KEATON'S FILMS

By Janice Agnello, Heidi Crabtree, and Lisle Foote

A
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The
Allez Oop

Around the World in 80 Days
B
Back Stage
Ballonatic, The
Battling Butler
Beach Blanket Bingo
Bell Boy, The
Blacksmith, The
Blue Blazes
Boat, The
Butcher Boy, The
C
Cameraman, The
Chemist, The
College
Coney Island
Convict 13
Cook, The
Cops
Country Hero, The
D
Daydreams
Ditto
Doughboys
E
E-flat Man, The
Electric House, The
F
Film
Forever and a Day
Free and Easy
Frozen North, The
Funny Thing Happend on the Way to the Forum, A

G
Garage, The
General, The
General Nuisance
Go West
Goat, The
God's Country
Gold Ghost, The
Good Night, Nurse!
Grand Slam Opera


H
Hard Luck
Haunted House
Hayseed, The
Hayseed Romance
High Sign, The

His Ex Marks the Spot

His Wedding Night
Hollywood Cavalcade
Hollywood Revue of 1929
How to Stuff a Wild Bikini
I
In the Good Old Summertime
Invader, The
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
J-K
Jail Bait
L

Li'l Abner
Limelight

Lovable Cheat, The
Love Nest, The
Love Nest on Wheels, The
M
Mixed Magic
Moderno Barba Azul, El
Mooching Through Georgia
Moonshine
My Wife's Relations

N
Navigator, The
Neighbors
Nothing But Pleasure

O
Oh Doctor!
One Week
One-Run Elmer
Our Hospitatlity
Out West


P
Pajama Party
Paleface, The
Palooka From Paducah
Paradise for Buster
Pardon My Berth Marks
Parlor, Bedroom, and Bath
Passionate Plumber, The
Pest from the West
Playhouse, The
R
Railrodder, The
Roi des Champs-Elysees
Rough House, The
S
San Diego, I Love You
Saphead, The
Scarecrow, The
Scribe, The
Sergeant Deadhead
Seven Chances
Sherlock Jr.
She's Oil Mine
Sidewalks of New York
So You Won't Squawk
Speak Easily
Spite Marriage
Spook Speaks, The
Steamboat Bill, Jr.
Sunset Boulevard
T
Taming of the Snood
Tars and Stripes
Ten Girls Ago
That Night With You
That's the Spirit
Three Ages, The
Three on a Limb
Timid Young Man, The
Triumph of Lester Snapwell, The
V
Villain Still Pursued Her, The

W
War Italian Style
What! No Beer?

Jump to:

If you can identify any of the uncredited participants, please contact Lisle Foote at lifoote@yahoo.com.

Warning: The synopses contain spoliers! But don't worry too much -- our prose can't possibly capture the thrill of seeing Keaton ride through the streets of Los Angeles on the handlebars of a driverless motorcycle, etc.

 

 

Arbuckle/Keaton Silent Shorts

The Butcher Boy
Molasses is viscous stuff

Released: April 23, 1917
Length: Two reels
Presented by: Comique Film Corporation
Distribution: Paramount Pictures
Producer: Joseph M. Schenck
Director: Roscoe Arbuckle
Scenario: Roscoe Arbuckle
Story: Joe Roach
Editor: Herbert Warren
Photography: Frank D. Williams

Cast:
Roscoe Arbuckle: Butcher
Buster Keaton: Customer
Al St. John: Store clerk
Josephine Stevens: Girl
Arthur Earle: Proprietor, girl’s father
Agnes Neilson: Miss Teachem
Joe Bordeau: Accomplice
Luke the Dog: Store assistant

In a general store, Arbuckle does knife tricks as he works as a butcher. St. John and Luke grind pepper with a dog-powered grinder. Miss Teachem, from the girls boarding school, comes in and order Arbuckle about; he glides around the store walls on a rolling ladder. Keaton arrives, pops a coin into his bucket, and asks for some molasses. Arbuckle fills it. Then Keaton tells him that the money is beneath the molasses, so he uses Keaton’s hat as a temporary molasses receptacle. Coin retrieved, Keaton puts his hat on and can’t get it off. Arbuckle pulls it away, but then Keaton’s shoe is stuck in a molasses puddle. After many tries, Arbuckle dissolves the sticky stuff with hot water, then loosens him with a kick. Keaton crashes into the proprietor, who tells him to get out.

Arbuckle and Stevens spoon, and she asks him about marriage. His rival, St. John, sees them kiss. A flour war commences. Keaton comes back, and hostilities escalate to pies. It’s a mess. The manager decides to send his daughter off to Miss Teachem’s boarding school.

At school, Stevens isn’t allowed to receive Arbuckle’s letter. She cries outside. Arbuckle, dressed as a schoolgirl, comes with Luke to rescue her. While Luke waits, Miss Teachem registers Arbuckle as Stevens’ cousin, Saccharine. St. John arrives with a similar plan; his helpers are Keaton and Bordeau. They wait in the cold while St. John, Arbuckle, and the girls go in to dinner. Despite his dress, St. John snorts while he slurps his soup, and Arbuckle’s manners aren’t much better. Later, Miss Teachem assigns Stevens, Arbuckle, and St. John to one room. Stevens leaves to put on her pajamas, and the fight begins. Miss Teachem intervenes and spanks Arbuckle. St. John calls in Keaton and Bordeau, and Luke joins them. They try to kidnap Stevens, but Luke keeps the three men from escaping. Miss Teachem catches them, and holding them at gunpoint, calls the police. Arbuckle and Stevens get out and find themselves by the Reverend Henry Smith’s house. They decide they might as well get married. – Lisle Foote

The Rough House
Roscoe teaches Chaplin how to make rolls dance

Released: June 25, 1917
Length: Two reels
Presented by: Comique Film Corporation
Distribution: Paramount Pictures
Producer: Joseph M. Schenck
Director: Roscoe Arbuckle
Scenario: Roscoe Arbuckle
Story: Joe Roach
Editor: Herbert Warren
Photography: Frank D. Williams

Cast:
Roscoe Arbuckle: Mr. Rough
Buster Keaton: Gardner/delivery boy/cop
Al St. John: Butler/cop
Alice Lake: Maid
Agnes Neilson: Mother-in-law
Glen Cavender: Cop

Knockabout slapstick breaks out constantly in Mr. Rough’s house. The film begins with a fire in Arbuckle’s bedroom. After musing that somebody ought to do something, he tries to extinguish it with a few teacups full of water. When his wife and mother-in-law learn of the blaze, they scream and alert the unhelpful help (Lake and St. John). All run into the bedroom where Keaton, the gardner, wets down the blaze and the cast.

Later, at breakfast, Arbuckle makes the rolls dance to Lake’s delight and Neilson’s disgust. His wife and mother-in-law leave. Keaton, the delivery boy, arrives and falls down several times. When St. John pulls a mop out from under him, Keaton picks up a knife and the chase begins. After nearly destroying the house, they run outside where a cop nabs them. Mrs. Rough returns to find him examining Lake’s ankle. She throws her out and hands him a broom. Meanwhile, at the police station, the chief decides that he has enough crooks and not enough cops, so he hires Keaton and St. John.

Later, at the Rough house, two dukes arrive for dinner with a detective lurking behind them. Arbuckle, demoted to cook, prepares the dinner. He serves the soup course by wringing it out of a sponge. He’s out of rum, so he uses gasoline to make a flambe. The commotion caused by the fire allows one duke to sneak into the bedroom and steal a pearl necklace. The detective calls the police station. Keaton, St. John, and another cop are sent over hill and dale to the house. The detective gives Arbuckle a gun and they both shoot at the thieves as they run. Eventually, the thieves run into the cops, and the detective finds the pearls on them. – Lisle Foote

His Wedding Night

Released: August 20, 1917
Length: Two reels
Presented by: Comique Film Corporation
Distribution: Paramount Pictures
Producer: Joseph M. Schenck
Director: Roscoe Arbuckle
Scenario: Roscoe Arbuckle
Story: Joe Roach
Editor: Herbert Warren
Photography: George Peters

Cast: Roscoe Arbuckle, Buster Keaton, Al St. John, Alice Mann, Arthur Earle, Jimmy Bryant, Josephine Stevens

This film is not available on DVD.

Oh Doctor!

Released: September 30, 1917
Length: Two reels
Presented by: Comique Film Corporation
Distribution: Paramount Pictures
Producer: Joseph M. Schenck
Director: Roscoe Arbuckle
Scenario: Jean Havez
Editor: Herbert Warren
Photography: George Peters

Cast: Roscoe Arbuckle, Buster Keaton, Al St. John, Alice Mann

 

Coney Island
(aka Fatty at Coney Island)

Roscoe by the beautiful sea.

Released: October 29, 1917
Length: Two reels
Presented by: Comique Film Corporation
Distribution: Paramount Pictures
Producer: Joseph M. Schenck
Director: Roscoe Arbuckle
Scenario: Roscoe Arbuckle
Editor: Herbert Warren
Photography: George Peters

Cast:
Roscoe Arbuckle, Buster Keaton, Al St. John: Wolves
Alice Mann: Their prey
Agnes Neilson: Arbuckle’s wife
Also: Joe Bordeau, Jimmy Bryant

At Coney Island, Keaton and Mann struggle to see the parade. Keaton climbs a pole, but when he applauds a marching band, he falls off. Meanwhile, on the beach, a bored Arbuckle escapes from Neilson by burying himself in the sand. When she goes to look for him, he runs the other direction. She runs into her old friend, St. John, then continues in her search.

