Seven Chances (1925)

Nice effects though.

Absolutely the worst movie.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

The genius on show in this film is like watching farce and slapstick executed by a Mozart of comedy. It is so comically hyperventilating that you go beyond mere laughs into a realm of blissful delirium as absurdity is piled upon sublime absurdity, until solid reality simply gives up and collapses into a dancing avalanche of drollery. Buster Keaton shakes us on a Richter scale of laughter, leaving our world delightfully re-arranged into the dizzying dream of somewhere better - a place we can be completely carried away, like the sort of wild party where true love is always waiting, so long as you are ready to abandon all reason and make a complete fool of yourself. Such is the magical and hilarious trajectory of our bouncing hero through a world of epic obstacles, each of which he circumvents by executing miracles with the grace of a sad-faced clown. Here is a circus of the human soul, where grace transforms our doltish misadventures into soaring flights of fancy that must surely make even the angels smile at such happy accidents! They welcome the jeu d'esprit that can rise above disaster, vaulting over it with the soaring energy of LIFE, the pure and utterly undismayed force that encourages us to pick ourselves up and carry on. In many ways the spectacle of Keaton prevailing against absurdly proliferating setbacks represents the only authentic survival of the increasingly battered American Dream. Buster just never gives up - bad luck will give in before he stops trying! He's the little man apotheosized by a ridiculous and powerful idealism. He's the enemy of bitterness and cynicism. With his manifold rolling rocks he escapes like some kind of crazy incarnation of Hope. He bowls us over like the boundless love of a soppy dog. He shakes us out of our stuffy places for long, erratic runs through the heart-warming sunshine that stretches unbroken from that day to this, and for as long as such brilliance can lighten our lives.

SEVEN CHANCES (1925) is a Buster Keaton vehicle, wherein a young man receives an inheritance from his grandfather – with the condition that he marry on his 27th birthday. His quest to find a wife in time to make the deadline is the driving force behind this comedy. Directed by Buster Keaton.This film takes some time to really develop its comic potential to the full. At first it proceeds rather slowly, but then the laughs slowly start to build up…and the payoff in the final act is spectacular. The various rejections he encounters in his quest for a wife are quite amusing. Unfortunately, some of the comedy relies on stereotype-driven blackface humor, which was considered funny at the time but is cringe- inducing now. In the last act, Keaton again shows his mastery of outrageous sight gags and athleticism, all done in his trademark deadpan persona. An ad in the paper brings many prospective brides to a church, and then the pastor convinces them that it was a prank, resulting in one of the most hilariously inventive chase sequences ever, treating us viewers to a raging torrent of hysterical sight gags and daring athleticism by Keaton. You'll have to see it to believe it. And the ending is just what you wished for, all done in a nice compact 56 minute runtime. SCORE: 8/10

Our Hospitality was good comedy fun, The General was a great comedy adventure, and Sherlock Junior is a superb silent comedy film, and this was the fourth Buster Keaton I would see featured in the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die book. The film opens with young James 'Jimmie' Shannon (Keaton, also directing) trying for all the seasons of a year to tell Mary Jones (Ruth Dwyer) that he loves her, but he keeps failing miserably. He and his partner Billy Meekin (T. Roy Barnes) know that their company is due to face bankruptcy unless they can get a big wad of cash, and then in comes Jimmie's Attorney/Lawyer (Snitz Edwards) telling him that he is to inherit a seven million dollar fortune from his grandfather. But there is a catch, he has to marry before seven o'clock on the day of his twenty-seventh birthday, which happens to be today, and Jimmie can only think of one girl to ask and may agree to it. So he goes to see Mary, and she does agree initially, until he blows it by saying that he needs to marry "some girl", and she goes off in a huff and now refusing. So Jimmie's Lawyer and Billy are determined to help him find a wife quickly before time runs out and he loses the chance to inherit the money. They try very quickly and Jimmie recognises seven women in the country club to try asking, so he gets his seven chances (as the title implies), three of the women laugh, one looks at the wrong man to marry, and the other three are just rude. While Mary is considering changing her mind, and Jimmie is asking almost every girls he happens to pass, including a foreign girl, a manikin head, a black woman and many more, the Lawyer and Billy have placed an advert in the paper in the help of attracting interested women. The only problem is, there are hundreds of women dressed in white dresses that turn up at the church where the ceremony is meant to take place, and Jimmie is forced to run for it seeing all the potential suitors. The hundreds of brides chase Jimmie all over the place, including through building sites, on a train line and finally down a hill that starts a rock slide, one of the films most iconic scenes. Eventually Jimmie returns home to find the The Clergyman (Erwin Connelly) ready to marry him to someone, and Mary does turn up ready for it, and after a near miss failure, they are married, the fortune is safe, and Jimmie kisses everyone else, including the dog, before the bride. Also starring Frances 'Frankie' Raymond as Mrs. Jones and Jean Arthur as receptionist at country club. Filled with some of the funniest comedy moments, I completely agree with it featuring in the must see book, and the critics only give it three stars, so it is a slightly underrated silent masterpiece from the great Keaton that should be cherished. Buster Keaton was number 21 on 100 Years, 100 Stars - Men. Very good!

Seven Chances (1925) **** (out of 4) Buster Keaton's greatest comedy is also one of the greatest comedies ever made. This film has huge laughs, one of the greatest chases ever not to mention some of the greatest stunts ever captured on film. In the movie Keaton plays a shy fellow who can't build up the nerve to tell his girlfriend that he loves her. He gets a letter stating that he will inherit seven million dollars if he gets married before seven that evening but there's a mix up between him and the girlfriend but the biggest problem is that every other woman is willing to marry him for the money. I had forgotten what a wonderful gem this film is but I was laughing harder and more often than any other film that comes to my mind. I'm not sure where to start with the laughs because each scene contains one and the majority of the scenes contain multiple laughs. The film's 56-minute running time feels like the matter of seconds because everything is just happening so incredibly fast. There are three great things about this film but I'll start with the laughs. I might go as far as to say that there isn't a joke in the film that doesn't work. The wonderful moments inside the country club where Keaton tries to find a wife, the politically incorrect joke of Keaton accidentally asking a little girl to marry him, the racial joke of Keaton almost asking a black woman to marry him and of course the wonderful gag with the dummy in the barber chair. That's just to name a few because there are at least a hundred other jokes. The second brilliant thing about the film is the fact that Keaton hired hundreds (if not over a thousand) women to chase him when they discover he will inherit millions. The scene inside the church with all these women trying to pile in is just something incredible on the eyes. This stunt leads to the third masterpiece of this film and that's the final twenty minutes where these hundreds of women chase Keaton either trying to marry him or kill him. Anyone who knows anything about Keaton knows that he would put his life at risk to pull off a stunt and there are at least eight different stunts here that could have or even should have killed him. Watching him perform these stunts is truly breathtaking and him running into the barbed wire is also quite painful. Oh yeah, Snitz Edwards is brilliant as the lawyer and you've also got Jean Arthur in an early performance. Certainly one of the all time greats.