This feature sees Buster Keaton as a young man who returns to the old South to claim an estate, only to discover that his family has been one of the participants in a Hatfield-McCoy style feud (here they are the Canfields and McKays), and the other side still wants to kill him. It's a good, solid comedy, and as always showcases a lot of great conceptual comedy and stunts, all performed by the "Great Stone Face" in a way that makes you marvel. It's hard to imagine anyone else quite coming up with the horse with the umbrella that looks like a woman from behind, the daisy-chain falling down the cliff of the two men tied by a rope, or the way the rear cars of the train end up in front of the engine. Often it's the uniqueness of this kind of humour that really makes Keaton's film's stand out.
A lot of the jokes in this film, especially in the earlier parts, revolve around making fun of the past simply for being the past (central Manhattan used to be less developed, &c). As a viewer in 2009 I can't help but think that if I were as indulgent of decades past as this film is, I would probably not be watching it. Still there is a lot of material here and some of it works very well (I love the shifting of the train track itself when the mule won't get out of the way).
The story of the film is a good one, but the humour doesn't seem to flow quite so naturally from it as in other Keaton films, with the notable exception of the sequences in which Buster must stay inside the house in order to protect his life. It actually seems to be funnier on digressions, such as the scene of Buster fishing in the vicinity of a soon-to-be-demolished dam.
So while the laughs aren't one-hundred-per-cent wall-to-wall here, it's certainly, a funny, satisfying, well-made film, with the impressively perilous action-comedy sequences being a highlight for me.
A lot of the jokes in this film, especially in the earlier parts, revolve around making fun of the past simply for being the past (central Manhattan used to be less developed, &c). As a viewer in 2009 I can't help but think that if I were as indulgent of decades past as this film is, I would probably not be watching it. Still there is a lot of material here and some of it works very well (I love the shifting of the train track itself when the mule won't get out of the way).
The story of the film is a good one, but the humour doesn't seem to flow quite so naturally from it as in other Keaton films, with the notable exception of the sequences in which Buster must stay inside the house in order to protect his life. It actually seems to be funnier on digressions, such as the scene of Buster fishing in the vicinity of a soon-to-be-demolished dam.
So while the laughs aren't one-hundred-per-cent wall-to-wall here, it's certainly, a funny, satisfying, well-made film, with the impressively perilous action-comedy sequences being a highlight for me.