From Wikipedia:
Hard Luck is a 1921 short comedy film starring comedian Buster Keaton. It was written and directed by Keaton and Edward F. Cline. The runtime is 22 minutes. For sixty years it was Keaton's only major lost film until it was partially reconstructed in 1987, with the critical final scene (which Keaton called the greatest laugh-getting scene of his career) still missing. This scene was later discovered in a foreign archive print, and now the full film is available.
from imdb.com:
Directed by Edward F. Cline
Buster Keaton
Produced by Joseph M. Schenck
Written by Edward F. Cline
Buster Keaton
Starring:
Buster Keaton
Virginia Fox
Joe Roberts
Bull Montana
Cinematography Elgin Lessley
Editing by Buster Keaton
Distributed by Metro Pictures
Release date(s) March 16, 1921
Running time 22 min.
from an interview with Buster by Malcolm H. Oettinger in Picture-Play Magazine, March 1923:
"We just wrap up a little hokum," he will tell you. "We build up a little story on some sure-fire idea, throw in a dozen gags, if we can think of 'em, and let 'er ride. The scenario we use is written on the correspondence end of a picture post card. If it's lost its no great matter."
You cannot read hidden motifs into the Keaton spoolings. You cannot persuade him that there was a hint of satire concealed in his last comedy, or the one before that. You cannot coerce him into admitting that he planned an unique characterization which he has steadfastly maintained. He will take credit for nothing. Not even his make-up.
"The pancake hat and the oversized collar and the misfit suit and the slapstick shoes are my old vaudeville stand-bys. My father rigged me out as a third of The Three Keatons, when I was too young to 'originate' anything but a yowl! I've kept the same make-up ever since--guess I always will."
Solemnity is more than a habit with Keaton; it's ingrown. Throughout our conversation his face was stony. Nor was this an exception to his usual attitude. I have seen him in the turmoil of a comic sequence, a business of break-away ladders, swinging ropes, and trapdoor scaffoldings; I have seen him eyeing the proceedings at one of Manhattan's most energizing nights clubs; I have seen him purring at his baby in father-like fashion; I have seen him casually viewing the day's rushes, and upon not one but all of these occasions Buster wore an expression that was infinitely more sphinxlike than the Sphinx ever thought of being. His is an entirely emotionless face, suggesting most of all, a mask. It is the ideal phiz for a droll pantaloon.
"You originated the idea of never smiling," I supposed.
But Buster refused to take credit for it. In the days of The Three Keatons, it seems, his father taught him never to crack a smile. The habit grew on him. Now it is so deeply rooted that it is almost impossible for him to grin.
It has long been one of the beliefs of the American Credo that all comedians are, off stage, lugubrious fellows, and never was a truth more apparent than in the appearance and behavior of Buster Keaton. His countenance is little short of funereal, his speech laconic, his outlook none too sanguine.
Tags: 1921 BusterKeaton comedy silentmovie slapstick stunts gags
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