On the midway, Arbuckle buys a ticket then walks off, the roll unspooling behind him. Mann asks Keaton to buy her a ticket, but he’s broke. St. John comes along with a wad of cash and he invites her along. They get on a ride. Keaton sneaks on, carried to it in a rubbish barrel. Keaton bumps them and he and St. John fight. The ride made Mann nauseous, so St. John takes her to a bench and goes to buy ice cream. Arbuckle sits next to her. When St. John comes back, Arbuckle intercepts the cones. The fight soon begins, and a cop hauls St. John away. Keaton tries out the strength-tester, but hits Arbuckle with the hammer instead. Keaton enjoys a good laugh, sitting on the machine. Arbuckle bops him on the head, rings the bell, and wins a cigar.

Next, Mann and Arbuckle ride the shoot-the-chutes. They fly out of the boat and into the water. Keaton rescues her then offers to pull Arbuckle out, but Arbuckle pulls him in. In search of dry clothes, Mann and Arbuckle go to the bathhouse to rent swim suits. They can’t find one to fit Arbuckle, so he steals a fat woman’s suit. While they change, Keaton gets hired as a lifeguard. He puts on the dry uniform. Arbuckle, his drag outfit completed by a wig, gets tossed out of the men’s shower then hauled out of the ladies’ lounge by Mann. In the meantime, Neilson visits the police station in her quest for her husband. She bails out St. John. Mann and Arbuckle visit the beach, and they share a bench with Neilson and St. John. Arbuckle thinks his costume will protect him, and St. John flirts shamelessly with him, but his wife sees through it. St. John and Arbuckle start another fight which moves into the water. Mann and Keaton run off. The cops (Kops, really) break up the fight and take them to jail. Sharing a cell, they continue to fight. One by one, cops come in to stop it, but they each get a rap on the head for their trouble. After they exhaust the police force, Arbuckle locks his wife in the cell. Arbuckle and St. John leave together, resolving to cut out women. A passing pretty woman quickly breaks St. John’s resolve, and Arbuckle soon follows suit. – Lisle Foote

A Country Hero

Released: December 10, 1917
Length: Two reels
Presented by: Comique Film Corporation
Distribution: Paramount Pictures
Producer: Joseph M. Schenck
Director: Roscoe Arbuckle
Scenario: Roscoe Arbuckle
Editor: Herbert Warren
Photography: George Peters

Cast: Roscoe Arbuckle, Buster Keaton, Al St. John, Alice Lake, Joe Keaton, Stanley Pembroke

This film is considered lost.

Out West
Early draft of a Western parody.

Released: January 20, 1918
Length: Two reels
Presented by: Comique Film Corporation
Distribution: Paramount Pictures
Producer: Joseph M. Schenck
Director: Roscoe Arbuckle
Scenario: Natalie Talmadge
Editor: Herbert Warren
Photography: George Peters

Cast:
Roscoe Arbuckle: Drifter
Buster Keaton: Saloon keeper
Al St. John: Black-hearted Bill
Alice Lake: Salvation Army worker
Also: Joe Keaton

Saloonkeeper Keaton kills a cheating poker player with his six-shooter, then opens a convenient trap door and rolls the corpse into the basement. Meanwhile, drifter Arbuckle rides on a freight train. Railroad workers chase him to the front of the train. He hops off, waits for the train to pass, and hops back on to the caboose, where he eats their lunch. They soon catch him and throw him off. He wanders through the wilderness, beset by thirst and Indians. Back at the saloon, Black-hearted Bill and his gang rob the customers. Arbuckle bursts in, shooting. He chases off the gang and Keaton hires him as bartender.

Bill comes back and tortures an African–American man by shooting at his feet to make him dance. People laugh. Lake, a Salvation Army worker, tells them that they should be ashamed of themselves and they stop. Arbuckle falls instantly in love. She solicits donations for her cause, and Bill offers a dollar – for a kiss. She refuses, and he grabs her. Arbuckle breaks a bottle over his head, and another. 18 bottles later, he gives up. He takes a feather and tickles Bill; the villain is so incapacitated that they are able to kick him out.

Seeking revenge, Bill comes back and kidnaps Lake. After a shootout, Bill takes her to his cabin. Arbuckle follows them. Lake blinds Bill by tossing her drink in his face and Arbuckle tickles him until Lake can escape. They push the cabin over a cliff. --Lisle Foote

The Bell Boy
Buster learns to take the stairs.

Released: March 18, 1918
Length: Two reels
Presented by: Comique Film Corporation
Distribution: Paramount Pictures
Producer: Joseph M. Schenck
Director: Roscoe Arbuckle
Scenario: Roscoe Arbuckle
Editor: Herbert Warren
Photography: George Peters

Cast:
Roscoe Arbuckle, Buster Keaton: Bell boys
Al St. John: Desk clerk
Alice Lake: Miss Cutie Cuticle
Joe Keaton, Charles Dudley: Guests

Arbuckle and Keaton are bell boys at the Elk’s Head Hotel. Clerk St. John drives guests to the station while the two do the spring cleaning. A Rasputin-like character comes in and after playing some patty-cake goes to the barbershop. Part-time barber Arbuckle transforms him into Ulysses S. Grant, Abraham Lincoln, and Kaiser Wilhelm. St. John comes back with a streetcar full of guests, but Arbuckle and Keaton ignore them all for Miss Cutie Cuticle, the new manicurist. They register her and take her up to her room in the horse-drawn elevator. After hearing complaints about them from the customers, St. John goes up to catch them, but they sneak back to work. Joe Keaton arrives and his top hat receives a variety of abuse. He retaliates with an impressive series of kicks.

Miss Cuticle sets to work in the barbershop. Keaton takes the other guests up in the elevator, but the horse balks and it gets stuck. He sticks his head out to call for help, and it gets stuck, too. After a series of mishaps with the horse, the rope attaching the elevator to him, and a board Arbuckle uses to pry Keaton’s head out, the elevator is freed and Lake lands on top of the elk’s head. Keaton rescues her and gets caught in the antlers himself. Arbuckle and Lake go for a carriage ride, leaving St. John to rescue Keaton.

On Saturday night, the Elk’s Head holds its regular dance. To impress Lake, Arbuckle asks Keaton and St. John to pose as bank robbers, whom he can capture. The two go to the bank, which is being robbed by legitimate robbers. The mayhem begins; Arbuckle soon joins in. The burglars run out and steal the streetcar. The three give chase. On a hill, the horse breaks free and the streetcar rolls backwards past the pursuers. The burglars are subdued and the cops take them away. Arbuckle gets a double reward, and Lake is impressed. – Lisle Foote

Moonshine
Saved by the title cards!

Released: May 13, 1918
Length: Two reels
Presented by: Comique Film Corporation
Distribution: Paramount Pictures
Producer: Joseph M. Schenck
Director: Roscoe Arbuckle
Scenario: Roscoe Arbuckle
Editor: Herbert Warren
Photography: George Peters

Cast:
Roscoe Arbuckle: Chief revenuer
Buster Keaton: Assistant revenuer
Al St. John: Mountain man
Alice Lake: Grew’s daughter
Charles Dudley: Jud Grew
Also: Joe Bordeau

On the perilous peaks of the Virginia hills, Arbuckle and Keaton encounter bootleggers. The moonshiners check their lair, which is concealed behind a bush. The chief bootlegger, Jud Grew, shoots a revenuer. Arbuckle, the chief revenuer, shows up in a car with his lieutenant – Keaton – and a troop of assistants. The assistants hide while Arbuckle and Keaton conduct a search, which they begin by falling off of a bluff. To clean the dirt off of Keaton, Arbuckle dunks him in the river and hangs him up to dry on a tree. Meanwhile, Grew’s daughter tussles first with her would-be-suitor St. John, then with her father. Arbuckle saves Grew and tosses Lake into the river. Because this is only a two-reeler, she falls in love with him immediately. St. John breaks up their embrace with his gun.

Dry, Keaton climbs out of the tree. He overhears the bootleggers at their lair. Arbuckle comes along and Keaton shows it to him. They go in and chug the brew, just to make sure it’s moonshine. The bootleggers catch them. Keaton runs out, but Arbuckle is taken prisoner. They march him to the Grew cabin and lock him in the well-appointed cellar. Later, the bootleggers dress for dinner in tuxedos. Lake serves Arbuckle, and warns him he’s in danger. She supplies a gun. Stealing an idea from The Count of Monte Cristo, he plays dead by covering his face in ketchup and shooting the gun. The bootleggers haul him out and dump him into the river. He floats away and gets out on a bank near Keaton. They extras are at lunch, so they decide to do the explosion scene. The bootleggers recapture Arbuckle, take him back to the cabin, tie him up, and put a can of gunpowder with a lit fuse under him. The cabin blows up, then the film reverses and it reassembles itself. Arbuckle comes out and the bootleggers draw their guns. Keaton mows them down. St. John shoots and misses Arbuckle. Arbuckle bends his gun and shoot St. John around the cabin’s corner. Grew presents Lake to Arbuckle for his bravery, but Arbuckle remembers that he’s already married, so he gives her to Keaton. Arbuckle leaves. – Lisle Foote

Good Night, Nurse!
Roscoe enjoys being a girl

Released: July 6, 1918
Length: Two reels
Presented by: Comique Film Corporation
Distribution: Paramount Pictures
Producer: Joseph M. Schenck
Director: Roscoe Arbuckle
Scenario: Roscoe Arbuckle
Editor: Herbert Warren
Photography: George Peters

Cast:
Roscoe Arbuckle: Alcoholic
Buster Keaton, Al St. John: Doctors
Alice Lake: Patient
Also: Joe Bordeau

On a rainy night, a drunken Arbuckle tries to light a cigarette while standing on a street corner. He unsuccessfully tries using a windblown woman’s umbrella (Keaton in drag) and a fellow drunk’s hat as a windbreak. Finally, he asks an organ grinder and his female companion to play the national anthem. A nearby cop takes off his hat, and Arbuckle is able to use that as a shield from the storm. The cop takes the cigarette and smokes it himself as he strolls away. Arbuckle addresses and stamps the other anti-Prohibitionist and leaves him on a post box. He takes the musical couple home.

