Monday, September 19, 2011

The Scarecrow

Buster Keaton plays a farmhand living with a coworker in one small room filled with multipurpose contraptions. Both men are vying for the farmer's daughter, and after being chased by an overzealous dog and having his mistaken marriage proposal accepted, he now tries to flee and marry the girl while fleeing from his rival and the farmer while pretending to be a scarecrow. "The Scarecrow" is one of Keaton's early and most fun short films containing several riotous and intricate sequences such as the kitchen sequence where every item doubles for another, the scene where a dog chases Buster around the edges of an unfinished brick house, and the scene where the farmer fights the rival and Buster keeps it going while pretending to be a scarecrow. "The Scarecrow" is another example of Buster Keaton's comedic genius.