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In 1965 the National Film Board of Canada lured Buster Keaton north to star in The Railrodder, Gerald Potterton's slapstick travelogue of Canada as seen from the seat of an open railway track speeder. The twilight companion to Keaton's great railroad comedy The General is a modern silent film, accompanied only by a bouncy score, cartoonish sound effects, and the ever-present putt-putt sound of the chugging car. At almost 70 years old, the Great Stone Face lacks the acrobatic agility of the old days, but his timing is impeccable and he executes physical gags with the effortless ease of a master. John Spotton recorded some behind-the-scenes events during the film's shooting in the 55-minute documentary Buster Keaton Rides Again. Spotton supplements the production with perfunctory biographical background (which is better explored in Kevin Brownlow's brilliant documentary Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow), but at heart it's a loving, revealing portrait of the aging master at work. Priceless footage shows Keaton brainstorming comic bits, schooling his young director on the proper staging of gags, relaxing over a hand of bridge, and stewing over a disagreement when Potterton overrules a stunt Keaton has developed. The bit involves Keaton fumbling blindly behind a giant map while the car rides over a trestle, and Potterton worries about the safety of his aging star. "Dangerous?" growls Keaton. "It's kid stuff." The core of Keaton bubbles out in the battle of wills: professionalism, pride, stubbornness, and the primacy of the gag. Keaton wins, and the gag is in. --Sean Axmaker
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