Steamboat Bill, Jr.

Rating:
Summary: Alright, but nothing to write home about.
Review: This film is dull, and the comedy is pointless, but it is not the worst that was ever made. This film has the famous sceen, where the house falls on Keaton.

Rating:
Summary: A blithe farewell.
Review: Though one of Keaton's happiest films, 'Steamboat Bill' ushers in the end of three eras. One year before the Wall St. Crash, the film pits Fitzgerald-like dreamers Mary the flapper and William the aesthete in the true culture of the 1920s, a corrupt monopoly town, where the law is in the pay of the town magnate, and whose foundations are perilously flimsy. It is also the last great American film of the silent era, and, as if to prove it, casually shows off all the things it could do, culminating in a staggering storm climax, part-surreal deus ex machina, part-wild Id. Finally, it is the last film over which Keaton had significant control: quick decline would follow. As well as boasting all his cherishable visual qualities, it features his rare intelligence too, his heroism undermined by dream and theatrical metaphors; the expected marriage crowned by a lifeboat hoop that had previously sunk.

Rating:
Summary: A blithe farewell.
Review: Though one of Keaton's happiest films, 'Steamboat Bill' ushers in the end of three eras. One year before the Wall St. Crash, the film pits Fitzgerald-like dreamers Mary the flapper and William the aesthete in the true culture of the 1920s, a corrupt monopoly town, where the law is in the pay of the town magnate, and whose foundations are perilously flimsy. It is also the last great American film of the silent era, and, as if to prove it, casually shows off all the things it could do, culminating in a staggering storm climax, part-surreal deus ex machina, part-wild Id. Finally, it is the last film over which Keaton had significant control: quick decline would follow. As well as boasting all his cherishable visual qualities, it features his rare intelligence too, his heroism undermined by dream and theatrical metaphors; the expected marriage crowned by a lifeboat hoop that had previously sunk.