Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928)

The effete son of a cantankerous riverboat captain comes to join his father's crew.

Director:

Charles Reisner

Writer:

Carl Harbaugh (story)

Stars:

Buster Keaton, Tom McGuire, Ernest Torrence

1 nomination.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Buster Keaton	...	William Canfield Jr.
Tom McGuire	...	J.J. King
Ernest Torrence	...	William 'Steamboat Bill' Canfield
Tom Lewis	...	Tom Carter - First and Last Mate
Marion Byron	...	Kitty King - King's Daughter

Storyline

Willie is the effete son of riverboat captain "Steamboat Bill" coming to see his dad after years of separation. Bill tries to turn his son into a man. When his father is arrested, Willie decides to get him out of jail.

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Plot Keywords:

river | captain | rescue | riverboat | jail | 

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Taglines:

The Laugh Special of the Age. See It.

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Genres:

Action | Comedy | Drama | Family | Romance

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

20 May 1928 (USA)

Also Known As:

Wasser hat keine Balken

Filming Locations:

Sacramento River, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Buster Keaton Productions, Joseph M. Schenck Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

70 min

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Included among the '1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die', edited by 'Steven Jay Schneider'.

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Goofs

During the final cyclone sequence, a cable pulling down the entire front of a building is clearly visible.

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Quotes

William 'Steamboat Bill' Canfield Sr.: I'll run on this river if I'm the only passenger on the boat.

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Connections

Spoofed in Arrested Development: The One Where They Build a House (2004)

User Reviews

Blow

This follows a pattern that Keaton would follow in a few of his most amazing films. The first half would just set up the situation and incidentally give a few mild jokes along the way. The second part is structured around a frantic set of stunts that are both comic and athletic. These must have astonished when they were new; its an odd thing that all the really interesting effects in films of this era were not for science fiction or action, but comedy.

Today, these effects and particularly Keaton's, astonish ever so much more. Jackie Chan is the closest we have now, or recently. Chan knows that when we see something that we know is real: Chan jumping off a helicopter for instance, and when that is done with a comic tone, for some reason we chuckle more deeply.

(Stephen Chow's projects are a twist on this. We know the stunts aren't real, but they are much more extreme, and they deliberately reference other movies.) This collection of stunts has Keaton take a large river steam paddlewheeler, a rig it up to operate the boiler room by ropes from the pilothouse. Keaton's agility is absolutely phenomenal: today such acrobatics would surely be computer generated. Its not obvious that the man is risking his life. But as with his railroad movie, it is obvious that this is a real machine in a real raging river during real serious wind, though the wind might be generated with machines.

This is big stuff, important to watch and real thrill.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.