BUSTER KEATON RIDES AGAIN (1965) is a black and white documentary about
the silent screen legend who is remembered both as a great
comedian and a talented director. Today, BUSTER KEATON RIDES
AGAIN would probably be called THE MAKING OF THE RAILRODDER,
since
it was
filmed while Keaton, then 69 years old, was working on a color
short by that name
directed by Gerald Potterton. But it is not really a film about how The Railrodder was
made, but how an active comic mind still worked even after six decades
in film.
The premise of The Railrodder was
simple: Keaton travels across Canada in a railway handcar. It
was
meant to promote Canadian tourism, but also leave plenty of room for
Keaton to improvise railroad and travel gags along the way.
Although The
Railrodder
is credited to Potterton as writer and director, BUSTER KEATON RIDES
AGAIN makes it clear that Keaton himself had a big hand in the making
of the short. Time and again, we see Keaton working out the details and
timing of specific gags, expressing disappointment and frustration when
things don't work out, and explaining the difference between one
element of a gag and another. Although we never see him get
behind the camera, he makes his own vision clear to the director, down
to specific camera shots.
Keaton's comedy was the most
scientifically
methodical of all the great silent clowns, and in one scene in which
he describes the plot of the 1928 Laurel and Hardy short Leave 'Em Laughing,
we can see the admiration and near envy he had for that duo,
who could work from the simplest of premises. Laurel, whose mind was as
sharp and active as Keaton's, believed in improvisation on the set,
whereas Keaton seemed to want every minute detail worked out.
In the documentary, we see
Keaton alternately
fascinated and perturbed by almost anything - the play
by play minutia of a baseball game, the tuning of a guitar, the
intimate strategies of a friendly bridge game, the table settings of an
upcoming honorary function. Everything that came across
Keaton's
life was open to thorough examination, explanation and rearrangement.
Even at 69 years old, he couldn't stop exploring everything
to
see if there was any way to improve it.
The heart of BUSTER KEATON RIDES AGAIN
is a scene
where Potterton thinks of one gag Keaton could do over a large
suspension bridge, while Keaton thinks of a different one.
Both
gags are good
and Keaton's idea of combining them is accepted by the director, who
then switches Keaton's gag for one of his own on the day of
shooting. Potterton believes Keaton's gag - riding
over
the high bridge while tangled up in an oversized map - is too
dangerous. Keaton's comments in these scenes are fascinating
for
any fan of silent comedy, as
he reveals his own theories on comedy while arguing,
politely but firmly, with the director:
POTTERTON: "That's
the whole center of the gag, is that long shot of the bridge."
KEATON: "Oh, no, the bridge is not your gag, the
bridge is only
suspense - a thrill. There's no gag to the bridge at all,
doesn't mean
a goddamn thing."
Later, in his private railway car, Keaton begins fuming, telling wife Eleanor how the scene as shot is useless. His anger and agitated frustration are palpable as he complains that his gag is not dangerous but "child's play... I've done worse things in my sleep." Not surprisingly, Keaton gets his way.
Though the finished film The Railrodder is too lengthy even at 25 minutes and contains too many gags that fall flat thanks to Potterton's poor camera placement (even the above-mentioned map gag doesn't pay off as it should have), BUSTER KEATON RIDES AGAIN is an absorbing portrait of an artist as an old yet still vital man, 40 years past his golden age and only a year away from his death, still tinkering with, fine-tuning, and working out the details of the craft he helped invent, film comedy. - JB