Buster Keaton is his usual adorable, amazing, and funny self in this story of the son of a riverboat captain who tries to learn the ropes from his father while being attracted to the daughter of a rival captain. Keaton's character hasn't seen his father since he was a baby, and his scrawny build and beret are a disappointment to his father, played by Ernest Torrence. The movie is a teeny bit slow at the start, though there is a funny scene of his father trying to select a new hat for him. Stick with it. It builds to funny moments in the local jail (love that backwards rock toss), and then some fantastic scenes at the end, when a cyclone strikes, with Keaton displaying great physical comedy as well as bravery. In one of his most famous stunts, the side of building comes crashing down on him, only to miss him because he's standing in the spot the doorway lands. There are several other dazzling moments in an extended sequence that is the genius and crescendo to the film. The first half of the film is not as strong, and it would have been nice if the love interest (Marion Byron) had been expanded a little more, but this is still a very enjoyable, heartwarming movie, with some truly unique moments.

This was the last of Buster Keaton's "Big 3" movies - "College", "The General" and "Steamboat Bill, Jr." In my opinion, all three should be seen to be believed. There never has been, nor will ever be, another actor who did his own death-defying stunts that had such skill as an actor to carry an entire picture by himself. Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. was considered a legend of physical prowess. I'd match Buster up against him any day of the week. Jackie Chan is the closest thing we have today to doing his own death-defying stunt work. But even Jackie would never dream of pulling off the most dangerous work as Buster. To this day, people still marvel at the physicality of the tiny Keaton.My order of preference for story-telling of these three is: General, College, and Steamboat Bill. My order of preference for death-defying feats is: Steamboat Bill, General and College in that order."Steamboat Bill, Jr." is not the most creative at story-telling. Basically it's plot device after plot device to move Buster to and from one dangerous stunt to the next more dangerous stunt. How he pulls this off with such ease is still a marvel. And the comedy from "Ol' Stoneface" is still funny today. The hat-switch scene where Buster and his father go through a series of hats while Buster looks right at the camera as though it is the mirror is comedy brilliance. In all of Buster's best comedies, he figures out how to maneuver huge objects through the funniest and most insanely difficult ways possible - trains in "The General", a crew boat in "College", and he maneuvers a really large steamboat with only an insanely simple yet complex set of ropes in "Steamboat Bill, Jr.". Just watch Buster shimmy down FIVE levels of the boat to basically shake hands, only to shimmy BACK UP those same five levels in mere seconds. It is astonishing the athleticism and creativity he could pull off in one single, UNEDITED scene shot with only one camera. Astounding.The supporting cast is mainly there as foils for Buster's laughs. However, Marion Byron (a mere 16 at the time of filming) is wonderful as the dainty love interest in this Romeo & Juliet story between feuding river boats. It is decently acted by all involved but this is Buster's show and everyone knows it.The ultimate payoff is in the dramatic and DANGEROUS hurricane that hits the tiny town in the finale. There is a reason that ONLY Buster is in all the scenes in the hurricane. Nobody else would be crazy enough to be caught dead in something like that simply for a movie. It's borderline suicidal actually. They blow up an ENTIRE town right in front of our eyes using six jet engines creating a wind storm so strong Buster could literally lean at a 45-degree angle into the wind and not fall. In several scenes, there is only one take because once the building explodes into a pile of kindling within inches of the real-life Buster they can't rebuild it. For him to keep a stoneface when the world is physically demolished right in front of him, and he keeps acting in the midst of all that chaos... My mind can't fathom that kind of bravery from a screen legend. I can reasonably believe that by today's standards, the insurance companies would NEVER allow the stunts Buster Keaton pulled off in this story. Simply breathtaking isn't a strong enough word. DEATH-DEFYING is the only word that can be used for the now-legendary scene of a wall collapsing all around Buster, save for a lone open window that saves Buster from certain death. It is said that half the crew stayed away from the set that day simply because they couldn't watch Buster die in real-life from that wall in the event Buster was only a couple inches from his mark and the stunt went horribly wrong. He would have been crushed without a doubt. How many movies have ever done something as dangerous around their major star simply for a scene in a movie? I can say without equivocation - none. Watch and rewind that scene - I promise you won't believe what you see. The weight of that wall is not break-away kindling. It is a SOLID wall of bricks and mortar weighing at least a few thousand pounds. When it SLAMS into the ground around Buster, you see what damage would have been done to him had it hit him. But as you rewind the tape, watch Buster through the entire sequence in slow-motion. You will see that he NEVER FLINCHES!!! I read that he was having a really bad day in his personal life that day but this is unreasonably suicidal as a scene. It is legendary for a reason. There will never be anything like it again.Buster made the impossible seem routine. He was just a little feather being brutally tossed all over that town from one dangerous stunt to another. If you can't see true genius in his timing and physical superiority, you are missing a once-in-a-century entertainer.Buster Keaton was a national treasure. His "Big 3" movies need to be in the Smithsonian for many millennia. That way, in a thousand years when our society is viewed by that generation, I hope they view Buster's movies and see what the best of us looked like at one time. He is my favorite silent movie comedian, with Harold Lloyd a distant second and Charlie Chaplin third. But nobody touched Buster. He's my hero.As a movie, the story is maybe a 5 for it's simplicity. As a study of physical comedy and dangerous stunts, this is a 50 out of 10. Thank you, Buster. You are missed.