Chez Arbuckle, the butler tells Mrs. A. about the No Hope Sanatorium, where they cure alcoholism with an operation. Arbuckle arrives, and his disreputable companions, their music and dancing (as well as their monkey) convince her to send him to No Hope.

The next day, she delivers him to the hospital. Mental patient Lake jumps into his arms, but the attendants drag her away. Doctors St. John and Keaton march him to Room 13, where they undress and examine him. He eats the thermometer. They put him, struggling, onto a gurney and wheel him to surgery. St. John administers a healthy dose of ether and Arbuckle fades out.

He wakes up in his room, happy to find all of his body parts still there. Lake comes in, and they decide to escape. However, after they sneak past Keaton and St. John, she cries and wants to go back. He throws himself into the pool and plays dead at the bottom. She runs back to the hospital and alerts the attendants. Meanwhile, Arbuckle has rigged up a hose to blow bubbles in the pool, which tricks the orderlies into diving in after him. He goes back inside and steals the rotund Price’s nurses uniform. He and Keaton flirt outrageously in the hallway until Price comes back and rips the uniform off of him. He runs outside. In his skivvies, he easily blends in with the runners in the Great Heavyweight Race going past the hospital. He wins and collects the $500 purse. Keaton and St. John catch him, but then he wakes up in the operating room. – Lisle Foote

The Cook
Iron Chef American?

Released: September 15, 1918
Length: Two reels
Presented by: Comique Film Corporation
Distribution: Paramount Pictures
Producer: Joseph M. Schenck
Director: Roscoe Arbuckle
Scenario: Roscoe Arbuckle
Editor: Herbert Warren
Photography: George Peters

Cast:
Roscoe Arbuckle: The Cook
Buster Keaton: The Waiter
Al St. John: The Toughest Guy in the World
Alice Lake: The Cashier
John Rand: The Proprietor
Bobby Dunn: The Dishwasher
Luke the Dog: The Bouncer

In the kitchen of the beachfront Bull Pup Café, Arbuckle shows off his knife skills while Luke assists the dishwasher by licking the plates clean. In the dining room, Keaton’s flirtation with Lake is interrupted by the angry boss who pushes him into the kitchen where Arbuckle nearly chops his head off. Since it’s still attached to his body, Keaton goes about his waiter’s duties. Nearly every order he yells back to the cook comes out of an amazing vat: coffee, ham, milk, and even ice cream. Arbuckle tosses the loaded plates and glasses to Keaton, who catches each nimbly. An exotic dancer entertains the patrons so Keaton and Arbuckle join in; Arbuckle’s tribute to Salome and Cleopatra is a grand success. Then the toughest guy in the world, Al St. John, comes in. He grabs Lake, and the men unsuccessfully fight him. So they call in the expert, and Luke chases him until the next day.

During the lunch break at the Bull Pup, the men display several creative solutions to the problem of eating spaghetti. Luke continues his chase up a ladder, and St. John crashes through the café’s ceiling and bounces on the lunch table. He runs out, and everyone congratulates Luke on his good work.

Next, everyone has a day off so Arbuckle goes fishing and Keaton goes courting. At the beach, Keaton and Lake take a goat cart to Goatland while Arbuckle and Luke pilot their own cart to the water. After a mishap between Arbuckle’s pole and a cop, he wades into the surf and with Luke’s assistance, catches a big fish. Meanwhile, St. John turns up again and chases Lake to the roller coaster. She gets on and he follows in another train. Her train stalls on top of a hill and he comes after her. She dives into the ocean. While Luke goes after St. John, Arbuckle and Keaton rush to the rescue. Hampered by a chained-down life preserve and rope problems, they eventually land in the water to help Lake.

The available print ends there, but according to the original press kit, “while the pest waiter is rescuing his girl with the aid of the cook, the courageous Luke dives into the ocean after the tough guy, chasing him so far out into the ocean that he can’t swim back to shore. It is fitting that after all this action, everything ends happily. “ – Lisle Foote

Back Stage
Always keep a ukulele in your pants

Released: September 1, 1919
Length: Two reels
Presented by: Comique Film Corporation
Distribution: Paramount Pictures
Producer: Joseph M. Schenck
Director: Roscoe Arbuckle
Scenario: Jean Havez and Roscoe Arbuckle
Photography: Elgin Lessley

Cast:
Roscoe Arbuckle: Stage manager
Buster Keaton, Al St. John: Stage hands
Molly Malone: Strongman’s assistant
John Coogan: Novelty dancer
Also: Buddy Post

Arbuckle and Keaton draw on their vaudeville origins in Backstage. They are busy preparing for a show: striking a bedroom set, pasting up a poster (and an interfering child), repairing the floor. A novelty dancer, John Coogan, arrives and demonstrates his act. Arbuckle and Keaton both try to imitate him, but they both end up on the floor. The strongman and his baggage-laden assistant, Molly Malone, arrive. The hands are horrified by his maltreatment of her, but Arbuckle’s first attempts to teach him some manners through a beating fail. Keaton tries a less diplomatic approach with an ax, but the weapon only tickles the behemoth. Finally they electrify a barbell and shock him into unconsciousness. After he wakes up, he and the rest of the troupe walk out. Malone stays and suggests that they put on the show themselves. They shake hands on it.

The show begins with an operetta, “The Falling Reign.” After Malone dances, King Roscoe and Queen Buster perform a sort of pas de deux to the jeers of the novelty dancer. Malone comes back and seduces the King. Enraged with jealousy, Keaton stabs Arbuckle by sliding a knife under his arm. Arbuckle dies melodramatically. They take their bows. The strongman muscles his way into the balcony, and the show continues with “A Snowflake Serenade.” Snow wafts down on the stage as Keaton chauffeurs Arbuckle to a house. Arbuckle begins to play his harmonica, but when they run out of snow, he gives up on the winter scene. Shedding his coat and taking a ukulele out of his pants, he sings to Malone who’s standing at a window in the house. Keaton accidentally knocks down the house. After some set readjustment, Arbuckle kisses Malone. A shot rings out: the strongman fires on Malone. Keaton swings from the stage and drags him down to the stage. The hands try to subdue the man, but it takes a trunk full of weights swung on a rope to knock him out. Later, Arbuckle visits Malone in the hospital. They resume kissing where they left off. – Lisle Foote

The Hayseed
Onions do not improve your voice (or your love life)

Released: October 26, 1919
Length: Two reels
Presented by: Comique Film Corporation
Distribution: Paramount Pictures
Producer: Joseph M. Schenck
Director: Roscoe Arbuckle
Scenario: Jean Havez and Roscoe Arbuckle
Photography: Elgin Lessley

Cast:
Roscoe Arbuckle, Buster Keaton: Store clerks
Molly Malone: Fanny
John Coogan: Cop/rival
Also: Kitty Bradbury, Luke the Dog

Arbuckle and Keaton work in a general store/post office/community center. After they use the mail as missiles against each other, Arbuckle and Luke take the mail wagon on its appointed rounds. After he gives an abandoned empty liquor bottle a decent burial, he stops to flirt with Fanny, his girlfriend. They play hide and seek, but the local constable (Roscoe’s arch-rival) distracts her and Arbuckle and Luke fall asleep in their haystack hiding place. Her father wakes him with a pitchfork.

Back at work, Arbuckle and his boss discuss and insured letter that contains $300. While he’s busy drilling holes in some cheese for a customer who wanted Swiss, the skulking constable steals the money. Keaton sees him and gets several socks in the jaw for pointing out his wrongdoing. Fanny comes in, and inspired by another woman’s engagement ring, asks Arbuckle if he’d buy her a ring like that. For an answer, he sticks her ring finger into a cheese. She joins the hen party and Arbuckle sends an order to a mail order company from an imitation gold ring with a diamond. He fits a pickle into the hole in the cheese, and sends it along for sizing. He also orders a new suit, so Keaton measures his wide circumference.

Later, the constable presents Fanny with a real diamond bought with the stolen money. As he goes out, Arbuckle goes in and puts an even larger “diamond” on her finger. On the street by the store, the constable chats up two women. Keaton dumps water on him from the roof. He responds by throwing boxes up, which knock Keaton onto a ladder. The constable tips the ladder, and Keaton lands in Arbuckle’s moving mail wagon.

