One Week and Steamboat Bill Jr.

Monday September 26, 7:00pm The Paramount Theater

"Here’s your house!"

"One Week" begins with church bells and happy guests throwing shoes and rice. The Groom (Buster Keaton) picks up a pair he thinks might fit then tries to kiss his Bride (Sybil Seely) in the back seat of their car. They are always kissing. If his rival, "Handy Hank" wasn’t stuck to them like glue everything would be hunky dory. The newlyweds are given a vacant lot with a kit house for a wedding gift and Hank changes the numbers on the boxes. The result is a do-it-yourself disaster that spins like a top in a storm as houseguests fly out the doors. "I’ve had a lovely afternoon on your merry-go-round. It’ll be better when you put in your hobby horses." Don’t forget the motion sickness pills. Seely is adorable, spinning on a piano stool in the storm, painting a valentine on the house and taking a bath. When she reaches for the dropped bar of soap a hand comes from behind the camera to cover the lens!

In his last independent film "Steamboat Bill Jr." Buster Keaton serves up his usual antics along with the most frightening and dangerous stunt he ever attempted.
Crusty old riverboat captain, "Steamboat Bill" hasn’t seen his boy since he was a babe. When "Willie" arrives in River Junction (by train) both father and son are disappointed. Bill expected a strapping lad that could fill his boots while the boy finds his old man a little rough around the edges. The first casualties are Willie’s beret and mustache, "Take that barnacle off his lip." Keaton’s father "Big Joe" has a small part as the barber. Watch for Buster’s trademark porkpie hat in the hat scene, another hilarious inside joke. Willie bumps into Marion King (Marion Byron in her film debut), a cutie from school, and romance ensues. The two soon discover their fathers are enemies. John King owns the town along with the new riverboat. He’d like nothing more than to run Bill Sr. and his old steamer "Stonewall Jackson" out of town and off the river. "This floating palace should put an end to that ‘thing’ Steamboat Bill is running." The youngsters are forbidden to see each other but of course they disobey. Bill Sr. sends Willie packing just as King has the old man thrown in jail. Willie is duty bound to spring his dad and shows up with a loaded loaf of bread. "That must of happened when the dough fell in the tool box." The jailbreak fails just as a terrific storm arrives and Willie finds himself in a town of collapsing buildings. As he was in "The General", Buster is then forced into various acts of heroism, a tiny little fellow with almost super-human strength.
Keaton used the Sacramento River as his location for River Junction, entirely built for the film and largely destroyed in the storm. Several accounts claim much of the crew walked off the set rather than participate in the filming of a scene in which a building façade falls into the street while Keaton stands precisely where a second story window is located. The wall was constructed at full weight. Had the calculations for this stunt been off a matter of inches, Keaton would have been killed. In another stunt, Buster clings to a large tree which is uprooted by the storm and flung into the river. A crane was used to lift the tree and lower it into the water.
"Steamboat Bill Jr." is brimming with the physical gags that had long been Keaton’s stock in trade by 1928. Some gems to look for include a charming scene when Willie serenades a crying baby with his ukulele, his jailhouse pantomime and his walk down the road as he leaves town, then turns back, with the girl on his heels.

Don't forget to wear a white carnation (wink, wink).