The Goat

(Buster Keaton/1921/USA)

The hapless Keaton gets mistaken for a serious criminal and ends up with people avoiding him like the plague and then with one, two and three cops in chase. Amongst the high jinks he manages to meet and woo a girl whose dad turns out to be the police chief and one of his pursuers. He pulls off an ingenious escape from her apartment building and carries her off to the rolling credits. Whilst it has all the hallmarks of Keaton’s wit and visual gags along with some lovely close ups of the intimidating Joe Roberts, it doesn’t quite flow as easily as others of his shorts. It is essentially a series of chase scenes, containing some fantastic stunts but with a feeling of episodic set ups rather than a continuing narrative. A small complaint however as it is hilarious and the amount of misdirection employed is breath taking.

(3/5)

The Scarecrow

(Buster Keaton/1920/USA)

These 20 minutes of slapstick, farce and chase are a well spring for so much that comes after in cinema - Laurel and Hardy, The Odd Couple, Wallace and Gromit to name a few obvious ones. With a simple premise of two chaps living together in a house of contraptions and time saving inventions who fall for the same girl, the daughter of a farmer, and the battle for her heart that ensues, it packs a steady flow of punches into its short run time and keeps you laughing right to the very end. It’s wonderfully simple and funny after all these years.

(5/5)