That weekend, the store serves as a dance hall. After some acrobatic dancing, the entertainment begins with magic from Buster the Great. Then the constable dances – badly. In the wings, singer Arbuckle’s voice gives out, so Keaton recommends onions to make it strong. Arbuckle munches several, then brings tears to his audience’s eyes with a combination of lachrymose lyrics and onion breath. The constable accuses him of stealing the money and Arbuckle turns to his friends for consolation. Repelled by his halitosis, they turn away -- even Luke. But Keaton reveals the real criminal and Luke chases him down the road. Fanny wants to kiss Arbuckle, but his breath is still stinky. He suggests she have some onions too, to cancel it out. – Lisle Foote

The Garage
(aka Fire Chief)

Filth and fire-fighting

Released: January 11, 1920
Length: Two reels
Presented by: Comique Film Corporation
Distribution: Paramount Pictures
Producer: Joseph M. Schenck
Director: Roscoe Arbuckle
Scenario: Jean Havez and Roscoe Arbuckle
Photography: Elgin Lessley

Cast:
Roscoe Arbuckle, Buster Keaton: Jacks-of-all-trades
Molly Malone: Garage owner’s daughter
Also: Harry McCoy, Daniel Crimmins, Luke the Dog

Arbuckle and Keaton are the town’s only mechanics, cops, firemen, and dogcatchers. While Arbuckle mimes cleaning a car window, Keaton adds some wood alcohol to his lunchtime soda. Back at work, their flying exchange of a wet rag, a custard pie, a pail, and a tire results in a dirty car and the boss in the water tub. When they try to rescue him, they end up in the tub, too. The customer comes for his car, so Keaton and his boss must distract him with dances and tricks while Arbuckle cleans it on a rotating turntable. Another customer demands a cheap rental car. Arbuckle gives him a key, and he drives off. The engine explodes and the car disintegrates around him. He comes back for one with a less excitable engine.

Jim, the village Casanova, comes to visit Molly, the bosses’ daughter. Arbuckle and Keaton manage to coat them both in grease. Molly retires to her bath, and the men clean Jim off with gasoline, then blow him dry on the turntable. Jim still wants revenge, so he hires Luke to impersonate a rabid dog. Luke runs past the garage and Arbuckle and Keaton chase him – until he turns around and chases them. Keaton gets stuck in a fence and Luke chews off his pants. A woman is horrified by the sight of him in his under shorts and she gets a cop. Thinking quickly, he cuts out a kilt from a nearby billboard. The cop refuses to arrest him just for being a Scotsman, but his Highland jig reveals that his kilt has no back and the chase is on. Along comes Arbuckle, and Keaton walks in sync behind him, hiding from the cop. He steals some pants, and in one fluid motion Arbuckle picks him up, he puts the pants on, and they continue on their way.

Meanwhile, upstairs at the garage, Molly is still mad at Jim for the grease incident. He turns to leave, but her father and Arbuckle are coming up the stairs. Fearing being caught, he goes into Arbuckle and Keaton’s room and tries to slide down the fire pole, but he’s blocked by Keaton who’s climbing up. He hides under a bed. Arbuckle and Keaton settle for a nap, and Jim pulls the fire bell. They slide down the pole, put on their police helmets, and run out with the hose cart. Jim tries to escape, but Molly’s dad runs through, slides down the pole, goes out, and padlocks the garage door. Arbuckle and Keaton notice that they have on the wrong helmets, so they run back to the garage, unlock the door, get the right helmets, and run back to their hose cart. Their boss re-locks the door. Jim uses a blowtorch to burn a hole in the door, then tosses it aside. It causes a car to explode, which sets the whole garage on fire. On a hill, Arbuckle and Keaton look for a fire. Their boss comes and tells them that the garage is on fire. They go back, but a leaky hose thwarts their firefighting efforts. Jim calls for help from an upstairs window, and they bring out a stretcher to catch him. Then Molly yells and they move to catch her. Jim leaps and lands on the ground, goofy but not broken. Molly bounces on the stretcher and lands on the power wires. Arbuckle and Keaton climb up and rescue her, and then they drop into Molly’s car. – Lisle Foote

Keaton's Silent Shorts

One Week
Buster builds a house: a cautionary tale
(longer version)

Release Date: September 1, 1920
Length: Two reels
Presented by: Comique Film Corp.
Distribution: Metro Pictures
Producer: Joseph M. Schenck
Director/Script: Buster Keaton and Eddie Cline
Photography: Elgin Lessley

Cast:
Buster Keaton: The Groom
Sybil Seely: The Bride
Joe Roberts: The Piano Deliveryman
Handy Hank: Damfino!

On Monday, newlyweds Keaton and Seeley are given a traditional send off to married life with a pelting of good wishes, rice and old shoes. Keaton's uncle gives them a house (the build it yourself in seven days variety) and a plot of land as a wedding present. Unbeknownst to Keaton, his rival for Seely's affections, Handy Hank, has changed all the numbers on the house's cartons. The lopsided house's construction proceeds as Keaton and Seely tangle with the near disasters of a wildly swinging piano, doors that lead nowhere and a roof that's just a tad to small. While taking a bath, Seely accidentally drops the slippery soap onto the floor. Keaton strategically places his hand over the camera lens while she retrieves the fallen bar, thus saving Seely's decorum.

Friday the thirteenth is housewarming day as friend and foe gather to inspect the new, but humble abode. A sudden rainstorm and a leaky roof send Keaton outside to investigate. The house begins spinning like a top, throwing guests about like rag dolls as a frenzied Keaton tries to climb back inside. One by one, each is flung out of the house and into the rain-swept, muddy yard. The dejected couple then finds out that they've built on the wrong lot.

The next day the dilapidated house is hoisted on barrels as Keaton tries pulling and rolling it to the correct lot with his car. When the house gets caught on the railroad tracks they desperately struggle to free it from the path of an oncoming train. The train narrowly misses the house, much to Keaton and Seely's relief, only to have it demolished by another traveling in the opposite direction. Assessing the damage, Keaton plants a "For Sale" sign in the rubble. Then in an afterthought, he deposits the house directions too, before he and Seely walk off into the sunset. -- Janice Agnello

Convict 13
Buster learns to be careful about which uniform he wears: golfer, prisioner, or guard
(longer version)

Release Date: October 27, 1920
Length: Two reels
Presented by: Comique Film Corp.
Distribution: Metro Pictures
Producer: Joseph M. Schenck
Director/Script: Buster Keaton and Eddie Cline
Photography: Elgin Lessle

Cast:
Buster Keaton: Convict 13
Sybil Seely: The Warden's Daughter
Joe Roberts: The Prisoner Riot Leader
Eddie Cline: The Hangman
Joe Keaton: A Prisoner

On the golf links, amateur duffer Keaton tries impressing the club members and Seely with his golfing prowess. Meanwhile, an escaped convict is lurking around the course eluding the local police. Keaton manages to knock himself out when a ball he's hit ricochets off a building and beans him. The escapee takes advantage of the situation by switching clothes with the unconscious Keaton. Awakening and unaware of his identity change, Keaton continues his golf game until he's confronted by the cops and the chase begins. As he tries to shake them, Keaton locks himself inside a gate that turns out to be the prison yard.

As Convict 13, or, the next man on the hangman's list, Keaton meets up with Seely, the warden's daughter, who pleads in vain with her father to spare his life. The inmates cheer from the sidelines as the hanging is turned into a major sporting event. But, Seely has swapped the hangman's noose and rope for an elastic exercise band from her father's gym, so Keaton's trip to the gallows ends in some rubber necking.

Banished to the rock pile, Keaton accidentally knocks out a guard and quickly trades his prison garb for a uniform. All's well until Officer Keaton meets Prisoner Joe Roberts, who is on a crazed tirade to eliminate all the prison's guards and start a riot precisely at 3 o'clock. Prisoner Roberts takes Seely hostage, but Keaton comes to the rescue by reenacting his vaudeville basketball and elastic rope routine and expertly striking all the rioting men in the yard. As his reward, Keaton becomes the warden's assistant and wins Seely's affections. -- Janice Agnello

Note: Two versions of Convict 13 are available: an English and a French. According to Caroline Abbot, the title card are different in places and the French one has more. Also in the English version, near the very beginning when Buster tries to putt it only shows him missing once, but in the French one he hits the ball left to right to left & eventually gets it in by using the end of his golf stick as a snooker cue. There are other tiny differences too, but another quite big one is just after Joe Roberts' character has just pushed Buster flying out of the room and into the next one, then goes off with the girl. In the English one it goes to the bit where Buster leans on the punchbag which falls off, but in the French one it briefly shows Buster using punchbag as a pillow. Our synopses are based on the English version.

The Scarecrow
Buster leaves Paradise for a questionable future with some female
(longer version)

Release date: November 17, 1920
Length: Two reels
Presented by: Comique Film Corp.
Distribution: Metro Pictures
Producer: Joseph M. Schenck
Director/Script: Buster Keaton and Eddie Cline
Photography: Elgin Lessley

Cast:
Buster Keaton: Farm Hand
Joe Roberts: Farm Hand
Sybil Seely: Farmer's Daughter
Joe Keaton: Farmer
Eddie Cline: Truck Driver
Luke the Dog: Himself

Farm hands Keaton and Roberts live in a quaint, one-room bungalow that's filled with ingenious mechanical gadgets. All the room's furnishings double for something else, such as a bed that becomes an upright piano, a bathtub that converts to a sofa, and a phonograph that transforms into a stove. As Keaton and Roberts sit down to breakfast, salt and pepper shakers and a sugar bowl swing down from the ceiling on pulleys and are passed between them with precision timing.

Keaton and Roberts, romantic rivals, try to outwit each other as they vie for the daughter's affection. The pace accelerates when Keaton is chased by Luke the dog, who has just eaten a cream pie. In his attempt to be rid of the "mad dog," Keaton hides in a haystack only to be drawn up into a mechanical baler and then is spit out sans clothes. The farmer notices Keaton wearing only skivvies and gives chase. Keaton eludes detection by donning a scarecrow's outfit and hanging limply in the corn field. After overhearing Roberts propose marriage to the girl, Keaton lands a few swift kicks on the seats of his rival and the farmer's pants. Keaton's cover is then revealed and the chase resumes.

