Our Hospitality (1923)

User Rating:

8.1/10   

Directors:

John G. Blystone
Buster Keaton

Writers:

Jean C. Havez (story) &
Clyde Bruckman (story) ...

Release Date:

19 November 1923 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Family

Plot:

A man returns to his Appalachian homestead. On the trip, he falls for a young woman. The only problem is her family has vowed to kill every member of his family.

Plot Keywords:

Feud | Train | Kentucky | Waterfall | Rescue

Cast

Joe Roberts	...	Joseph Canfield
Ralph Bushman	...	Canfield's Son
Craig Ward	...	Canfield's Son
Monte Collins	...	The Parson
Joe Keaton	...	The Engineer
Kitty Bradbury	...	Aunt Mary
Natalie Talmadge	...	The Girl - Canfield's Daughter
Buster Keaton Jr.	...	Willie McKay - 1 Year Old
Buster Keaton	...	Willie McKay - 21 Years Old

Runtime:

73 min (1995 alternate version) | Spain:65 min | Belgium:87 min (copy with French titles at Brussels Musée du Cinéma)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Certification:

Portugal:M/6 | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | USA:TV-G (TV rating) | Finland:K-3 | Spain:T

Filming Locations:

Truckee River, California, USA

Company:

Joseph M. Schenck Productions

Trivia:

Joe Roberts, Buster Keaton's career "heavy", made his last appearance in this film. Big Joe suffered a stroke during the filming, and was hospitalized. He insisted on returning to work, however, and died very shortly after the end of filming.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The Simpsons: Milhouse of Sand and Fog (#17.3)" (2005)

Enjoyable, With Some Especially Good Sequences

With a good dose of everything that one expects from Keaton - slapstick, stunts, chases, rich visual detail, and much more - "Our Hospitality" is enjoyable to watch, and it has some especially good sequences. The plot idea, with Keaton as an innocent outsider becoming entangled in an old-fashioned family feud, works pretty well, although it relies on comic details to overcome some rather routine characters.

A short prologue explains the feud in which Buster will soon be involved, and then we see New Yorker Willie McKay (Keaton) called south to claim a family inheritance, which will plunge him into the middle of the feud. One of the movie's highlights is the train ride south, a wonderful sequence that almost upstages the rest of the film. It's a long, leisurely series of comic snippets that works beautifully both as a period piece and as terrifically inventive comedy. There aren't any spectacular gags, but an impressive collection of amusing incidents and carefully done detail, and it's well worth watching over again to catch it all.

The main part of the film features Buster romancing the pretty young woman he met on the train, while trying to avoid her brothers and father, who are trying to kill him. It's pretty good, but except for a few clever shots most of it is not up to the standard of the first part of the movie. It picks up near the end with a very good chase sequence that has some memorable moments and that brings everything to a climax.

Overall, this is a fine film, enjoyable and well worth watching.