. . . in a not-so-beautiful balloon. In this short, Buster Keaton plays "The Young Man"--also referred to (ironically?) as "The Prince" on one mid-film title card--who turns out to be a serial womanizer. The young man also is blessed with remarkably good luck, as he proceeds from mishap to mishap at a frenetic pace, coming out of it no worse for wear (unless you count the black eye he receives off-camera from doing who knows what to a stranger lady in the tunnel-of-love-type boat ride). Oh, the humanity, the humanity!--if the young man had just been on the Hindenburg the following decade, it's doubtful lightning could have struck. A decade earlier, he would have saved the Titanic by just being in steerage. With the luck and pluck displayed by the title character of THE BALLOONATIC, the possibilities are endless. Whether threatened by the ladies, bulls, bears, squirrels, or the raging abyss of a waterfall, this character leads a charmed life. Too bad for him that personal podcast cameras were not around in 1923, since showing just a few of his lucky escapes to his potential dates should prove him a worthy suitor, just on the basis of his being a human-sized rabbit's foot.
Review of The Balloonatic