While running through the beautiful outdoor scenery and crossing a stream on his hands, Keaton loses his shoe. As he kneels to put it back on, the girl appears and assumes he's proposing marriage. Keaton, perplexed and amazed at the sudden turn of events, quickly grabs the girl and jumps on a horse to escape. Going nowhere on the slow animal, Keaton commandeers a motorcycle and side car and speeds down the road in search of a minister. He practically runs into one who happens to be crossing the street. Thinking the minister has come from the sky, Keaton urges him to marry them, which he piously does. It all comes to a splashing end as the motorcycle skids out of control and crashes into the bay. -- Janice Agnello

Neighbors
Buster overcomes fence, family, pants, etc.; gets girl
(longer version)

Release date: December 22, 1920
Length: Two reels
Presented by: Comique Film Corp.
Distribution: Metro Pictures
Producer: Joseph M. Schenck
Director/Script: Buster Keaton and Eddie Cline
Photography: Elgin Lessley

Cast:
Buster Keaton: The Boy
Virginia Fox: The Girl
Joe Roberts: Her Father
Joe Keaton: His Father
Eddie Cline: The Cop
James (or Jack) Duffy: The Judge
The Flying Escalantes: The Boy's Friends

Keaton and Fox are star-crossed, back alley sweethearts living in neighboring tenement buildings. Neither family can tolerate the other, so they feud on either side of the tenement fence. Keaton constantly tries to sneak over the barrier to the girl, only to be thwarted by her father. While attempting to escape his wrath, Keaton performs a fantastic physical feat by going across the yard on a clothesline, into a window, down a staircase banister, out another window, across the yard again on the clothesline, through the window and back into the arms of the girl's father. Keaton is also on the receiving end of some physical abuse from his father as the two recreate routines from their vaudeville act.

The brawling between the families becomes so fierce that they're hauled into court by the police. The judge orders that peace should prevail and that Keaton and Fox be allowed to marry. The nuptial fiasco takes place on Keaton's side of the fence, where invited guests wield bricks and clubs, and Keaton and the minister have a hard time keeping their pants up. Before the "I do's" are said, the girl is ordered back to her room by her father. Keaton, sent to the same fate by his parents, forms a three-man high rescue team to save the girl.

As they scurry across the yard and duck into windows, they finally succeed in plucking Fox from her perch and race down the street. The three-man tower gets lower and lower until Keaton is running with the girl to the minister's house. Falling into an opening in the pavement, they tumble down the coal cellar where the minister is shoveling fuel into the furnace. He promptly marries them, coal dust smudges and all. -- Janice Agnello

Haunted House
Buster wonders which is more frightening: bankers or ghosts?
(longer version)

Release date: February 10, 1921
Length: Two reels
Presented by: Comique Film Corp.
Distribution: Metro Pictures
Producer: Joseph M. Schenck
Director/Script: Buster Keaton and Eddie Cline
Photography: Elgin Lessley

Cast:
Buster Keaton: Bank Teller
Virginia Fox: Bank Director's Daughter
Joe Roberts: Bank Cashier
Eddie Cline: Man whose pants become glued

While Keaton the bank clerk arrives at work, another cashier (Joe Roberts) shows off the chief feature of his counterfeiter's lair: a staircase that converts to a slide. He wants to convince everyone that the building is a haunted house, to conceal his nefarious activities. Back at the bank, Keaton mistakenly dips his fingers in glue and currency is soon stuck everywhere. After an abortive bank robbery, Roberts accuses Keaton of being the robber, but Keaton avoids arrest by hiding in the vault.

That evening, three inept actors in a production of Faust get chased out of their theater by the audience. A posse releases Keaton (his coat had been caught by the vault door on a timer) and he escapes, running to the haunted house. Inside he's tormented by ghosts, Faust players, the stairway slide, skeletons, a bat, and death himself. Eventually he sees two half-costumed ghosts having a snort, and he realizes that they are of this world. When Roberts holds the bank president, sheriff, and assistants at gunpoint, a ghost grabs the gun and reveals himself to be Keaton. Angry, Roberts bops him on the head. Keaton climbs a stairway to heaven, only to be refused entry by Saint Peter. He slides down to hell, where the devil has been expecting him. The banker's daughter wakes him up, and they embrace. -- Lisle Foote

Hard Luck
Guns aren't lawful, nooses give
Gas smells awful, your might as well hunt armadillo, fox, and Lizard Lip Luke

(longer version)

Release date: March 16, 1921
Length: Two reels
Presented by: Comique Film Corp.
Distribution: Metro Pictures
Producer: Joseph M. Schenck
Director/Script: Buster Keaton and Eddie Cline
Photography: Elgin Lessley

Cast:
Buster Keaton: Unlucky man
Virginia Fox: Fox hunter
Joe Roberts: Lizard Lip Luke

Down on his luck, Keaton tries to commit suicide in various ways: by lying down in front of a streetcar, running under a falling safe, hanging, and poison. But the streetcar reverses, he can't get under the safe fast enough, the hanging tree bough bends, and the poison turns out to be whiskey. Buoyed up by the booze, he agrees to capture an armadillo for the zoo, for which he is handsomely rewarded.

After an unsuccessful stint of fishing, Keaton finds a country club instead of an armadillo. He helps Fox get on her horse and she invites him on a fox hunt. After elastic stirrup difficulties with his horse, he can't find the hunt. His search culminates in lassoing a bear instead of his steed. He runs away and somersaults into the clubhouse where the fox hunters are relaxing. They're soon joined by Lizard Lip Luke (Joe Roberts) and his gang, who want to relieve the members of their belongings and Miss Fox of her virtue. Keaton saves all with a fusillade of bullets fired from the stove. Spurned by the already married Fox, he decides to take a high dive. He misses the pool and creates a seemingly bottomless pit. Years later, he returns with his Chinese wife and children. — Lisle Foote

The High Sign
Buster meets Buzzards
(longer version)

Release date: April 12, 1921
Length: Two reels
Presented by: Comique Film Corp.
Distribution: Metro Pictures
Producer: Joseph M. Schenck
Director/Script: Buster Keaton and Eddie Cline
Photography: Elgin Lessley

Cast:
Buster Keaton: The Man
Bartine Burkett Zane: Miss Nickelnurser
Al St. John: Man hit during target practice

Quick to land on his feet after being tossed off of a train, Keaton steals a newspaper and finds a help wanted ad for a shooting gallery attendant. After some unsuccessful target practice, he applies to Tiny Tim for the job. He's hired on the condition that he must shoot well enough to ring the bell every time by Tim's return. Tim visits his gang, the Blinking Buzzards, gaining admission by giving the high sign (thumbs on nose with wiggling fingers spread like wings). They agree to kill August Nicklenurser, who refused to pay protection money.

By cheating, Keaton not only passes the test, he also gets hired as Nicklenurser's bodyguard. Then he gets invited to join the Buzzards, along with an assignment to kill Nicklenurser. August shows his daughter some of the secret wall panels and trap doors he's had installed in his house as escape routes, and Keaton joins them. They decide to fake Nicklenurser's death. The Buzzards are temporarily fooled, but after August comes back to life they chase their victims through every window, door, and secret escape route in the house. Keaton eliminates them all, and he and Miss Nicklenurser embrace. -- Lisle Foote

The Goat
Buster is tormented by the unfathomable universe, gets girl
(longer version)

Release date: July 14, 1921
Length: Two reels
Presented by: Comique Film Corp.
Distribution: Metro Pictures
Producer: Joseph M. Schenck
Director/Script: Buster Keaton and Mal St. Clair
Photography: Elgin Lessley

Cast:
Buster Keaton: The Scapegoat
Joe Roberts: Policeman
Virginia Fox: Policeman's Daughter
Mal St. Clair: 'Dead Shot' Dan
Eddie Cline: Cop by telephone pole

The story opens with Keaton in a bread line. By the time he reaches the window, it is closed for the day. Meanwhile, police haul 'Dead Shot' Dan (Mal St. Clair), a criminal, to a jail photographer. Keaton peeps at this action from a window behind Dan, and inadvertently has his photo snapped instead. Dan escapes, and Keaton, having had several altercations with the police, spots his face on a wanted poster. Keaton had earlier saved Virginia Fox from a ruffian, and knocked the guy unconscious. A man covered with paste staggers by; Keaton sees this all-white person and assumes it is the ghost of the ruffian. He thinks he is wanted for murder.

Soon a plainclothes policeman (Joe Roberts) spots Keaton next to the wanted poster, and a chase ensues. After wreaking havoc in a clinic and ruining a statue, Keaton outwits the cop. Spotting the woman he'd earlier saved, he accepts her invitation to dinner. As the family sits down for soup, Keaton makes eye contact with the woman's father. It is the cop. Father sends the ladies to another room and prepares to take care of Keaton, who escapes by leaping from the table to the cop's shoulders, then out the window over the door. Using the elevator in the building, Keaton and the woman outrun Father, and go off to get married by way of a furniture store. -- Heidi Crabtree

The Playhouse
Buster (x27) meets girl (x4)
(longer version)

Release date: October 6, 1921
Length: Two reels
Presented by: Comique Film Corp.
Distribution: First National
Producer: Joseph M. Schenck
Director/Script: Buster Keaton and Eddie Cline
Photography: Elgin Lessley
Technical Director: Fred Gabourie

Cast:
Buster Keaton: The Whole Show; Assistant Stage Manager
Joe Roberts: Stage Manager, Zouave Guard
Virginia Fox: A Twin

Keaton is the whole show in this Playhouse: audience, musicians, performers, and stagehand. He enters the theater where an all-Keaton band plays. Soon the Keaton minstrels take the stage as the Keatons in the audience watch. Next, two dancing Keatons perform in unison. Keaton, in bed and asleep, applauds them. He's woken from his dream by Joe Roberts, who appears to be reposesing the furniture. The walls slide away, revealing backstage dressing rooms. After the stagehands put away his bedroom suite, he sweeps the floor.

