Seven Chances

Rating:
Summary: Do yourself a favor...
Review: ...and don't limit your choice to this one, because, no matter how many times you see those movies, it's every time as much enjoyable as it was the first time, even if the surprise effect has gone. You can blame Buster Keaton for not being as good as Chaplin as a businessman or for polishing up every scene, but I think he was much better for inventiveness and use (often creation) of special effects, and at least his match for somersaults, if not better.

Thanks a lot to Kino Video for getting so many titles in such good state (most of it), maybe they should offer an opportunity to Madacy's staff as trainees for a while.

Rating:
Summary: Keaton makes the most of a little
Review: Buster Keaton didn't really want to make SEVEN CHANCES, but since the film rights to the play were purchased for him by his manager/brother-in-law, he had little choice. Nevertheless, Keaton and his team put their considerable talents to work to make a very funny picture. Buster plays a young man who must be married by Seven p.m. in order to inherit a fortune. When he tries to propose to the girl he loves, she misunderstands and thinks he is only proposing to get the inheritance. She turns him down, so Buster, his best friend, and his attorney decide to find a bride one way or another. While the film may only be mildly amusing at the outset, it has great climax that more than makes up for any shortcomings: a wild chase scene with Buster escaping from a thousand would-be brides and an avalanche! Buster, as always, is excellent, but the film is nearly stolen by Snitz Edwards as the wizened attorney.This videotape is blessed with the SEVEN CHANCES prologue in it's original Technicolor (the surviving print is faded but watchable), and two wildly funny Keaton shorts: NEIGHBORS and THE BALLOONATIC.

Rating:
Summary: Give "Seven Chances" a Chance!
Review: Buster Keaton movies have a similar formula; naïve young man gets thrown into a situation where his ultimate manhood is put to test. Most classic Keaton films are written specifically for him, however "Seven Chances" is an exception in this area. Adapted from a 1916 stage play by Roi Cooper Megrue, "Seven Chances" puts Keaton to the task of finding a bride and getting married by 7:00pm that day, or else lose claim to a 7 million dollar inheritance. Before the plot, it is known that Keaton and his stockbroker business partner are very much in debt and the will face public disgrace and even jail time if they do not find much needed capital. So not only is Buster wanting the 7 million dollars, he needs it to keep his freedom.

Without giving away too much of the plot, the rest of the movie involves his unsuccessful pursuit of an immediate bride. He can't seem to get a break, when all of a sudden the news of his inheritance breaks and sends a mob of brides chasing him through the streets & country. It's the classic "Buster-Vs-The Elements" chase that Keaton is so well known for.

"Seven Chances" is an excellent film, although historically it was one of Keaton's least favorites. Keaton was initially perturbed by his producer, Joe Schneck, purchasing the play rights and 'Keaton-izing' it, rather than starting from material originated by Keaton himself. From viewing this film, I am stumped to see any inferiority and consider the end result to signify a very wise and entertaining move on Joe Schneck's part. "Seven Chances" ranks with some of Keaton's best work, including "Streamboat Bill Jr." & "The Navigator".

The 2 shorts included with this DVD are "Neighbors" and "The Balloonatic", both of them absolutely hilarious. "Neighbors" has some of the most inventive high-action scenes in any of the Keaton films, and "The Balloonatic" has some excellent scenes as well.

It's hard to go bad with a Buster Keaton silent movie and "Seven Chances" is no exception. The Kino/David Shepard duo does it again, by preserving a marvelous copy of this excellent film and by packing and distributing it with 2 excellent shorts. You and your family will like this DVD.

Rating:
Summary: Best Chance for Buster
Review: Frankly, I'd been a bit disappointed in the Buster films I'd seen before this one. Perhaps it was the scrappy condition they'd reached me in. This film, however, turned out to be a treasure and a masterpiece. Finally I became fully aware of how funny and downright amazing Keaton could be. It's strange that other viewers report that he didn't like it himself. Personally, I enjoyed the obviously well-structured plot, the elegant clothes, Buster's incredible athleticism, and as the story came to its ever zanier climax I was laughing out loud, very loud. Aside from the obvious fact that the whole world, not just Hitler's Germany, was unbelievably racist in the 1920s, there seems to be something of a feminist message underlying this story. One of the best scenes is where the vast army of women on the rampage totally flatten two football teams. Yikes, here comes women's lib! I'll grab my hat and run.

