drqshadow

8/10

Buster Keaton directs and stars in this adaptation of a popular play, in which a young businessman stands to inherit a fortune if he's married by day's end. He's been suiting a young lady, but slips up during his proposal and soon finds himself racing through a short list of female acquaintances in a desperate search for altar-side companionship. Keaton literally throws himself into the work, single-handedly breathing life into several scenes with his characteristic physical comedy and crafty visual tricks. Given the lack of credible special effects at the time, stars would often risk life and limb to get a shot, and Keaton is renowned for this. Despite the grainy film quality and unstable camerawork, his performance still holds up, patching over the simple premise and stretched plot points with a lengthy string of stunts and laughs. Some humor is timeless. Not all of it, of course - a few racial jokes and a character in blackface are sprinkled in amidst all the fun - but none of that seems mean-spirited, and can be largely written off as an uncomfortable relic of the past. Otherwise, it's a light silent comedy that scarcely even needs title cards after the first act. A true visual playground.