millions of young intellectuals to the most radical currents in literature, film, theater and politics. In his late eighties, coming to terms with his life, Barney Rosset began to obsessively sculpt an autobiographical 15′ x 22′ surreal wall mural, embedded with jewel-like vignettes crafted out of found objects, each a clue to the conflicts and obsessions that drove Barney’s lifetime rebellion against authority. A cast of artists, a neurologist, and a shaman connect the clues and piece together Barney’s life.

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In Le Livre d’Image, Jean-Luc Godard recycles existing images (films, documentaries, paintings, television archives, etc.), quotes excerpts from books, uses fragments of music. The driving force is poetic rhyme, the association or opposition of ideas, the aesthetic spark through editing, the keystone. The author performs the work of a sculptor. The hand, for this, is essential. He praises it at the start. “There are the five fingers. The five senses. The five parts of the world (…). The true condition of man is to think with his hands. Jean-Luc Godard composes a dazzling syncopation of sequences, the surge of which evokes the violence of the flows of our contemporary screens, taken to a level of incandescence rarely achieved. Crowned at Cannes, the last Godard is a shock film, with twilight beauty.

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In 1926, Buster Keaton was at the peak of his glory and wealth. By 1933, he had reached rock bottom. How, in the space of a few years, did this uncontested genius of silent films, go from the status of being a widely-worshipped star to an alcoholic and solitary fallen idol? With a spotlight on the 7 years during which his life changed, using extracts of Keaton’s films as magnifying mirrors, the documentary recounts the dramatic life of this creative genius and the Hollywood studios.

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Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton were two incredibly talented artists who enjoyed enormous worldwide success at a very young age. The two giants of the golden age of silent cinema were perceived to be constantly competing with each other for the crown of the king of laughter.

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A documentary which explores the lives and tragic deaths of Marceline Orbes and Francis "Slivers" Oakley, the suicidal clowns who inspired Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton.

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NOTFILM is a feature-length experimental essay on FILM -- its author Samuel Beckett, its star Buster Keaton, its production and its philosophical implications -- utilizing additional outtakes, never before heard audio recordings of the production meetings, and other rare archival elements.

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A found footage video utilizing Buster Keaton's "One Week" with a song by Don Lennon.

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The lives of Stan Laurel (1890-1965) and Oliver Hardy (1892-1957), on the screen and behind the curtain. The joy and the sadness, the success and the failure. The story of one of the best comic duos of all time: a lesson on how to make people laugh.

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A documentary about some of the comedians of the silent era featuring clips from their films and biographical information.

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Film historians, and survivors from the nearly 30-year struggle to bring sound to motion pictures take the audience from the early failed attempts by scientists and inventors, to the triumph of the talkies.

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The story of the big names that have shaped the musical genres, plus an occasional stopgap for the new rock 'n' roll - comedy.

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A profile of some of the greatest stars of silent comedy.

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A documentary short included as an extra with "The Buster Keaton Collection".

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A Turner Classic Movies (TCM) documentary about Keaton's discontented relationship with MGM and the events that eventually led to his career downfall.

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For more than 30 years, Lucille Ball was one of the most recognized and loved entertainers in the world. Known to all simply as Lucy, she portrayed a scatterbrained housewife with the ability to turn simple chores into humorous disasters.

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Second installment of deleted scenes, mostly musical or comedic, from Fox films of the 30's - 50's.

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Based on the first centenary of the largest exporter of films in the world, that is Hollywood, is the story told by its protagonists, actors and writers and other people who made life in this business, interspersing images of famous movies.

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Some of MGM's musical stars review the studio's history of musicals. From The Hollywood Revue of 1929 to Brigadoon, from the first musical talkies to Gene Kelly in Singin' in the Rain.

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Funny Business is a documentary style television series about the craft of comedy consisting of six 50-minute episodes. The first episode aired in the UK 22 November 1992. The show was also shown in Germany and released on video. It was directed by David Hinton. The writers were Rowan Atkinson, Robin Driscoll, and David Hinton. It was produced by Tiger Television Productions. The show featured appearances by many comedians, including Rowan Atkinson who made an appearance both as the presenter/narrator, and as an aspiring comedy actor named Kevin. Atkinson demonstrated many of the principles of comedy in a manner which was instantly identifiable to anyone familiar with his Mr. Bean character.

