SCFZ poll: Buster Keaton

[john ryan]

seen 30

1. one week
2. seven chances
3. sherlock jr.
4. the general
5. our hospitality

[St. Gloede]

Seen 23:

Our Hospitality
The Scarecrow
The General
The Electric House
Steamboat Bill, Jr.

[Caracortada]

Seen 16.

1. Seven Chances
2. Sherlock, Jr.
3. The General
4. The Electric House
5. Our Hospitality

[vaka]

out of 14:

1- Sherlock, Jr.
2- Our Hospitality
3- The Goat
4- Steamboat Bill, Jr.
5- The General

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

Seen 25. Used to be Pantheon for me, but I've started to sour slightly; I find his work is often best-suited to a My Best Stunts compilation rather than entertaining stories from first to last. And his best-regarded films don't do it for me anymore: it's hard to look past the fact that Keaton's fighting on the wrong side of the Civil War in The General and I've come to find that Sherlock, Jr. is strongly overintellectualized as some brilliant avant-garde film-theory work [Dave Kehr: "This 1924 comedy finds Buster Keaton anticipating most of the American avant-garde of the 70s... his observations on the relationship between film and the subconscious are groundbreaking and profound."] when, to my mind, it's nothing more than a standard Hollywood-dreamer melodrama formula. Still, Keaton at his best is top-tier silent slapstick, and even lesser films have divine stunt work. Don't remember many of his features that well, so I'm playing a guessing game a lil here with my votes.

1. The Goat (1921)
2. The High Sign (1921)
3. The Cameraman (1928)
4. Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928)
5. College (1927) [not great, because blackface; but I cherish his pro-book-learning lecture 'the Curse of Athletics']

I have hopes I'll really like Battling Butler, so I may edit this post if I watch it before Friday.

[flip]

three keaton features got no support - go west, battling butler, and three ages.

results

1. Sherlock Jr (1924) -- 53 pts
2. Our Hospitality (1923) -- 38 pts
3. The General (1926) -- 34 pts
4. The Cameraman (1928) -- 30 pts
5. Steamboat Bill, Jr (1928) -- 22 pts
6. The Goat (1921) -- 15 pts
7. The Navigator (1924) -- 14 pts
8. Seven Chances (1925) -- 13 pts
9. The High Sign (1921) -- 11 pts
10. Neighbors (1920) -- 11 pts
11. One Week (1920) -- 10 pts
12. The Scarecrow (1920) -- 7 pts
12. Cops (1922) -- 7 pts
14. The Electric House (1922) -- 4 pts
15. The Blacksmith (1922) -- 2 pts
15. The Frozen North (1922) -- 2 pts
17. Spite Marriage (1929) -- 1 pt
17. College (1927) -- 1 pt

[flip]

this is up at letterboxd:

https://letterboxd.com/fliptrotsky/list ... -poll-146/