Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928)

Thanks for the memories!

Absolutely the worst movie.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

(Flash Review)Odd little plot but the stunts are fantastic! Something about competing steamboat companies and then later a massive wind and rain storm hits and Keaton's character attempts to rescue random people as well as himself. The first two acts are pleasantly amusing but the final act is historic and the original Mickey Mouse's Steamboat Willy is based off of this film!! This has the scene where the storm blows down several houses. One of the walls fall toward Keaton but he luckily survives thanks to a cleverly placed open window. This has been mimicked to death everywhere. Crazy and sadly I learned that Keaton, in real life, was feeling very depressed and that he did the stunt because he didn't care whether the open window missed him as it was a full-weighted wall. In retrospect, he would never have done that stunt! Anyway, this is a must see. Very clever, exciting, funny and tense! Second only to The General.

I could have as easily written about direction here, but I want to talk about his performance. It's the physicality of his performance that's the most memorable aspect.It's no secret that Buster Keaton excels in physical comedy and his part in Steamboat Bill Jr. is no exception to that rule. The film ends with one of his most memorable, larger than life stunts: the hurricane. For that sequence alone, Steamboat Bill Jr. is worth watching. At times, Keaton himself seems to defy gravity. He scales down the side of buildings and straps himself to beds to withstand the hurricane. However, it's the smaller stunts in Steamboat Bill Jr. that make me fall in love with Keaton's performance. For instance, when his father's boat is docked next to King's boat, William (Keaton) finds himself being pulled between the two boats. I was cracking up at this scene. Another great example of Keaton's physicality is the scene where he sneaks out to meet Kitty. He has to crawl across the boat without waking his dad and get over to her boat. For me, Steamboat Bill Jr. is not as dynamic as some of his other work like The General, but it has some of his best stunts and the wonderful physical comedy you can always expect from Keaton's work. It's worth your time in laughs and entertainment.

Steamboat Bill Sr. (played by Ernest Torrance) is a captain of a river steamboat, a large man and a rather rough and ready fellow, with a rather rough and ready boat, the Stonewall Jackson, and he is expecting a visit from his son, whom he has not seen since the boy was a child. Bill Jr arrives fresh from his schooling in Boston, and he is nothing like what Bill Sr thought his son would be like, so they have a lot of catching up to do.At the same time, a girl Bill Jr knew in Boston arrives, and she has a father too, and the fathers are at odds.On these premises many excellent gags are piled up, including just about any gag you can use a boat or a river for. I highly recommend this classic silent movie, a very entertaining and fast-paced comedy with, as usual, wonderful work by Buster Keaton.My only reservation was the musical score on the version we saw. We got this movie from a TCM showing, and this version had a score from 2003, credited to Alloy Orchestra, very obtrusive, out of keeping with the style of the movie, and sometimes actually at cross- purposes with the film itself. If you have a choice, try to watch it with different music. Otherwise you might want to turn the sound off altogether.

Buster Keaton's swan song as an independent filmmaker (before being swallowed into the MGM assembly line) tears a page from Mark Twain and trims it to fit his own unique character, with the Great Stone Face playing the hapless son of a rough-and-tumble riverboat pilot no longer able to compete against a wealthy corporate rival. The story is a clever variation of the familiar Romeo and Juliet scenario from Keaton's 'Our Hospitality' (even the Steamboat Bill surname-Canfield-is borrowed from the earlier film), and follows the classic silent comedy formula, showing Buster's transformation in the title role from hapless nitwit to heroic man of action, saving his father, the old man's rusty but trusted paddlewheel steamer, and (of course) the girl. Included along the way are some of the comedians best routines, from the unforgettable cyclone climax (in itself a catalogue of classic moments, and yet another reminder that Mother Nature was always Keaton's most reliable ally) to the quieter moment when Buster, using the camera as a mirror, tries on a variety of hats, including the familiar pork-pie of his two-reelers (which he guiltily tosses away). The director's credit is strictly nominal: this is a Buster Keaton comedy, and after all these decades the laughter hasn't dimmed whatsoever.