Twin actresses arrive and make him think he's seeing double (he even temporarily swears off alcohol). The audience comes in and the show begins. First Keaton substitutes for an escaped monkey in a trained animal act. Next up are a hastily recruited group of Zouave Guards, who do a set of military maneuvers badly. They're followed by the twins, whose act involves one entering a large tank of water to demonstrate how long she can hold her breath. Meanwhile, in retribution for being knocked out with an ax during a beard fire crisis, Roberts chases Keaton. After Keaton locks him in the monkey cage, the twin in the tank gets caught and he breaks the tank, flooding the theater. He and a twin escape to a justice of the peace; first with the wrong girl, then with the right one. -- Lisle Foote

The Boat
Boat meets Buster; traumatizes his house, car, and family; sinks
(longer version)

Release date: November 1921
Length: Two reels
Presented by: Comique Film Corp.
Distribution: First National
Producer: Joseph M. Schenck
Director/Script: Buster Keaton and Eddie Cline
Photography: Elgin Lessley
Technical Director: Fred Gabourie

Cast:
Buster Keaton: Husband
Sybil Seely: Wife
Eddie Cline: Coast Guard radio man

In his garage, Keaton puts the finishing touches on his boat, the Damfino. He attaches the boat trailer to his car, enlarges the garage door opening, and drives off with his family. The vessel knocks down the wall, causing the house to disintegrate. Down at the dock, after the car plunges into the sea, the boat joins it, sliding smoothly underwater.

The Damfino recovers and Keaton demonstrates his method for fitting under low bridges: the mast and smokestack lean back. Distracted, he misses a bridge and everything topples over. He fixes the mess, then joins the family for a disastrous dinner.

That evening a storm comes up. When he radios for help, a Coast Guard thinks that a boat called Damfino can only be a prank. The wind rolls the boat over and over. Finally Keaton puts his family into the lifeboat and bravely goes down with his ship. Then he sensibly joins his kin. The lifeboat leaks and begins to sink, but it quickly touches bottom: they are only a few feet from the shore. As they walk to dry land, his wife asks where they are. He responds with the boat's name. — Lisle Foote

The Paleface
Buster dances with Indians
(longer version)

Release date: January 1922
Length: Two reels
Presented by: Comique Film Corp.
Distribution: First National
Producer: Joseph M. Schenck
Director/Script: Buster Keaton and Eddie Cline
Photography: Elgin Lessley
Technical Director: Fred Gabourie

Cast:
Buster Keaton: The Paleface
Joe Roberts: The Chief

Unbeknownst to a peaceful Indian tribe, a group of oil men plot to steal their land. When they learn of the plan, their chief (Joe Roberts) vows to kill the first white man that comes through their gate. Keaton arrives in search of butterflies. The Indians catch him and prepare to burn him at the stake. He escapes and makes himself a suit of asbestos BVDs, so when he's recaptured the flames don't concern him a bit. The Indians, amazed by his powers, bow before him and allow him to join their tribe.

When they get notice to vacate, the tribe rides to the oil office and do a war dance. One villain escapes and the Indians go after him. Keaton lags behind and the head oil man forces him, at gunpoint, to switch clothes. He becomes the quarry for both his own tribe and a rival tribe. Both groups watch as he crosses a chasm on a dilapidated bridge, then falls into the canyon. He escapes and returns to the Indian village, where his tribe joins him as he discovers the grant deed in the oil man's jacket. As his reward he asks for an Indian squab. They embrace. — Lisle Foote

Cops 
One nice boy. One cruel girl. Ten thousand cops.
(longer verison)

Release Date: March 1922
Length: Two reels
Presented by: Comique Film Corp.
Distribution: First National
Producer: Joseph M. Schenck
Director/Script: Buster Keaton and Eddie Cline
Photography: Elgin Lessley
Technical Director: Fred Gabourie

Cast:
Buster Keaton: The quarry
Virginia Fox: The Mayor's daughter
Joe Roberts: Plainclothes detective
Eddie Cline: Man who buys jacket


Keaton, behind bars, pleads with the mayor's daughter (Virginia Fox). She says she won't marry him until he becomes a big businessman, and she goes back to her mansion. He's on the street, in front of her barred gate. He tries to return a plainclothes detective's (Joe Roberts) wallet; after some abuse he keeps the cash and takes a cab downtown. There a con man offers him a family's possessions, and eager to prove his business prowess, he buys them. The family, thinking that he's the mover, loads their belongings on his newly-purchased cart. After dealing with turn signal problems and a pokey horse, he joins the annual police parade. An anarchist throws a bomb that Keaton uses as a cigarette lighter, the bomb explodes causing the horse to run wild, and the cops start chasing Keaton.

He leads them all over the city, hiding in buildings, a street cleaner's cart, a parked car, and an abandoned trunk (the latter when the man whose belongings he took comes after him). He grabs a passing car and gets whisked away, only to drop off in front of more cops. He see-saws on a ladder over a fence, with cops on both sides, and gets catapulted into Joe Roberts. Finally he runs into the Precinct Office. Armies of cops follow after him. A short cop comes out, locks the door, and throws away the key. It's Keaton. Virginia Fox strolls by and snubs him. He retrieves the key, unlocks the door, and abandons himself to his fate. — Lisle Foote

My Wife's Relations
Buster gets girl . . . and her family
(longer version

Release Date: May 1922
Length: Two reels
Presented by: Comique Film Corp.
Distribution:First National
Producer: Joseph M. Schenck
Director/Script: Buster Keaton and Eddie Cline
Photography: Elgin Lessley
Technical Director: Fred Gabourie

Cast:
Buster Keaton: The Groom
Kate Price: The Bride
Monte Collins: Father
Joe Roberts, Tom Wilson, Harry Madison, Wheezer Dell: Brothers


After a messy taffy-pulling encounter with a postman, Keaton removes a sticky letter from his shoe and puts it in his pocket. The irate postman, whose letters lie everywhere, throws a rock at Keaton, which goes through a courthouse window. Price, a rather matronly woman, thinks that Keaton broke the window, and drags him into the courthouse. The judge, who only speaks Polish, is waiting for a Polish couple to come in to be married. He marries Keaton and Price; they think they are testifying. Once Price discovers she is married to Keaton, she drags him home to meet her father and four brothers. Dinner is a competition for food, which Keaton ultimately wins.

Mistreated from the start, Keaton gets revenge on Price by "accidentally" slapping her and pretending to be asleep. She knocks him unconscious with a vase. The next morning Kate's brother finds the letter in Keaton's pocket. It turns out to be a legal paper informing the recipient of a $100,000.00 inheritance. Suddenly the family is eager to please Keaton, giving him all their money to get a nice place.

They soon live in an expensive aparement, with a vat of illegal beer brewing in the kitchen. Keaton dumps too much yeast in the brew, and the foam takes over the kitchen. Meanwhile, the family discovers that the letter was addressed to someone else and decides to murder him first, then kill him. After a chase up, down, and around the apartment and staircase, Keaton escapes and is seen kicking his feet up on the Reno Limited as it pulls out of the station. --Heidi Crabtree

The Blacksmith
Buster messes with horses and cars
(longer version)

Release Date: July 21, 1922
Length: Two reels
Presented by: Comique Film Corp.
Distribution: First National
Producer: Joseph M. Schenck
Director/Script: Buster Keaton and Mal St. Clair
Photography: Elgin Lessley
Technical Director: Fred Gabourie

Cast:
Buster Keaton: Assistant Blacksmith
Joe Roberts: Blacksmith
Virginia Fox: Girl with a white horse


The Blacksmith begins by illustrating some lines from Longfellow's "Village Blacksmith," except the spreading chestnut tree is a palm and Keaton's brawny muscle is a balloon. While Keaton pounds horseshoes and makes his breakfast, his boss (Joe Roberts) prepares for work. Roberts catches him, and Keaton smashes his eggs on his anvil. He burns both feet on a hot horseshoe and sticks them in the cooling tub. Roberts asks for a hammer and Keaton brings it, but a large magnet over the door picks it up. Another hammer, a wagon wheel, and the sheriff's gun and badge (he comes over to investigate) go up, and Roberts becomes increasingly angry. Keaton pushes it all off on top of the now fighting men, and Roberts gets hauled off to jail.

Customers arrive. First Virginia Fox brings in a white horse for shoes and Keaton acts like a salesman for human. While he works on a car, he dirties the horse with oil. A saddlesore woman describes her problem; Keaton sells her a saddle shock absorber. After the car he's fixing crashes through the floor, a man with a beloved white auto drives in. It emerges worse than the horse did, almost entirely totaled. All of Keaton's newly acquired enemies come after him, so he runs away on a train with Fox. A train goes off its tracks, but it's only a model train that Keaton set up for his baby son. — Lisle Foote

The Frozen North
Buster gets manly, attempting theft, murder, fishing, and adultery
(longer version)

Release date: August 1922
Length: Two reels
Presented by: Buster Keaton Production, Inc.
Distributed by: First National
Producer: Joseph M. Schenck
Director/Script: Buster Keaton and Eddie Cline
Photography: Elgin Lessley
Technical Director: Fred Gabourie

Cast:
Buster Keaton: The Bad Man
Sybil Seely: His Wife
Joe Roberts: The Driver
Bonnie Hill: The Pretty Neighbor
Freeman Wood: Her Husband
Eddie Cline: The Janitor

Keaton emerges from a subway station in the desolate, frozen North and heads straight to a gambling saloon. Deceptively using a cardboard figure of a masked gunman, Keaton attempts to rob the patrons of their winnings. The crowd tosses Keaton out the window when they discover that he is a fraud. Trudging through the snow, Keaton arrives home to find a woman and her lover locked in an embrace. Shocked, distraught and angry, in his best William S. Hart parody, Keaton pulls out a gun and shoots them dead, before realizing that he has the wrong house and the wrong wife!

