Steamboat Bill Jr. (1928)

Original title

Steamboat Bill, Jr.

Directed by

Charles Reisner

Genre

drama film, silent film, action comedy film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 11m

Rated

NR

Rating

7.6 of 10 from 397 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A young man reunites with his gruff steamboat captain father and tries to win his approval despite being a bookish dandy. He fumbles through slapstick situations and a storm while wooing a girlfriend. The film is best known for a precise stunt where a house facade falls around the actor.

comediclightheartedwhimsicalbreezyplayfulslapstickinventivenostalgic

What happens

Steamboat Bill, Jr. is a 1928 American silent comedy film starring Buster Keaton. Released by United Artists, the film is the final product of Keaton's independent production team and set of gag writers. Charles Reisner directed the film, and the credited story writer was Carl Harbaugh. The film, named after Arthur Collins's popular 1911 recording of the 1910 song "Steamboat Bill," also featured Ernest Torrence, Marion Byron, and Tom Lewis. The film is known for what may be Keaton's most famous and most imitated film stunt: the facade of a house falls around him while he stands in the precise location of an open window to avoid being flattened. The film was not a box-office success and became the last picture Keaton made for United Artists. Keaton ended up moving to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where he made one last film in his trademark style, The Cameraman, and Spite Marriage, before his creative control was taken away by the studio. In 2016, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. The copyright of the film expired in 1956. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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