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American dancer and choreographer Hermes Pan recalls his life and work as he relives the glorious history of the Hollywood musical.

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A series about the life, career and works of the movie comedy genius.

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Robert Preston hosts this documentary that shows what people of the 1930s were watching as they were battling the Depression as well as eventually getting ready for another World War.

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Glenn Ford narrates this hilarious look back at the greatest comedians in movie history.

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Bob's favorite memories and funniest moments on TV The biggest Stars! ... The biggest laughs! On DVD for the first time, this special 90 minute collection proves that laughter is the universal language with a sidesplitting salute to slapstick, satire, sketch comedy and zingers. Featuring Bob's funniest moments on television, this tribute includes a virtual who's who of legendary entertainers like Bing Crosby, Jackie Gleason, Roy Rogers, Ingrid Bergman, Bob Newhart, Lucille Ball, Ann-Margret, Jack Benny, Angie Dickinson, Steve Allen, Johnny Carson, Danny Thomas, Don Rickles, Milton Berle, Redd Foxx, Dorothy Lamour, Frank Sinatra, John Wayne, Dyan Cannon, Debbie Reynolds, Lassie and more.

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Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire present more golden moments from the MGM film library, this time including comedy and drama as well as classic musical numbers.

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A collection of film clips profiling animal actors.

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A celebration of Hollywood in the 1930s, featuring a compilation of clips from features and newsreels of the era.

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Released to theaters in 1974, this collection of vintage Columbia short subjects included: "Yes, We Have No Bonanza" with The Three Stooges; "Violent Is the Word for Curly" with The Three Stooges; "You Nazty Spy!" with The Three Stooges (replaced by "Men in Black" for the nontheatrical reissue); "Nothing But Pleasure" with Buster Keaton; "Strife of the Party" with Vera Vague; Chapter 1 of the 1943 "Batman" serial with Lewis Wilson and Douglas Croft; and "America Sings with Kate Smith."

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Various MGM stars from yesterday present their favorite musical moments from the studio's 50 year history.

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Two co-workers in a music shop dislike one another during business hours but unwittingly carry on an anonymous romance through the mail.

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In Hollywood the Jones family runs into crooks who convince them they have inherited a gold mine at the Grand Canyon.

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Man relates how he outwitted the Yankee army during the Civil War.

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A millionaire vacationing in Mexico falls for a local girl and sets out to win her. This is a reworking of Keaton's 1936 feature The Invader (An Old Spanish Custom).

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Father goes to an American Legion convention in Hollywood and the family goes along, visiting a studio a causing havoc on the set.

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Elmer Butts is a contestant in a radio amateur hour show hoping to win the first price -- by dancing and juggling!

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This is the French-language version of Buster Keaton's The Passionate Plumber (1932). This film is presumed to be lost.

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A professor gets mixed up with chorus girls in a Broadway musical.

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Jeffrey wants to marry Virginia, who refuses to marry unless her older sister, the hard-to-please Angelica, gets married first. This is the German language version of Buster Keaton's comedy "Parlor, Bedroom and Bath" (1931).

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This is the French-language version of Buster Keaton's 1931 comedy Parlor, Bedroom and Bath (1931). This film is presumed to be lost.

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Jeffrey Haywood wants to marry to Virginia Embrey. However, Virginia refused to marry unless her older sister, the hard-to-please Angelica gets married first. Angelica, in turn, finds every man she knows too dull and predictable, and for this reason prefers to stay single. Jeff then tries to make Angelica interested in the mild-mannered and timid Reggie Irving passing him off as a notorious playboy to intrigue her. He asks his friend Polly to teach Reggie "how to treat a woman right", but he turns to be a disastrous learner.

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Elmer, rich society loafer, falls for Mary, but she'll have nothing to do with him until (mistakenly thinking that he's hiring a new chauffeur) he accidentally volunteers for the army. Luckily, Mary's signed up to entertain the troops. Unluckily, Elmer's sergeant likes Mary, too. And worst of all, they're all about to ship out for France.