Rating:
Summary: All we are saying is give Keaton a chance
Review: I'm at a bit of a loss to explain what I thought about SEVEN CHANCES (1925) as a whole, because I had such a mixed reaction to it. The beginning and middle go from being sort of fun to being downright offensive. It's the last twenty or so minutes that save this fifty-six minute feature. They're absolutely terrific and encapsulate all of the things that Buster Keaton did so well.

The premise for this movie is overly simplistic and rather contrived, but then again, we aren't looking for Machiavellian plots out of most romantic comedies. Buster Keaton finds himself as the recipient of a large inheritance. As one could guess, this windfall comes with a catch: if he is married before seven o'clock on his twenty-seventh birthday, he gets the cash. If he isn't married by that time, then he gets nothing. (Wouldn't we all love to put weird catches like that into our last will and testament? I'm planning to withhold everything from my next-of-kin until they put on a clown suit and run down Interstate-270 during rush-hour shouting the lyrics to Eminem's "Lose Yourself".) Since it turns out that today is the unmarried Keaton's twenty-seventh birthday, he races around desperately trying to tie the knot with someone -- anyone. Naturally, there is one special woman who we all know that he's supposed to end up with, but we have to wait until the very end for the movie to reward us with the anticipated conclusion.

If that plot summary sounds familiar to any reader out there, it's probably because the film was remade recently with Chris O'Donnell in the Buster Keaton role. I haven't seen that version of the movie, and I can only assume that the decision was made because a movie mogul had some sick desire to see the words "Chris O'Donnell" and "Buster Keaton" in the same sentence. This movie is less successful when sticking close to its initial foundation. Indeed, the Keaton character's unwillingness to marry outside his WASP background is responsible for two of the more uncomfortable moments. (What is it with this disc and bizarre attitudes towards race? I know it was a less enlightened time, but I've been making my way through the "Art of Buster Keaton" DVD box set and the stuff here really stands out as unusual. And one of the included short films has its own groan-worthy sequences: would any cop really be so dimwitted as to be confused about Buster Keaton's ethnic background just because of some mud on his face?)

What this film is mostly remembered for is its incredible chase sequence that more or less takes up the entire last third. Suddenly realizing that there is only One True Woman that he can possible wed, Keaton must escape the clutches of the thousands of would-be brides who want to get their hands on Keaton and his cash. This leads to sequences of several hundred extras in wedding gowns racing through the city streets, which is almost as funny a visual as the hundreds of angry police-officers chasing Keaton in one of his short films (the aptly named COPS). But it's Keaton's physical dexterity that makes this memorable.

For example, after escaping the city, he races across countryside. He comes to a cliff and quickly throws himself off it, reaching out and grabbing a tree to save his fall... a tree that is being chopped down and which slowly topples as soon as Keaton lands on it. Undeterred, he immediately gets right back up and starts running again. A few minutes later, he's racing down a rocky hill, inadvertently causing a rockslide. Watching Keaton sprinting down a sandy incline while dodging large boulders is amazing. At one point, he comes to a standstill and concentrates solely on avoiding the rocks. He leaps over some. Others he ducks under. He jumps to the left to dodge them. He jumps to the right. My first thought on watching this was that Keaton got himself into a live-action version of Donkey Kong, with fake boulders instead of barrels. I love this sort of Keaton stunt work where I can both admire and laugh at a sequence at the same time.

Also included are two short films. The first item on offer is NEIGHBORS (1920). This one reminded me quite a bit of Chaplin's EASY STREET (a long time favorite of mine), at least the parts where Charlie is jumping in and out of windows and doors to avoid the mighty Eric Campbell. Here, Keaton is attempting to get some alone time with daughter of the house next door, and using a electrical-cable as a zip-line is just one of his inventive stunts. A hilarious short and one full of great physical comedy.

The other short film is THE BALLOONATIC. The eponymous balloon serves merely as the McGuffin to deposit Keaton into a surreal camping adventure. You can't help but love the completely straightforward way Keaton's character always dealt with life. You see a hot-air balloon? Start climbing all over it! You drop out of the sky into a remote forest that's miles from anywhere? Never mind getting home -- just have a vacation right here and now! This print is very scratchy, but it's still quite watchable.

Although I was faintly bored by most of the main feature's first forty minutes, this disc is well worth the purchase for everything that comes after that: the incredible and hilarious extended chase sequence and the two inventive short films.

Rating:
Summary: All we are saying is give Keaton a chance
Review: I'm at a bit of a loss to explain what I thought about SEVEN CHANCES (1925) as a whole, because I had such a mixed reaction to it. The beginning and middle go from being sort of fun to being downright offensive. It's the last twenty or so minutes that save this fifty-six minute feature. They're absolutely terrific and encapsulate all of the things that Buster Keaton did so well.

