Another Go With “Steamboat Bill, Jr.”

Welcome back, Mr. Keaton…

1928’s Steamboat Bill, Jr. seems like one of the quintessential Buster Keaton movies. I’ll be honest: I tried reviewing this movie for last year’s Buster Keaton Blogathon and just couldn’t muster an opinion. It wasn’t for lack of trying, either. Long story short, as soon as I saw Lea was bringing back Buster, I asked to try again. Sooooo, here we are.

The movie opens with the arrival of the King, as in, the fancy new steamboat owned by J.J. King (Tom McGuire), who touts his new conveyance as obliterating the competition, Bill Canfield’s (Ernest Torrance) Stonewall Jackson, which King refers to as a “thing.”

Bill’s first mate, Tom (Tom Lewis) thinks William needs to find a new river. Nonsense, William says. It’s his river and he’ll stay. He’s got plenty of reasons to, such as his son, Willie (Buster Keaton) coming in from Boston. Bill hasn’t seen him since he was a baby. Willie informs Bill in the telegram that he’ll be wearing a white carnation.

After meeting Willie at the train station, at which everyone but Willie is wearing a carnation, Bill sets about getting Willie something to wear other than his college kid garb. He also asks the local barber give Willie a haircut and a shave, because he despises Willie’s mustache. Willie might not be the strapping young lad Bill was expecting, but Bill is still Dad.

Willie finds himself in the middle of the rivalry between his dad and King, especially when he meets up with his old friend, Kitty (Marion Byron) from Boston, who, coincidentally, turns out to to be King’s daughter. Yeah, it gets a little hairy, and to top it all off, the Stonewall Jackson gets condemned, Bill gets thrown in jail for assaulting King, and there’s a hurricane.

Well, a lot more happens than that. Kitty and Willie keep trying to meet each other in the dead of night, but Willie’s dad isn’t too pleased about it, and it doesn’t help that they share a closet, because it means Bill is constantly in and out of Willie’s room. There’s also a brief bit of Willie learning the ins and outs of steamboat travel, and he’s a quick study.

OK. I do have an opinion this year. Steamboat Bill, Jr. is a lot of fun. It’s a classic film. Every one of the gags sticks the landing, and there’s some really clever stuff, like when Willy gets his pants caught in a jail cell door and drops his pants just enough so as to reach the keys. There are also a few Easter eggs, such as when the clerk at the clothing store very briefly puts a porkpie hat on Keaton’s head. Keaton whips it off and glares at the clerk as only he can.

And the characters are almost always likeable, even the antagonistic ones. Yeah, Bill is a meanypants at the beginning, but he comes around, and no one is truly mean-spirited in this movie. Well, not much, anyway.

That said, I think I know why I didn’t have an opinion when I tried reviewing this movie before: Some of the gags feel a little recycled. In one scene a wall falls on Keaton, an incredibly dangerous stunt is still talked about almost a century later. This is no shock, of course. I can’t even see Tom Cruise replicating it.

The funny thing is, it wasn’t the first time Keaton did the falling wall gag, which made its debut in Keaton’s 1919 short, Backstage, and then used again in the 1920 two-reeler, One Week. Maybe he thought since the gag went over so big the first time, lightning might strike thrice. If that’s the case, I can’t blame him, because it’s hugely impressive, and Keaton does himself one better in Steamboat by letting an open window fall on him instead of a doorway.

There’s also a scene in which Willie goes to visit his dad in jail on the pretense of taking him a loaf of bread. “Pretense” is the operative word, because hidden in the bread are several handy little tools for slicing through prison bars. It’s straight out of a Looney Tunes cartoon.

Now, to be clear, none of these things are bad, because it only goes to show how influential Buster Keaton really is, and I don’t think it’s ever going to stop because people keep discovering these movies, which is awesome.

The other reason I think I felt ambivalent before is that there is quite a bit of repetition in the schtick department. It seemed as if Keaton is going head over heels in every other scene, and it gets old after a while. The more jaded among us might think it’s a drinking game, but I wouldn’t recommend that, because I think there were about twenty pratfalls in total. Anyone who drinks to this movie will be plastered within five minutes.

So yeah, again, Steamboat Bill, Jr. is quintessential Buster Keaton and a ton of fun. However, if I had a choice I’d pick The General because I think from a filming standpoint it’s a lot meatier (That lonnnnnng tracking shot of the train at the end of the movie is jaw-dropping). I’m also looking forward to seeing The Cameraman, which looks really, really cool.

For more of the great Mr. Keaton, please see Lea at Silent-ology. Thanks for hosting this blogathon yet again, Lea, and thanks for letting me take another ride with Steamboat Bill, Jr. Thanks for reading, all, and I hope to see you on Thursday for another post…

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Steamboat Bill, Jr. is available on DVD and Blu-ray. It’s also free to stream on Prime and Tubi.

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