NZIFF Classic Film Review: "The Cameraman" (1928).

"Buster has a camera, but what he doesn't know about it would make even the little birdie laugh!" This is The Cameraman. This 1928 American silent comedy film directed by Edward Sedgwick and Buster Keaton, who was uncredited. In this silent classic, photographer Buster meets Sally, who works as a secretary for the newsreel department at MGM, and falls hard. Trying to win her attention, Buster abandons photography in order to become a news cameraman. In spite of his early failures with a motion camera, Sally takes to him as well. However, veteran cameraman Stagg also fancies Sally, meaning Buster will need to learn how to film quickly before he loses his job.

In late January 1928, Keaton signed a two-year deal with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The deal required two films per year from Keaton and paid him $3,000 a week, making him the third highest-paid actor at the studio. Keaton brought most of his own crew with him from his own independent production company. He immediately pitched the idea for The Cameraman to MGM, who paid him $1,250 for it.  According to Keaton, twenty-two writers were assigned to work on the script before and during production, but Keaton convinced MGM's head of production Irving Thalberg to throw out the script and allow him to film it his own way. On his previous films, only three or four gag writers were the norm. MGM countered that only five writers had worked on the film. The film was then overseen by producer Lawrence Weingarten. Weingarten and Keaton fought on set and Weingarten called Keaton a child. According to Rudi Blesh's biography of Keaton, he came on the set the first day of shooting and, unaware of his reduced status as actor-only, began to "feel" for comedy bits and request props and characters, as he had with his own company. Sedgwick took him aside and told Keaton that he was undermining his directorial authority. Buster genuinely apologized and faded into the background. Sedgwick couldn't get the set-ups he wanted, couldn't get the actors to understand his direction, and eventually gave up and asked Buster to take over. As quietly as he had left, Buster regained control of the scene. Buster began to call Sedgwick "Junior" and they became fast friends. Thalberg loved the finished film and laughed during screenings of its rushes, a rare display of emotion from Thalberg. However, at the studio's insistence, Keaton's original ending with him smiling was replaced with the current ending after it received negative reactions when it was previewed. Keaton was accustomed to complete control over his own productions and was unaccustomed to interference from producers. MGM would take away Keaton's creative control over his pictures, thereby causing drastic and long-lasting harm to his career. Keaton was later to call the move to MGM "the worst mistake of my life." This film was used for many years by MGM as an example of a perfect comedy. The studio would get all its directors and producers to watch it and learn. Only two scenes were improvised on the spot by Keaton. The Cameraman would later serve as inspiration for part of the 1950 comedy Watch the Birdie, starring Red Skelton, with Keaton working as a gagman for MGM and serving as an advisor to Skelton. The film was almost lost forever. The master copy of it used today was made using a print that was found in Paris, in 1968, and a master positive copy of nearly the entire film, found in 1991. In modern copies of the film, the quality of the image varies dramatically; the scenes with best quality were obtained from the material found in 1991. It is now considered to be Keaton still in top form by fans and critics alike, and it was added to the National Film Registry in 2005 as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." It is also included among the American Film Institute's 2000 list of the 500 movies nominated for the Top 100 Funniest American Movies.

The picture stars Keaton, Marceline Day, Harold Goodwin, Sidney Bracey, and Harry Gribbon. With very little words obviously, the cast gave remarkable and mind-blowing performances, especially from Keaton, who were able to convey so much through their faces and bodies, especially for Keaton. The featured gags are as much artful exercises in stuntwork and timing as they are orchestrated attempts at humor, and the fact that they work so well as both is testament to Keaton's brilliance as a filmmaker and performer. Keaton has great sight gags and goes to amazing ends to get the thrills he wants. In these times when all risk is assumed by CGI effects, Keaton's squealing funny, exquisitely timed, death-defying leaps are all the more breathtaking. There was only one Buster Keaton, and this film is his swansong.

Not just one of the greatest films of the silent period, but of all time, and arguably the greatest comedy ever made. The Cameraman explores man's tumultuous relationship with technology through the propulsive images and rushing emotion available only to the advents of cinema. The film boasts the most sustained passages of virtuoso slapstick genius Keaton ever shot, and an unflagging momentum that lets it get away with being a reel longer than most of his best-known pictures. It is the highlight of his career's tragicomic performances, featuring not just the awe-inspiring stunts that were his bread and butter, but also a level of fluidity only he and Chaplin attained at the top of their games. Spectacular performances, whether dramatic, comedic and/or stunt-wise, are captured with fluid camerawork. There are no stunt doubles for Keaton and of course no digital effects. A jaw-plunging blend of physical dexterity and bravura moviemaking. A thrilling and hilarious comedy. Among the finest comedies of all time, it wears its greatness lightly, and one of Keaton's most hilarious and most popular comedies. This is a silent film worth making a noise about. A Silent masterpiece is entertainment for all ages.

Simon says The Cameraman receives:

Also, see my NZIFF review for The Dance of Reality (La Danza de la Realidad).