The premise for this movie is overly simplistic and rather contrived, but then again, we aren't looking for Machiavellian plots out of most romantic comedies. Buster Keaton finds himself as the recipient of a large inheritance. As one could guess, this windfall comes with a catch: if he is married before seven o'clock on his twenty-seventh birthday, he gets the cash. If he isn't married by that time, then he gets nothing. (Wouldn't we all love to put weird catches like that into our last will and testament? I'm planning to withhold everything from my next-of-kin until they put on a clown suit and run down Interstate-270 during rush-hour shouting the lyrics to Eminem's "Lose Yourself".) Since it turns out that today is the unmarried Keaton's twenty-seventh birthday, he races around desperately trying to tie the knot with someone -- anyone. Naturally, there is one special woman who we all know that he's supposed to end up with, but we have to wait until the very end for the movie to reward us with the anticipated conclusion.

If that plot summary sounds familiar to any reader out there, it's probably because the film was remade recently with Chris O'Donnell in the Buster Keaton role. I haven't seen that version of the movie, and I can only assume that the decision was made because a movie mogul had some sick desire to see the words "Chris O'Donnell" and "Buster Keaton" in the same sentence. This movie is less successful when sticking close to its initial foundation. Indeed, the Keaton character's unwillingness to marry outside his WASP background is responsible for two of the more uncomfortable moments. (What is it with this disc and bizarre attitudes towards race? I know it was a less enlightened time, but I've been making my way through the "Art of Buster Keaton" DVD box set and the stuff here really stands out as unusual. And one of the included short films has its own groan-worthy sequences: would any cop really be so dimwitted as to be confused about Buster Keaton's ethnic background just because of some mud on his face?)

What this film is mostly remembered for is its incredible chase sequence that more or less takes up the entire last third. Suddenly realizing that there is only One True Woman that he can possible wed, Keaton must escape the clutches of the thousands of would-be brides who want to get their hands on Keaton and his cash. This leads to sequences of several hundred extras in wedding gowns racing through the city streets, which is almost as funny a visual as the hundreds of angry police-officers chasing Keaton in one of his short films (the aptly named COPS). But it's Keaton's physical dexterity that makes this memorable.

For example, after escaping the city, he races across countryside. He comes to a cliff and quickly throws himself off it, reaching out and grabbing a tree to save his fall... a tree that is being chopped down and which slowly topples as soon as Keaton lands on it. Undeterred, he immediately gets right back up and starts running again. A few minutes later, he's racing down a rocky hill, inadvertently causing a rockslide. Watching Keaton sprinting down a sandy incline while dodging large boulders is amazing. At one point, he comes to a standstill and concentrates solely on avoiding the rocks. He leaps over some. Others he ducks under. He jumps to the left to dodge them. He jumps to the right. My first thought on watching this was that Keaton got himself into a live-action version of Donkey Kong, with fake boulders instead of barrels. I love this sort of Keaton stunt work where I can both admire and laugh at a sequence at the same time.

Also included are two short films. The first item on offer is NEIGHBORS (1920). This one reminded me quite a bit of Chaplin's EASY STREET (a long time favorite of mine), at least the parts where Charlie is jumping in and out of windows and doors to avoid the mighty Eric Campbell. Here, Keaton is attempting to get some alone time with daughter of the house next door, and using a electrical-cable as a zip-line is just one of his inventive stunts. A hilarious short and one full of great physical comedy.

The other short film is THE BALLOONATIC. The eponymous balloon serves merely as the McGuffin to deposit Keaton into a surreal camping adventure. You can't help but love the completely straightforward way Keaton's character always dealt with life. You see a hot-air balloon? Start climbing all over it! You drop out of the sky into a remote forest that's miles from anywhere? Never mind getting home -- just have a vacation right here and now! This print is very scratchy, but it's still quite watchable.

Although I was faintly bored by most of the main feature's first forty minutes, this disc is well worth the purchase for everything that comes after that: the incredible and hilarious extended chase sequence and the two inventive short films.

Rating:
Summary: Art of Buster Keaton Box 2
Review: OUTSTANDING! This is a four video set. The features are: Seven Chances, Go West, The Navigator and Battling Butler. The shorts are: Neighbors, The Balloonatic, The Scarecrow, The Paleface, The Frozen North and The Haunted House. I've reviewed these in independently, so I won't repeat my efforts in detail. The Navigator is one of the best comedy features ever made. Battling Butler is Buster's funniest feature. Go West is great. The shorts rate from very good to incedible. In my view, The Art of Buster Keaton (Box 1, Box 2, Box 3) is the greatest collection of comedy features and shorts ever made PERIOD. No debate.