Finally, in his cabin, Keaton verbally abuses long-suffering wife, Seely. When she's knocked out by a falling vase, he seizes the chance to act on his "Love Thy Neighbor" policy by pursuing his pretty, but unreceptive neighbor. Her annoyed husband takes her on a sledding trip to get away from Keaton. Keaton trails the couple via a dog sled that is driven by Joe Roberts and pulled by a motley crew of "Heinz 57" mutts. But, the pursuit ends abruptly when the pack runs off.

Giving up for a while, Keaton goes to Roberts igloo and is serenaded on the guitar. Keaton then has a disastrous try at ice fishing before he see that his lovely neighbor has returned home. Keaton barges in and strikes a menacing Erich Von Stroheim pose near the door. When her unsuspecting husband returns, a fight ensues and Keaton pulls out a knife. Seely, now conscious, strolls past the cabin window and sees Keaton attacking the man. She aims a gun and shoots Keaton in the back. Wounded, Keaton points a pistol at the husband. Suddenly… asleep in a movie theatre, Keaton is awakened by the janitor who tells him the movie has ended! — Janice Agnello

Daydreams
Buster learns that work stinks
(longer version)

Release Date: November 1922
Length: Two reels
Presented by: Buster Keaton Productions, Inc.
Distribution: First National
Producer: Joseph M. Schenck
Director/Script: Buster Keaton and Eddie Cline
Photography: Elgin Lessley
Technical Director: Fred Gabourie

Cast:
Buster Keaton: The Boy
Renee Adoree: The Girl
Joe Keaton: Her Father
Joe Roberts: A Politician
Eddie Cline: Stage Manager

Keaton writes to his fiancée (Renee Adoree) about his attempts to make good in the city. In his first letter, he tells her he's working in a hospital. She imagines him as a surgeon. He's actually employed at a dog and cat hospital. After an encounter with a skunk, he leaves to clean up on Wall Street. Adoree pictures him as a top-hatted financier. He's a street sweeper, tidying up after horses, dirt trucks, and a political rally held by Joe Roberts. He sets fire to a pile of confetti, and douses the flames and Roberts, who retaliates by dropping him down a flooded manhole.

Keaton next explores his artistic gifts in the theater. She sees him as Hamlet, but he's only a member of a chorus. He upstages the singer with his incompetence and the stage manager tosses him out. A cop takes exception to his short-skirted costume and chases him. At a used clothing store, Keaton lucks into a pair of pants with a wallet in them, but they fall off and the cop continues after him.

His next letter tells how the police follow his every step. She fancies him as an officer, standing among dignitaries. Meanwhile, he runs down a street pursued by hundreds of cops. On streetcars, a fire escape, and a boat the chase continues until he falls into the water. A fisherman hooks him. He ends up mailed back toAdoree, and her father boots him out of the house. — Lisle Foote

The Electric House
Machines don't cause as many problems as engineers do.
(longer version)

Release date: October 1922
Length: Two reels
Presented by: Buster Keaton Productions, Inc.
Distribution: Associated-First National
Producer: Joseph M. Schenck
Director/Script: Buster Keaton and Eddie Cline
Photography: Elgin Lessley
Technical Director: Fred Gabourie

Cast:
Buster Keaton: The Boy
Virginia Fox: The Girl
Joe Roberts: Homeowner

A diploma mix-up at the People's University (P.U.) graduation has Botanist Keaton receiving an Electrical Engineering degree. Roberts hires Keaton to electrify his home while he and his family are on holiday. Upon their return, Keaton proudly demonstrates all the new, electrical innovations. There's a speed controlled escalator, an automatic book selector in the library, a dishwasher (!) that washes and dries, a moveable bathtub, and a hide away bed. Outside, the pool fills and drains with the push of a lever. As the family sits for dinner, Keaton brings the food from the kitchen to the dining room via a toy train set up on the table. But, Keaton accidentally disconnects the track causing the train to derail and spill the entire meal into the lady of the house's lap.

The next day friends arrive to see the electrical home. Meanwhile, the real engineer sneaks into the house to exact his revenge. As he goes to work crossing wires and causing everything to malfunction, Keaton notices the problems and tries to slip away quietly, before he's thrown out. The misfiring gadgets cause the guests to scatter when the dishwasher shoots out dishes, the pool table rack flings balls at Keaton's head, the escalator only runs on high speed, and Fox is caught in the hide away bed. When Keaton checks on the electrical fuse box, he sees the real engineer causing havoc. Keaton tosses metal objects at him sending the shocked engineer out the window and into the swimming pool. Keaton and Roberts collide and end up in the pool too.

Roberts and Fox order Keaton to leave, so he dejectedly ties a rock around his neck and tries to drown himself. Fox has misgivings and drains the pool. Seeing Keaton sitting on the pool's bottom, Roberts quickly fills it back up again. Fox frantically empties it once more, only to find that Keaton is gone. Keaton and the engineer find themselves all washed up and out, under the sign for the "Los Angeles Sewer." — Janice Agnello

The Balloonatic
More fish, more bears, another boat, but a girl worth winning
(longer version)

Release date: January 22, 1923
Length: Two reels
Presented by: Buster Keaton Productions, Inc.
Distribution: Associated-First National
Producer: Joseph M. Schenck
Director/Script: Buster Keaton and Eddie Cline
Photography: Elgin Lessley
Technical Director: Fred Gabourie

Cast:
Buster Keaton: Boy
Phyllis Haver: Girl

Alone in a dark, foreboding room, Keaton lights a match illuminating that he's in the "House of Trouble" at an amusement park. After trying several exits to escape, he falls through a trap door and lands on the sidewalk outside. He is flattened when a rotund girl falling through the trap door lands on him. Next, Keaton opts for a Ye Old Mill boat ride, seating himself with attractive passenger Haver. As the boat emerges from the tunnel, Keaton sports a black eye and crushed porkpie hat, while Haver waits to escape.

Meandering over to a hot air balloon launch, Keaton volunteers to attach a "Good Luck" flag to the balloon's top. Unbeknownst to Keaton, the balloon suddenly takes flight without its pilot. Now high in the sky, Keaton sets up house, doing his laundry and duck hunting for food. He accidentally shoots the balloon and plunges to earth.

Keaton uses the remains of the balloon to make camp near a bucolic stream. Avid outdoorswoman Haver just happens to be camping a few yards away. A comical battle of the sexes erupts as they both exhibit ineptitude in fishing, hunting and, basic survival skills. Haver's frustration at Keaton's lack of bravado ounts, as he fails to come to her rescue time and again. Keaton stares in amazement as Haver wrestles a wild steer to the ground then he runs off in fear of his fellow camper's strength. Haver reveals her admiration for Keaton when he knocks out a bear with the handle of his shotgun, while unintentionally shooting another that is lurking behind him.

Together, they sail downstream in Keaton's canopied canoe, the "Minnie-Tee-Hee," unaware of the upcoming waterfall. The now amorous couple proceeds to float off into the sunset over the waterfall, the balloon having been patched up by Keaton and attached to the canoe. — Janice Agnello

The Love Nest
Call him Ishmael
(longer version)

Release Date: March 1923
Length: Two reels
Presented by: Buster Keaton Productions, In.
Distribution: Associated-First National
Producer: Joseph M. Schenck
Director/Script: Buster Keaton
Photography: Elgin Lessley
Technical Director: Fred Gabourie

Cast:
Buster Keaton: The Sailor
Joe Roberts: The Captain
Virginia Fox: The Girl

Keaton, in a boat, writes a farewell letter to his girl (he won't marry her because she cancelled their engagement). He hands it to someone on the dock and pushes off.

Several days later, a bearded Keaton sees a whaling ship, the Love Nest. The captain (Joe Roberts) has him hauled on board and adds him to the crew as the steward, the incumbent having been thrown overboard for spilling coffee on the captain. Keaton attends to his duties, swabbing the deck, dusting the cabin, and carefully poring coffee, and narrowly escapes the first steward's fate. Another crewmember sights a whale and they man the harpoon gun. Keaton holds the end of the harpoon rope and after it's shot, the whale pulls him overboard. He tows it back and hands the rope to Roberts, who gets yanked off. Keaton declares himself captain, but Roberts returns and frightens the rest of the crew away. He chases Keaton around the boat Buster falls overboard.

That night, Keaton sits on the boat's ladder. He goes back on deck where he finds a lifeboat. He can't lift it over the rail, so he smashes a hole in the Love Nest's hull and waits for it to sink. The next morning he runs into a floating platform and decides to fish from it. It's a navy target and they blow it up. Keaton flies through the air, then wakes up. He's in his boat which is still tied to the dock. — Lisle Foote

Keaton's Silent Features

The Saphead
Spoiled rich boy makes good; Buster finds a prototype

Release date: October 18, 1920
Length: Seven reels
Presented by: John L. Golden and Winchell Smith in conjunction with Marcus Loew
Distributed by: Metro Pictures
Producer: Winchell Smith
Director: Herbert Blanche
Script: June Mathis, based on The New Henrietta by Winchell Smith and Victor Mapes, and The Henrietta, a play by Bronson Howard
Photography: Harold Wenstrom

Cast:
Buster Keaton: Bertie Van Alstyne
William H. Crane: Nicholas Van Alystyne
Irving Cummings: Mark Turner
Carol Holloway: Rose Turner
Beulah Booker: Agnes Gates

Edward Alexander: Watson Flint
Unknown: Jim Hardy
Jeffrey Williams: Hutchins
Edward Jobson: Rev. Murray Hilton
Jack Livingston: Dr. George Wainright
Helen Holt: Henrietta Reynolds
Odette Taylor: Corneila Opdyke
Edward Connelly: Musgrave
Katherine Albert: Hattie
Alfred Hollingsworth: Hathaway
Henry Clauss: valet

The Saphead isn’t really a Keaton film; he only acts in it. It opens in Nicholas Van Alstyne’s office, where his old friend Jim Hardy convinces him to invest in a Western mine, the Henrietta. Meanwhile, his son in law Mark Turner juggles receiving a note from his dying mistress Henrietta Reynolds and a visit from his wife Rose.

