spatz | get me to the church on time

The Paramount is in full swing with its Summer Film Classics series, so I went to watch a Buster Keaton double feature. They were adorable, though I think I was a bit spoiled seeing The General first, because you can't beat that. I watched a couple of Chaplin films last week (The Great Dictator: waaay less funny after the Holocaust. It's like one long pre-war Holocaust joke. Modern Times was pure delight, though), and Keaton and Chaplin are an interesting contrast. For all that Keaton is nicknamed "the Great Stone Face", he actually conveys an AMAZING amount of emotion with his physicality and use of his gaze (double-takes, widened eyes, confused squints).

Go West had a lot of excellent cow shenanigans, but I was delighted to discover that Seven Chances is the movie that originated the "I must get married or I won't inherit this large fortune left to me by a sadistic relative!" trope. I doubt Keaton would ever have predicted fandom's pining/fake relationships/epic angst take on that, considering he used his storyline to enable an epic chase scene whose highlights included a stampede of women taking out a football team and an avalanche. *laughs* Someone write that slashy version of that, now.