Country: USA
Released: November 19th, 1923
Genre: Comedy
Directed by: Buster Keaton
Produced by: Joseph M. Schenck
Released: November 19th, 1923
Genre: Comedy
Directed by: Buster Keaton
Produced by: Joseph M. Schenck
Written by: Clyde Bruckman
Oh Mr. Keaton, you truly are a delight to watch.
I'm glad I preceded Our Hospitality with Safety Last because it helped put silent era comedy a little bit into perspective. It makes sense that these decades were the Golden Age of slapstick. After all slapstick is by far the most physical style of comedy there is, making it perfect for silent cinema. This created a somewhat false expectation when it came to humorists of the era, namely that they would all be the same. I mean, once you've seen one pratfall you've seen them all, right? And really how long can you keep jokes fresh and original when your basically pantomiming? Therefor for the life of me I could not figure out why some comics stood the test of time while other faded into obscurity? Why is it that Chaplin remains a giant of pop-culture while Harold Lloyd is all but forgotten by all but the most well-versed film buff? It's not like they can be all that different fundamentally, slapstick is slapstick after all.
Watching Safety Last and Our Hospitality has changed my perspective, and has given me a new appreciation for physical comedy.
But before getting into that let's dive into the story of Our Hospitality first. Our protagonist is Willie McKay (Keaton), a young man originally from West Virginia who moved to New York when he was but a babe after his father was murdered by a member of the Canfield family. The McKays and the Canfields have been killing each other for generations, spilling blood over a senseless feud. If that sounds familiar it's because it's based on the Hatfield-McCay feud that went on in West Virginia in the late 19th century. For the uninitiated I strongly suggest you look it up (or click this here link), this is one of the most famous stories in American folklore and has been used as a reference by the likes of Disney, Mark Twain, and even World of Warcraft.
Anyways Willie is largely disinterested in the feud and when he's invited to inherent his old father's property he readily agrees. He meets a young Virginia Canefield on the trainride there and they immediately hit it off, neither of them knowing who the other is. Willie is invited to Virginia's house for dinner where her father and brothers discover his identity and attempt to kill him. Shenanigans ensue and the film ends with Willie and Virginia getting married, ending the feud.
So right off the bat there are some noticeable differences between Lloyd and Keaton's films, namely that the plot for Keaton's is a little more complex. Now I use the word complex loosely here, after all this ain't fucking Memento. However there definitely feels like there was more thought put into it than Safety Last, which was basically just a string of wacky hijinks loosely linked together via a cookie cutter story. That's not to say that Our Hospitality is devoid of cliches but here the jokes feel more imbued within the plot, like they each compliment each other. The bits are strong along by the story and vice-versa. Now this does lead to less actual gags than Safety Last since it's harder to come up with jokes without derailing a story than just pausing to have a comedic sequence, but it does make the jokes feel heftier. I'm not going to say one format is better than the other but I will say that I definitely preferred Our Hospitality's narrative style. It was far more engaging and offered a few more twists than I was expecting. It's also worth mentioning that the first fifteen minutes or so Our Hospitality doesn't even try to be funny, instead telling a rather serious tale about murder and loss. I've got to say that's pretty ballsy for a comedy and it really pays off when you get more invested in the characters and their plights as a result.
Even the comedic style between the two couldn't be more different. Lloyd's character is the cause of the comedy, i.e. it is by his direct action that all the zaniness is going on around him. He knocks a cop over, he screws with his companions, he forces himself into all these crazy situations. He is also by far the sillier of the two, having more expressive fascial expressions and overall being more clown-like. Essentially his jokes are wackier. Keaton on the other hand is the opposite. He plays the straight man in the story, the guy who's just caught in the middle of it all. His humour is reactive, not active, and as the straight man the comedy is not derived from his goofy persona but rather from his being out of his element. We can't help but laugh at his incredulous expression when everything is going so wrong and he's stuck with a bunch of lunatics. It's worth noting that he has probably the best deadpan expression I have ever seen, something he will perfect by the time he produces The General. Seriously it's amazing how much mileage he gets from one fucking look, and it feels almost unfair how funny it is at times. All this results in a much dryer style of slapstick. There are less gut-busters than there would be with say Lloyd (in the context of the era mind you), but the jokes had me grinning far more because they were so cleverly and subtly woven within the rhythm of the narrative. Plus while he doesn't stand out as quickly as Lloyd Keaton felt more charismatic on screen. My favourite moments in the movie are early on when the Canefields are trying to murder Willie, who is completely oblivious to their bullets, and the dinner scene, when Willie figures out what's going on but the Canefields refuse to kill him under their roof for reasons of honour (hence the title), leading to a delightfully tense scene where both parties try to put up a facade for the clueless Virginia.
