![]() According to reports, approximately three minutes of footage are presumed lost. The original camera negative for The Cameraman survived for many years but was lost in an MGM vault fire in 1951. Goodwin is functional as a rival, as he was in Keaton’s College (1927), but Harry Gribbon stands out in the supporting cast as a befuddled policeman. Marceline Day is something more than a supporting prop as a leading lady to Buster, thanks to MGM’s insistence on story development. When Sally is endangered by the self-absorbed stupidity of a rival (Harold Goodwin), Buster comes to the rescue and eventually comes through with the real newsreel goods, thanks to an organgrinder’s monkey.īuster is quite funny and looks rather dapper in his dark broad-rimmed hat that was a conscious departure from his signature pork-pie hat. His ineptness causes him to not only lose an opportunity to pick up a lucrative job as a newsreel cinematographer but also to lose his chance at a relationship with Sally, the girl. Despite being forced to work from a tighter scripted shooting plan, the film is still heavily-sprinkled with Keaton’s inventive improvizational gags.Ī meek and bumbling street portrait photographer (Buster Keaton) tries to impress a girl ( Marceline Day) who works in a newsreel office by becoming a newsreel photographer. However, still rolling forward from his creative independent productions of the mid-1920s, The Cameraman (1928) played like another great Buster Keaton film. Ultimately, the change to MGM resulted in a stranglehold on Keaton’s comic creativity, with the ultimate perversion of his screen persona and a disasterous teaming with nightclub performer Jimmy Durante. At first, the move promised bigger production budgets and wider distribution worldwide for Buster’s films. (1928), Buster Keaton became a contract performer at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer when his independent contact was sold by producer (and brother-in-law) Joseph Schenck. Reviews of silent film releases on home video.Īfter completing Steamboat Bill, Jr. However, that would soon change, and many Keaton aficionados consider The Cameraman to be his last truly important work.Silent Era Home Page > Home Video > The Cameraman ![]() This was Keaton's first film under a new contract with MGM, and director Edward Sedgwick for the most part allowed Keaton to stick to the creative formula of his best work. Luke gets the axe before long, but he's not about to give up, and he tries to find another way to impress his lady love. However, his hand with a movie camera is not especially sure at first he mistakenly double exposes a reel of film that results in battleships sailing down Broadway, while his attempts to get footage of a Tong battle seem more successful until an organ grinder's monkey runs off with his film. Luke's primary rival for Sally's affections is a cameraman for the company, so Luke decides to sign to the newsreel department in hopes of impressing her. The Great Stone Face portrays Luke Shannon, a "tintype" portrait photographer who develops a serious crush on Sally ( Marceline Day), a beautiful woman who works as a secretary for MGM's newsreel department. This is one of the last films from Buster Keaton's classic period, before the coming of sound and interference from MGM spoiled his work and softened his popularity.
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