One of the many adjectives you could use to describe Buster Keaton is Fearless. Whether it's casually latching on to a car driving by, laying down in front of a streetcar, sitting a few feet from an explosive, or jumping off a high board into a wax coating over water to make it look like brick, he gives it all for his viewers, and he's just as magnetic to them over a century later (well, this viewer anyway). This short is all over the map, starting with Buster in little tramp mode, desperately scrounging for food, but unlike Chaplin, Buster's character has a darkness to him, attempting suicide a few times. It then segues into adventures with animals (fish, horses, a bull, and a bear) and the rescue of a damsel in distress. Of course, right?
It's not the most cohesive script in the world (to put it mildly), but I liked its anarchy, and was amused throughout. The "fall through the Earth and end up in China" bit has grown stale over a century later, but this is one of its earliest film references, and it's notable that Buster is shown happily married with children to a Chinese woman at a time interracial marriage was illegal in most of America. That's quite possibly the reason the ending was missing from the first print which was recovered in 1987. Watch for the cute little pratfall from his "Chinese son" at the end too. Like father, like son.
It's not the most cohesive script in the world (to put it mildly), but I liked its anarchy, and was amused throughout. The "fall through the Earth and end up in China" bit has grown stale over a century later, but this is one of its earliest film references, and it's notable that Buster is shown happily married with children to a Chinese woman at a time interracial marriage was illegal in most of America. That's quite possibly the reason the ending was missing from the first print which was recovered in 1987. Watch for the cute little pratfall from his "Chinese son" at the end too. Like father, like son.