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Gopher City Kansas hosts a beauty contest. The winner, Elvira Plunkett, and her mother go to Hollywood. The Chamber of Commerce also provides Elvira with an agent, Gopher City's own Elmer J. Butz. Elmer likes Elvira and the shy Elvira likes him, but Mrs. Plunkett, a formidable woman, has little use for hapless Elmer. On the train west, they meet movie star Larry Mitchell, who takes a shine to Elvira and helps her meet MGM directors once they get to Tinsel Town. Elmer, meanwhile, wants to help Elvira with her career and he also wants to be her man. Movie stardom does come to the Gopher City entourage, but to whom is a surprise. And who will win the lovely Elvira's hand?

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An unimpressive but well-intentioned man is given the chance to marry a popular actress, of whom he has been a hopeless fan. But what he doesn't realize is that he is being used to make the actress' old flame jealous.

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A photographer takes up newsreel shooting to impress a secretary.

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The just-out-of-college, effete son of a no-nonsense steamboat captain comes to visit his father whom he's not seen since he was a child.

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During America’s Civil War, Union spies steal engineer Johnny Gray's beloved locomotive, 'The General'—with Johnnie's lady love aboard an attached boxcar—and he single-handedly must do all in his power to both get The General back and to rescue Annabelle.

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A meek millionaire masquerades as a boxing star to win a girl's heart.

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With little luck at keeping a job in the city a New Yorker tries work in the country and eventually finds his way leading a herd of cattle to the West Coast.

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Struggling stockbroker Jimmie Shannon learns that, if he gets married by 7 p.m. on his 27th birthday -- which is today -- he'll inherit $7 million from an eccentric relative.

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The wealthy and impulsive Rollo Treadway decides to propose to his beautiful socialite neighbor, Betsy O'Brien. Although Betsy turns Rollo down, he still opts to go on the cruise that he intended as their honeymoon. When circumstances find both Rollo and Betsy on the wrong ship, they end up having adventures on the high seas.

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A film projectionist longs to be a detective, and puts his meager skills to work when he is framed by a rival for stealing his girlfriend's father's pocketwatch.

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A young man falls for a young woman on his trip home; unbeknownst to him, her family has vowed to kill every member of his family.

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The rituals of courtship, romantic rivalry, and love play out three times as a man vies with a villain for the girl. In the Stone Age, the rivalry is set off by dinosaurs, a turtle used as a ouija board, and a round of golf with stones. In ancient Rome, the men display their brawn through a chariot race, using dogs instead of horses. In contemporary times, the man finds himself overcome by modernity, including a very fragile car.

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In an attempt to forget his lost sweetheart, Buster takes a long trip at sea where he boards a whaling ship with a strict captain.

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Buster and Phyllis endure a number of outdoor adventures trying to prove to each other their survival skills. The balloon, which lands Buster in the wilderness, later proves useful as their canoe is about go over a waterfall.

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In order to impress the father of a girl he is keen on, a young man goes to the city in search of work. In his letters home he writes of his various jobs which her imagination expands into much nobler ones than those that he is actually attempting.

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Botany major Buster mistakenly graduates in electrical engineering and is hired to wire a new home.

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A mix of guns and mistaken identity leads to chaos in this satirical parody of William S. Hart's melodramatic westerns, finding Buster in the frozen north - "the last stop on the subway".

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Buster clowns around in a blacksmith's shop until he and the smithy get in a fight which sends the smithy to jail. Buster helps several customers with horses, then destroys a Rolls Royce while fixing the car parked next to it.

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Buster and a woman are mistakenly married and her initially unfriendly family begins to treat him nicely when they come to believe he has a large inheritance awaiting him.

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Buster Keaton gets involved in a series of misunderstandings involving a horse and cart. Eventually he infuriates every cop in the city when he accidentally interrupts a police parade.

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A butterfly collector unwittingly wanders into an Indian encampment while chasing a butterfly, but the tribe has resolved to kill the first white man who enters their encampment because white oil tycoons are trying to force them from their land.

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A boat builder and his family attempt to set sail in his handmade boat, 'The Damfino'.

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Upon waking from the dream of a theater peopled entirely by numerous Buster Keatons, a lowly stage hand causes havoc everywhere he works.

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A series of misadventures occur when Buster is mistaken for a criminal on the lam.

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