Go West (1925)

With little luck at keeping a job in the city a New Yorker tries work in the country and eventually finds his way leading a herd of cattle to the West Coast.

Director:

Buster Keaton

Writers:

Buster Keaton, Lex Neal (assistant writer)

Stars:

Buster Keaton, Howard Truesdale, Kathleen Myers

1 nomination.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Howard Truesdale	...	Owner of the Diamond Bar Ranch
Kathleen Myers	...	His Daughter
Ray Thompson	...	The Foreman
Brown Eyes	...	Self
Buster Keaton	...	Friendless

Storyline

A young man who doesn't find a job in his small hometown, tries his luck in New York, but is overwelmed by the life of the city, so decides to try his luck somewhere else after a only a few minutes in New York. He falls off a train near a ranch, where he tries his luck as a cowbowy, being in his own way very sucessful. But he shows what he can do when the farm has to bring a 100 head of cattle to the slaughterhouses of Los Angeles to avoid going bankrupt, against the will of his neighbour who wants a better price. After a shoot-out with the neighbour's men he's the only person on a Los Angeles bound train with 1000 cows....

---

Plot Keywords:

friendless | animal companion | ranch | cow | unemployment | 

---

Taglines:

Come with Buster out into the vast open spaces where men are men and cows are their only lady friends. See him chaperone a thousand wild steers in a big City- and a thousand and one excruciatingly funny scenes! A METRO-GOLDWYN SPECIAL. (Print ad-Sunday Mail, ((Brisbane, Qld.)) 5 December 1926)

---

Genres:

Comedy | Western

---

Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

Assuming its copyright has not lapsed already, this film and all others produced in 1925 enter the U.S. public domain in 2021.

---

Goofs

When the girl summons Buster and the cowboy to tend to her splinter, Buster is standing to the cowboy's right. When they arrive, Buster is on his left.

---

Quotes

[first lines]
General store owner: [to Friendless] I'll give you a dollar sixty five for the whole business.

---

Connections

Featured in The Comic Kino-Eye (2013)

User Reviews

Need any good cowboys today?

A young man named Friendless decides to head east when his luck runs out. After nearly getting trampled by an average New York pedestrian crowd, Friendless takes Horace Greeley's advice and heads west via rail. Friendless accidently is sent off the train, he ends up at an Arizona ranch, where the owner gives him a job as a hand. Soon there he meets his first friend, a cow named Brown Eyes. When Brown Eyes is to be taken with the rest of the herd for the slaughterhouse, Friendless goes with Brown Eyes to prevent her turning into a steak dinner, until a rival ranch holds up the train, and Friendless ends up driving the entire herd through the busy 1920's streets of Los Angeles to market. This Keaton film differs from the other's he made in the 1920's, where it is more of a drama, and sacrificing the Keaton routine of the young man who unwillingly is called to do the extraordinary things, in a sense a Chaplin film. There are a few good sight gags though (Buster waiting for a cow to give milk, his failures to get to the dinner table on time), but the scenes with Brown Eyes are the movie. Rating- 7.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

None English

Release Date:

1 November 1925 (USA)

Also Known As:

Auf in den Westen

Filming Locations:

Coca-Cola Plant - 963 East 4th Street, Fashion District, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Buster Keaton Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

69 min 76 min

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1