"The Cameraman" by Buster Keaton

Tonight at CSUN we only had a single Buster Keaton movie instead of the double features we'd been enjoying the past several weeks, but it was one of his very best : "The Cameraman" (1928). Buster is a street photographer in New York City offering tintype portraits for ten cents. He has a big bulky camera that looks like a cross between a compressed telescope and an oversized martini shaker. His is clumsy as usual, constantly knocking things over with the camera and tripod carried on his shoulder. He manages to get his act together, though, for his first customer, a pretty young woman played by Silent Era stunner Marceline Day. Buster is very attentive and takes a nice picture, which he gives to her for free, as a present. It turns out that she works for MGM Newsreel Studio in NYC (I never knew MGM had an NYC outlet, but anyhow), and soon Buster is showing up there. He has pawned his old tintype still camera and with that money and all the savings in his bank account he has purchased an old broken down movie camera, just so he can have the right equipment in order to be at the studio. He has to be legit to hang out near his girl, only she isn't his just yet.

As always, he is up against Manly Competiton, this time in the person of another cameraman, a tall handsome professional who has previously had his eyes on The Girl.

Now who do you think is gonna win out?  ;)

The MGM Girl has a soft spot for Buster, just because he tries so hard, and one day she offers him a hot tip - "Go down to Chinatown. There is gonna be a gang war during their Holiday Parade. If you film it, you can get a job here".

You may or may not have heard of the Tong Wars of the early 1900s, involving Chinese gangs in American cities. I had heard the term but didn't know the context. Anyhow, Buster runs down to Chinatown and is soon filming right smack in the middle of a major Tong War. He has an accomplice; a skinny little monkey he has acquired by accident from a street performer.

The remaining 20 to 25 minutes of the movie are once again Absolute Classic Keaton, and I don't even want to try and rate his classics anymore, as far as which is the greatest, but I was thinking tonight that it might just be "The Cameraman" because of the added touch of Buster and the sweet little monkey, who is so amazing amidst all the usual Keaton Kaos.

You just have to see this movie to believe it, not in the mega-stunt & catastrophe way of "The General" or "Steamboat Bill Jr" but just in the way that Buster and the unflappable monkey ride out the chaos all around them as they both continue to film.

Yes, both of them. And so, who is "The Cameraman" of the title? You'll just have to see for yourself.

And does Buster get The Girl?

What do you think?

There is a lot of story that is built up prior to what I have described, including a classic scene where Buster pantomimes a baseball game all by himself, and a lengthy sequence at a public pool that features many great gags. The buildup is slow in spots, but you know you are being pulled in.

And suddenly, you are once again on the Buster Keaton rollercoaster, in one of his greatest films.

That is basically all I know for tonight. Went to Target for some more spiderweb Halloween lights. We needed enough to cross the wall at the end of Pearl's driveway. :)

Elizabeth, I saw a post about your friend Madison M., who recorded vocals for another artist in her home, and I was reminded that I forgot to mention Rebecca Sjowall, an opera singer I had not heard of before, but who sings on Sparks' new album "Hippopotamus" and who also sang one song live with them during the three show run at the El Rey. I Googled her after the Saturday show, and she is from Wisconsin.......

:):)  See you in the morning.