It is ironic that the greatest film stunt ever pulled by comedy's finest man in motion, Buster Keaton, involves Keaton doing little more than rubbing the back of his neck as he stands perfectly still.Perfect stillness is hardly apt in describing "Steamboat Bill, Jr.," Buster's final and finest independently-produced comedy. For nearly the entire length of the film, he's stumbling, falling, somersaulting, and splashing around like a total madman. What you get is a distillation of Buster as he made his name in his short-film days, filled out with the help of a riverboat yarn to develop his sentimental side in surprisingly winning ways. Stone face, yes, but stone heart, never!Bleak days are upon Steamboat Bill Canfield (Ernest Torrance), captain of the once-proud, now-near-derelict riverboat Stonewall Jackson. His rival, John James King (Tom McGuire) runs both the town of River Junction as well as a fancy riverboat which he plans to use to put Canfield out of business. With a kind of optimism we recognize at once as misplaced, Steamboat Bill anticipates the arrival of his son from Boston, expecting a tall, strapping lad and not at all someone like Buster outfitted with beret, pencil mustache, and ukulele."If you say what you're thinking," Steamboat Bill Sr. warns his first mate, "I'll strangle you!"A fish-out-of-water comedy that ends up putting everyone in the water, "Steamboat Bill, Jr." spends a surprisingly long time setting the scene and the final 20 minutes sorting it out in a wild, anarchic way that recalls classic Buster shorts like "One Week" and "Cops." It's not an easy Buster film to characterize, requiring the audience to know Buster's history in getting in and out of trouble.You expect he will win over his gruff father, but how? You just know he'll find a way to pay off his affection for King's sweet daughter Kitty (Marion Byron), but how will he square things with her likewise stern dad?There are a bevy of winning scenes in this gag-packed film. Just watch Buster's eyes in an early scene when a barber (played by Buster's real- life father) shaves off his 'stache while Papa Bill glowers over his shoulder. He's so alive to the hilarity of the moment yet gives nothing away, even after the barber plucks a loose hair off his cheek.Demonstrating the unseaworthiness of the "Stonewall Jackson," Buster accidentally knocks a life preserver into the water only to watch it sink like a millstone. Later, trying to impress Kitty, he stands at the deck barking orders to people she can't see aren't really there, only to bid a quick retreat when the first mate approaches to see what he's up to.Torrence is a riot, too, mortified at the Eastern fop he has sired and pushing him about, then getting violently enraged whenever he sees anyone else doing the same. His temper (and King's machinations) finally land him in prison, which Buster tries to help him break out of by baking him a giant loaf of bread stuffed with files and other tools. Big Bill, not knowing what's inside the bread, wants nothing to do with it or his disappointing son."I'll just wait around until he's famished," Buster says, then performs a pantomime for his father mimicking a jailbreak with two fingers and a thumb that reminds me of Charlie Chaplin's similar hijinks with baked goods in "The Gold Rush." Again, Buster's eyes are key to the comedy.I don't know what to believe about the famous story where Buster, told he was about to lose his independence as a filmmaker, allowed himself to be filmed in a life-threatening stunt where a building facade falls on his head, only to leave him unscathed as the open attic window lands directly upon him. It reads too perfect to be believed, because it's the ultimate gesture of a filmmaker's faith in his vision overcoming grim reality. But there it is, Buster's most vividly remembered stunt, as astonishing the 50th time you see it as the first.It's also astonishing how the scene is mere preamble to a lengthy hurricane sequence that amazingly sets all to rights in Buster's topsy- turvy world, a triumph of comic imagination over harsh reality. If Buster never got such a break in real life, it's some compensation to see him effortlessly wind up on top in this sterling comedy milestone.

For me, Buster Keaton is a very subjective clown. He is third, for me, to both Chaplin and Lloyd. Whether you like him or not, he is undeniably instrumental, not just in the way of farce and so on, but also in the way films were crafted and designed. Look at "The Cameraman" 1928, which is what I usually consider to be his magnum opus; he proves that the disillusioned camera shots and works of art are made completely inadvertently and that they're made with sufficient heart to really breath in our own personal passions for what we anticipate to show on screen - and it could be our personal statement or just our frame of mind - however way, it's still done without a lot of intent. Just like what Keaton done in the stunt department and of course in "The General" and his earlier shorts where in one of them he feel right into the water, "Steamboat Bill Jnr." made in 1928, which bears a similar name to "Steamboat Mickey", is a prominent example of his exposure to folly and his way of pinning down on jokes spot on, while he essentially puts himself in situations that he crawls out of, either harmed or not, stoically.That's one of the things about Keaton; he doesn't blow up like what Mack Sennet would have done. He is a well collected and cordial fellow, who just happens to be clumsy. In "Steamboat Bill, Jnr." he plays William, who has sent a letter to his Father who works on a boat. The beginning they wonder if he's going to be very tall or not, which is of course poking fun at Keaton being extremely small and if you're not familiar with Keaton during the viewing of it, it doesn't tickle you as much. So basically, his Father tries to suit him up when he comes down to work on the deck of his ship - and on his ship a lot of predicaments take place, where he doesn't seem to be accepted. He falls in love Kitty King, and it develops as the movie goes on. The folly is shown in this movie, through a sequence of bad decisions and klutzy ways that Keaton acts, as he tries to keep a straight face and successfully does. His Father in the picture is a really recalcitrant character, and he is also what contrasts with William in that sense. A lot of the folly and what is funny is the fact that the movie is the basis of simple things and times - it's a charming movie as well, and it can be really exuberant to watch. The beginning might make you laugh heartily and then near the end it might make you pour your heart out for Keaton. Either way, the story is really basic and it's really Keaton that safes the picture with his screen presence.I highly recommend it. I don't want to give much away about the movie because it will entice you long enough to really appreciate what it's going for and making ephemera feel greatly important.