Daydreams (1922)

A sincere young man leaves his home to win his fortune so he can marry his home town sweetheart.

Directors:

Edward F. Cline (as Eddie Cline), Buster Keaton (as 'Buster' Keaton)

Writers:

Edward F. Cline (as Eddie Cline), Buster Keaton (as 'Buster' Keaton)

Stars:

Buster Keaton, Renée Adorée, Edward F. Cline

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Buster Keaton	...	The Young Man
Renée Adorée	...	The Girl (as Renee Adoree)

Storyline

Buster goes away to the city to prove to his girl's father he can succeed. He writes her of his various jobs which she glorifies in her imagination. She sees a surgeon, he is a vet's assistant; she sees him cleaning up on Wall Street, he's really a janitor.

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Plot Keywords:

surgeon | written and directed by cast member | new york city | manhattan new york city | wall street manhattan new york city | 

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Genres:

Short | Comedy

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

27 November 1922 (USA)

Also Known As:

Daydreams

Filming Locations:

Keaton Studio, N. Cahuenga Blvd. & Eleanor Ave., Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

First National Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

23 min (extant print)

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The only film in which Buster Keaton cast Renée Adorée as his leading lady. Adorée was then a minor starlet at Fox Films, years before she won fame at MGM with The Big Parade (1925). Keaton reportedly made an uncredited cameo appearance in the 1929 MGM feature Tide of Empire (1929), starring Adorée.

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Quotes

The Young Man: I've come to ask for your daughter's hand in marriage.
The Girls Father: How will you support her?
The Young Man: I don't know. I'll leave for the city to make good. If I'm not a success, I'll come back and shoot myself.
The Girls Father: Splendid. I'll lend you my revolver.

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Connections

Edited into The Golden Age of Buster Keaton (1975)

User Reviews

Second-rate Keaton

"Daydreams" is basically a collection of sketches, book-ended by an opening and closing pair of scenes. As such, it has something of the perfunctory feel of a 'compilation episode': the storyline, inasmuch as there is one, consists of Buster exaggerating the status of, trying and failing at a series of lowly jobs, but while the individual episodes vary in humour, they never build into anything greater than the sum of their (rather brief) parts. Films like "Hard Luck" or "The Balloonatic" have the merit of a reasonably coherent progression from one somewhat arbitrary encounter to the next; this one is constrained by the necessity of cutting back to the framing structure, which deprives it of that vital illusion of logic. Whether as a consequence of this or not, the result is not nearly so funny. (The best sequence is possibly a battered Buster's arrival back on the doorstep of his beloved... at the hands of the US Postal Service!)

For fans, this is worth watching as ever just in order to see Buster in action, and there are certainly laughs to be had; but it offers little human interest -- this is Inept Buster without the customary redeeming turning of the tables -- and suffers from a lack of his usual narrative inspiration. The humour tends in places towards simple slapstick (Buster squirts a hose, people get wet) rather than the inspired second-guessing of audience expectations at which he excels. The funniest concepts (disguising himself as an inert shopkeeper's dummy, keeping pace exactly with his pursuers) are echoed in more successful comedies, and sadly the famous paddle-wheel clip is really less impressive when actually seen in the context of the slender plot. This comedy is inoffensive, but not really a showcase for Keaton's abilities; unlikely to win over any converts, perhaps.