Buster Keaton: The Persistence of Comedy

Editorial review of Buster Keaton: The Persistence of Comedy, courtesy of Amazon.com

Buster Keaton is remembered today as one of the most innovative and hilarious comedians of the silent movie era, considered now to be the equal to Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd. Starting his career as a child in vaudeville with his parents in a violent, knockabout comedy act known as The Three Keatons, Buster – so called because he could take a fall without getting hurt – was a seasoned stage professional by the time of his film debut with Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle in 1917 at only 21 years old.

Keaton’s soaring success in motion pictures lasted 15 years until a devastating crash brought on by personal troubles, alcoholism and the advent of sound pictures. By 1932, Buster had become nearly unemployable. The true story of how he bounced back to become an icon in film history is the beautifully written and thoroughly researched tale lovingly crafted in Buster Keaton: The Persistence of Comedy by film analyst and writer, Imogen Sara Smith.

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. Chapter 1 – Frozen Fire – the face of serious comedy
2. Chapter 2 – A Favorable Hurricane – rewards and scars from a knockabout upbringing
3. Chapter 3 – Primitives at Play – Arbuckle’s apprentice
4. Chapter 4 – A Garden at the Moment of Blooming – the birth of a style at the Keaton Studio
5. Chapter 5 – Gentlemen of Comedy – the Keaton hero and the leap to dramatic narrative
6. Chapter 6 – Living in the Camera – fantasy vs. realism, on both sides of the screen
7. Chapter 7 – Breathing Props – Buster, brides and bricks
8. Chapter 8 – The Eye of the Storm – the art of understatement
9. Chapter 9 – Keaton’s Kennel – decline and fall at MGM
10. Chapter 10 – An Artist in Exile – a silent clown in a world of sound
11. Chapter 11 – Beyond Category – Keaton’s critical afterlife

Notes, sources, and bibliography