So is Keaton funnier than Lloyd? I would say so, which is pretty embarrassing considering how much I bitched about Lloyd's omission from the list (something I stubbornly stand by). If nothing else Keaton feels smarter about his comedy, like he's able to balance between humour and storytelling to hit a sweet spot. It's not perfect of course. I'd be lying if I said if it could have used a few more jokes and while my memory of it's fuzzy I recall enjoying The General more, but we'll have to wait and see until then to be sure. Until then I'll just say that Our Hospitality was a fun ride.
Watching Safety Last and Our Hospitality has changed my perspective, and has given me a new appreciation for physical comedy.
But before getting into that let's dive into the story of Our Hospitality first. Our protagonist is Willie McKay (Keaton), a young man originally from West Virginia who moved to New York when he was but a babe after his father was murdered by a member of the Canfield family. The McKays and the Canfields have been killing each other for generations, spilling blood over a senseless feud. If that sounds familiar it's because it's based on the Hatfield-McCay feud that went on in West Virginia in the late 19th century. For the uninitiated I strongly suggest you look it up (or click this here link), this is one of the most famous stories in American folklore and has been used as a reference by the likes of Disney, Mark Twain, and even World of Warcraft.
Anyways Willie is largely disinterested in the feud and when he's invited to inherent his old father's property he readily agrees. He meets a young Virginia Canefield on the trainride there and they immediately hit it off, neither of them knowing who the other is. Willie is invited to Virginia's house for dinner where her father and brothers discover his identity and attempt to kill him. Shenanigans ensue and the film ends with Willie and Virginia getting married, ending the feud.
So right off the bat there are some noticeable differences between Lloyd and Keaton's films, namely that the plot for Keaton's is a little more complex. Now I use the word complex loosely here, after all this ain't fucking Memento. However there definitely feels like there was more thought put into it than Safety Last, which was basically just a string of wacky hijinks loosely linked together via a cookie cutter story. That's not to say that Our Hospitality is devoid of cliches but here the jokes feel more imbued within the plot, like they each compliment each other. The bits are strong along by the story and vice-versa. Now this does lead to less actual gags than Safety Last since it's harder to come up with jokes without derailing a story than just pausing to have a comedic sequence, but it does make the jokes feel heftier. I'm not going to say one format is better than the other but I will say that I definitely preferred Our Hospitality's narrative style. It was far more engaging and offered a few more twists than I was expecting. It's also worth mentioning that the first fifteen minutes or so Our Hospitality doesn't even try to be funny, instead telling a rather serious tale about murder and loss. I've got to say that's pretty ballsy for a comedy and it really pays off when you get more invested in the characters and their plights as a result.
Even the comedic style between the two couldn't be more different. Lloyd's character is the cause of the comedy, i.e. it is by his direct action that all the zaniness is going on around him. He knocks a cop over, he screws with his companions, he forces himself into all these crazy situations. He is also by far the sillier of the two, having more expressive fascial expressions and overall being more clown-like. Essentially his jokes are wackier. Keaton on the other hand is the opposite. He plays the straight man in the story, the guy who's just caught in the middle of it all. His humour is reactive, not active, and as the straight man the comedy is not derived from his goofy persona but rather from his being out of his element. We can't help but laugh at his incredulous expression when everything is going so wrong and he's stuck with a bunch of lunatics. It's worth noting that he has probably the best deadpan expression I have ever seen, something he will perfect by the time he produces The General. Seriously it's amazing how much mileage he gets from one fucking look, and it feels almost unfair how funny it is at times. All this results in a much dryer style of slapstick. There are less gut-busters than there would be with say Lloyd (in the context of the era mind you), but the jokes had me grinning far more because they were so cleverly and subtly woven within the rhythm of the narrative. Plus while he doesn't stand out as quickly as Lloyd Keaton felt more charismatic on screen. My favourite moments in the movie are early on when the Canefields are trying to murder Willie, who is completely oblivious to their bullets, and the dinner scene, when Willie figures out what's going on but the Canefields refuse to kill him under their roof for reasons of honour (hence the title), leading to a delightfully tense scene where both parties try to put up a facade for the clueless Virginia.
So is Keaton funnier than Lloyd? I would say so, which is pretty embarrassing considering how much I bitched about Lloyd's omission from the list (something I stubbornly stand by). If nothing else Keaton feels smarter about his comedy, like he's able to balance between humour and storytelling to hit a sweet spot. It's not perfect of course. I'd be lying if I said if it could have used a few more jokes and while my memory of it's fuzzy I recall enjoying The General more, but we'll have to wait and see until then to be sure. Until then I'll just say that Our Hospitality was a fun ride.
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