That afternoon, Bertie Van Alstyne breakfasts and decides to declare his love to Agnes, Nick’s ward, who is to return from school that evening. He goes to the wrong station to meet her, and he runs into some pals who take him gambling (he’s trying to get a fast reputation to impress the modern girl he thinks Agnes is). The police raid the den, and despite his best efforts to be arrested they let him go. A reporter takes his card.

The next morning, Agnes sees the newspaper story. Bertie’s sister Rose confronts him with it. He explains that he did it out of love for Agnes. She overhears, and the lovers are united. They tell Nick, who says that Bertie must make something of himself before he may marry her. He cuts him off with only one million dollars.

Bertie moves to the Ritz and buys a seat on the Stock Exchange. He and Agnes decide to marry the next Tuesday. The evening arrives and Bertie goes to pick her up but Rose offers to have the ceremony at the Van Alstyne mansion. Midway through, Henrietta’s nurse interrupts with news of her death and a packet of Mark’s letters to give to Mrs. Turner. Mark takes them, accuses Bertie of their authorship, and throws them into the fire. Bertie can do nothing but retreat, crestfallen, to his new Long Island honeymoon cottage.

A few days later, to keep his mind off of Agnes, he visits the Stock Exchange. The regulars welcome him by knocking off his hat repeatedly. Meanwhile, Nick has gone on a yachting vacation and Mark plots to ruin him and enrich himself by driving down the price of the Henrietta mine stock, then buying it for himself. Nick returns unexpectedly and finds the price disastrously low, but it’s too late: the Exchange is to close in ten minutes. Luckily, the family broker Flint sees Bertie on the floor and shows him how to buy the shares. Bertie does so, and saves the day.

Nick’s secretary tells him that Turner was also responsible for Henrietta Reynolds, and Flint tells him that Bertie saved the shares. Police haul Turner away. Nick goes to Bertie’s cottage, they reconcile, and Agnes and the minister are sent for. The next year, Bertie paces in front of a door. A doctor comes out and tells him it is twins. When he hears, Nick does a jig. – Lisle Foote

Three Ages
Keaton’s Colossal Spectacle

Release date: September 24, 1923
Length: Six reels
Presented by: Buster Keaton Productions
Distributed by: Metro Pictures
Producer: Joseph M. Schenck
Directors: Buster Keaton and Eddie Cline
Script: Clyde Bruckman, Jean Havez, and Joseph Mitchell
Photography: Elgin Lessley and William McGann
Technical Director: Fred Gabourie

Cast:
Buster Keaton: The Boy
Margaret Leahy: The Girl
Wallace Beery: The Rival
Joe Roberts: The Girl’s Father
Lillian Lawrence: The Girl’s Mother
Blanche Payson: The Giantess
Horace Morgan: The Emperor

As D.W. Griffith portrayed intolerance over four ages in his 1916 film, Keaton compares love in Three Ages: the Stone Age, the Roman Age, and the Modern Age. It opens with man finding woman. In caveman days, Beauty (Margaret Leahy) is sought by an adventurer (Wallace Beery) and a faithful worshipper (Keaton). Her father selects the stronger Beery, so Keaton visits a fortune teller and learns that she loves only him. In Rome, charioteers Beery and Keaton converge on Leahy’s domicile. Roberts again favors Beery, so Keaton visits a soothsayer to know the future and shoot some dice. In contemporary times, the two suitors drive to her house (Keaton’s car hits a bump and disintegrates) where her mother selects Beery on the basis of his bank balance. Keaton consults a daisy, playing “loves me/loves me not.” She loves him.

Next, man attempts to arouse jealousy. In front of Leahy, Keaton flirts with a woman, but when she stands up she’s a foot taller than he is. She clubs him into the lake. Roman Keaton, his serenade interrupted by Beery dropping an urn on him, seems to succumb to the wiles of a vamp – but he wrestles her instead. Modern Keaton follows Beery and Leahy into a restaurant, where he briefly tries to charm a young lady with a very large boyfriend, drinks spiked water, and falls asleep. With a mash note purportedly from Keaton to the girl, Beery tricks the boyfriend into throwing Keaton out.

Men continue to fight over women. Beery challenges cave-Buster to a club fight, which Keaton wins by wedging a rock in his club. Beery’s friends discover his cheat, and they tie Keaton up to be dragged by a mammoth. Classical Beery challenges Keaton to a chariot race on a snowy day. Keaton wins by using a dog sled. Beery has him tossed into a lion’s den. In 1923, the rivals are on opposing football teams. Although Beery tackles him several times, Keaton scores the winning goal. Beery plants a flask on him, tips a cop off, and right before he’s hauled away, tells him of his impending marriage to Leahy.

Finally, man gets woman. In the Stone Age, Keaton snatches Leahy away from Beery and, after a chase, Keaton catapults himself onto Beery and knocks him out. He drags Leahy away by her hair. In Rome, Beery kidnaps Leahy. Keaton, after winning the lion’s affection with a manicure, saves her, knocking Beery out by removing the roof support columns. In modern times, at the police station Keaton steals Beery’s mug shots: he’s wanted for bigamy and forgery. He escapes over a roof, through a firehouse, and on a fire truck, and right back to the police station. Then he goes to the church where he pays for two taxis. He waits in a pew and pulls Leahy out when she comes up the aisle. While the party chases the first cab, the couple gets away in the second. He shows her Beery’s rap sheet. She kisses him, and he decides to go back to the church.

Has love changed in the three ages? Prehistoric Keaton and Leahy leave their cave, followed by a dozen children. The Roman pair has five kids in tow. The moderns walk out their door with their cute little dog. – Lisle Foote

Our Hospitality
Romeo and Juliet with better gags and no nasty suicides

Release date: November 19, 1923
Length: Seven reels
Presented by: Buster Keaton Productions
Distributed by: Metro Pictures
Producer: Joseph M. Schenck
Directors: Buster Keaton and Jack Blystone
Script: Clyde Bruckman, Jean Havez, and Joseph Mitchell
Photography: Elgin Lessley and Gordon Jennings
Technical Director: Fred Gabourie
Electrician: Denver Harmon
Costumes: Walter Israel

Cast:
Buster Keaton: Willie McKay
Natalie Talmadge: Virginia Canfield
Joe Roberts: Joseph Canfield, the father
Buster (James) Keaton, Jr.: Willie McKay, at age one
Kitty Bradbury: Willie's Aunt Mary
Ralph Bushman: Clayton Canfield
Craig Ward: Lee Canfield
Edward Coxen: John McKay
Jean Dumas: Mrs. John McKay
Monty Collins: The Parson
James Duffy: Sam Gardner
Leonard Clapham: James Canfield
Joseph Keaton: Train Engineer

The feud between the McKay and the Canfield clans goes back to 1810, when John McKay is killed in a gun battle outside his humble cabin, as his wife and baby, Willie, huddle inside. To escape the Canfield's wrath, and save her son, the last McKay namesake, Mrs. McKay takes the boy to New York, where he grows up under his aunt's care, unaware of the terrible legacy. Twenty years later, Willie McKay, now heir to John McKay's Rockville estate, imagines a lovely southern plantation, all dressed up in magnolias. Ready to leave the big city for points south, Willie is told the truth by his aunt, who admonishes him to avoid the Canfield clan.

Boarding the Out of Town Limited, Willie shares the ride with Virginia, who is returning to her southern home. The unpredictable journey on the iron horse takes the passengers over logs, rocks, and bumps, stopping only to eject the occasional hobo, or to right a derailment. Arriving in Rockville, looking the worse for wear, Willie accepts an invitation to dinner from the young lady, who has taken a fancy to him. Willie innocently
seeks direction to his new estate from the young lady's brother, a Canfield, who has come to fetch her from the train. Informing his father and brother that there's a McKay back in town, they set out to exact their long-awaited revenge.

Meanwhile, Willie's dream of a palatial homestead is blown to bits, when the real house turns out to be a rundown shack. Disappointed, he goes fishing at a nearby stream unaware that he is being stalked and shot at by the Canfield brothers. Not wanting to be late for dinner, Willie goes to Virginia’s home and meets her family and a visiting parson. Although the men eye him suspiciously and agree not to kill him while he is under their roof, Willie and Virginia remain oblivious to the plan. Only when Willie overhears the brothers talking about killing him, does he realize that he is in grave danger. After dinner Willie is afraid to leave the house, so he stalls by showing the family some tricks, and then misplacing his hat. A sudden thunderstorm keeps both Willie and the parson there, as overnight guests.

The next day, Virginia is shocked by her father's intention to kill Willie, the last of the McKay's. Willie escapes from the house, but is chased to a very precarious cliff near the river. He grabs at a rope, hoping to be rescued, but on the other end is one of the Canfield brothers. Both tumble into the water, but Willie manages to scramble up the riverbank dodging bullets. By chance, the Out