Rating:
Summary: Buster's Boulders
Review: SEVEN CHANCES (1925): Buster is to inherit $7 million on his 27th birthday, providing that he is married before 7:00 p.m. Through a misunderstanding about how worthy she is to him, his girlfriend, at first, turns his marriage proposal down, and this sends Buster on a crusade to hurry and seek a bride in a race against time.

The best scenes in "Seven Chances" occur in the last third of the movie, where athletic, speeding Buster is being chased by a thousand angry potential brides, and we get to see the actual houses, shops, cars, gas stations, banks, signs, etc., of 1925 Los Angeles and the Hollywood hills. During the silent era, filmmakers were able to film out of the studio and onto the actual street. With the emergence of sound, outside scenes had to be made using what little acreage the studio had on their back lot, or the use of (phony-looking) rear projection (that sometimes moved way too fast). Another reason the last third of "Seven Chances" is so good is because it contains one of Buster's most famous scenes: being chased down a mountain by an avalanche of gigantic boulders.

"Seven Chances" is a story that was bought by Buster's boss, who expected Bus to mold it to his style of comedy. The script is credited to someone else, but I spotted that Buster probably wrote at least one of the title cards because it contains Keatonese grammar: "It don't matter who I marry".

NEIGHBORS (1920): This is a great 2-reeler that starts off as a Romeo and Juliet kind of story, then veers off into Bus getting into silly situations using blackface and being chased by cops, then goes back to the Romeo and Juliet theme. Some of the funniest (and dangerous) gags of his career are shown here between Bus and his father, played by his real father Joe, like Bus being hung by his toes on a clothesline with Joe accidentally whacking him with a carpet beater that throws Bus into a spin-around. "Neighbors" continues with the title card "that afternoon, the inventor tries his patent fly-swatter". The fly-swatter is just a big board that teeter-totters on the fence that separates the sweethearts' backyards. Weeeeee! ....a disoriented Joe Keaton is flipped into the neighbors' backyard by the fly-swatter, and with this, I noticed that a very funny (and very stiff) dummy was used in the long shot.

THE BALLOONATIC (1923): Buster's first era of his 2-reelers is nearly coming to a close. In a few months, success will demand that he start filming more elaborate features (5-7 reels). This 2nd to last 2-reeler starts off at an amusement park where Buster is trying to pick up girls. He proceeds to a balloon launching where he accidentally is launched with it into the air. After traveling for a while, he is shown idiotically playing hunter (with duck decoys hanging from the balloon) and shoots at a bird that is resting against the side of the balloon. The blast plummets him to the earth, where a series of gags follow with Bus in the wilderness, including the use of lots of animals and a canoe named Minnie-Tee-Hee.

Rating:
Summary: Seven Chances
Review: Seven Chances is a farce comedy. Buster must get married by 7PM to inherit $7 million. This is Buster's weakest silent feature (The Saphead doesn't count). Buster felt this was his weakest feature and did not want Raymond Rohauer to reissue it. Seven Chances is not a bad movie, any Buster Keaton movie prior to MGM sound is worthwhile. However, it's just nowhere near Buster's best. Lots of running by Buster helps the momentum near the end. The scene with the boulders is very good. This tape also contains two shorts: Neighbors and The Balloonatic.

Rating:
Summary: A chance to see Keaton and Jean Arthur
Review: Seven Chances is just below Keaton's very best work in The General and Our Hospitality, but is still easily worth its five star rating. All that I will say about the plot of the film is that it is consistently funny with many laugh out loud moments. Moreover, some of Buster's stunts are truly frightening and they do not appear to have been faked. One of the great pleasures of this film is to catch a fleeting glimpse of a very young Jean Arthur. She is the receptionist who turns down Buster's marriage proposal by showing him her ring. Also, for Keaton fans, it is worth noting that the lawyer with the rubber face is the Principal in College. The print on this DVD is very fine. It has an introductory series of episodes in early two-strip technicolor, which is interesting even if the colour is somewhat bleached and damaged round the edges. The main body of the film however is in wonderful sepia. The music has some fine themes and adds to the livliness of the action. It is well played on what sounds like a cinema organ. Of the two short films on this DVD, I will just say that I prefer Neighbors to the Balloonatic. Both are funny, but do not rank with the best Keaton shorts.