The Cameraman

Plot synopsis:
Buster (Buster Keaton), a sidewalk tintype portrait photographer in New York City, develops a crush on Sally (Marceline Day), a secretary who works for MGM Newsreels. To be near her, he purchases an old film camera, emptying his bank account, and attempts to get a job as one of MGM's filmers. Harold (Harold Goodwin), an MGM cameraman who has designs on Sally himself, mocks his ambition.
Sally, however, encourages Buster and suggests he film anything and everything. Buster's first attempts show his total lack of experience. He double exposes or over exposes much of the footage, and the rest is simply no good. Despite this setback, Sally agrees to go out with Buster, after her Sunday date cancels. They go to the city plunge (pool), where Buster gets involved in numerous mishaps. Later, Harold offers Sally a ride home; Buster has to sit in the rumble seat, where he gets drenched in the rain.
The next day, Sally gives him a hot tip she has just received that something big is going to happen in Chinatown. In his rush to get there, he accidentally runs into an organ grinder, who falls and apparently kills his monkey. A nearby cop makes Buster pay for the monkey and take its body with him. The monkey turns out only to be dazed and joins Buster on his venture.
In Chinatown, Buster films the outbreak of a Tong War, narrowly escaping death on several occasions. At the end, he is rescued from Tong members by the timely arrival of the police, led by a cop (Harry Gribbon) who had been the unintentional victim of several of Buster's antics over the last few days. The cop tries to have him committed to the mental hospital, but Buster makes his escape with his camera intact.
Returning to MGM, Buster and the newsreel company's boss are dismayed to find that he apparently forgot to load film into his camera. When Sally finds herself in trouble for giving Buster the tip, Buster offers to make amends by leaving MGM alone once and for all.
Buster returns to his old job, but does not give up on filming, setting up to record a boat race. He then discovers that he has Tong footage after all; the mischievous monkey had switched the reels. Sally and Harold are speeding along in one of the boats. When Harold makes too sharp a turn, the two are thrown into the river. Harold saves himself, but Sally is trapped by the circling boat. Buster stops filming to jump in and rescues her. The monkey gets behind the camera to film the daring rescue. When Buster rushes to a drug store to get medical supplies to revive her, Harold returns and takes credit for the rescue. The two go off, leaving the broken-hearted Buster behind.
Buster decides to send his Tong footage to MGM free of charge. The boss decides to screen it for Harold and Sally for laughs, but is thrilled by what he sees, calling it the best camerawork he has seen in years. They also see footage of Buster's boat footage and the monkey's shot of Buster's rescue of Sally. The boss sends Sally to get Buster. She tells him he is in for a great reception. Buster assumes a ticker-tape parade is in his honor, whereas it is really for Charles Lindbergh.

Tags: bleak

Review:
He gave little thought to financial matters; he believed in doing things right, whatever the cost in money, time or physical hardship.In 1928, Keaton's producer Joseph Schenck dissolved his studio and turned him over to MGM, the biggest, richest, and most authoritarian of the major studios.
As a result, THE CAMERAMAN became a Keaton masterpiece, one of his most mature, satisfying, and hilarious films.Not surprisingly, some of the funniest and most inspired moments were not in the script but were improvised by Buster during filming: when he pantomimes a baseball game in Yankee Stadium, when he calmly demolishes his room in an effort to open his piggy bank, and when he attempts to change into a swimsuit in a small cubicle shared with an irascible fat man.
It's a delight to watch her riding around on Buster's shoulder, scampering up and down his body, and embracing his great stone face with her tiny hands.THE CAMERAMAN reflects Buster's fascination with film-making and the mechanics of the camera.
There's the most poignant moment in any Keaton film, when Buster, having rescued Sally from a boat wreck and rushed off to get aid, returns to the beach to find his rival has taken credit for the rescue and won her gratitude.
The romance in THE CAMERAMAN is more fully developed than in most of Keaton's films; Sally is played by the exceptionally pretty Marceline Day, and unlike Buster's often prickly love interests she is unfailingly sweet and supportive.
It must be a candidate for the shelf of the classics, to stand in its own right among all others and hold its own.A tall order for a little comedy, you might think, even with the irreplaceable imagination and grace of Buster Keaton on both sides of the camera.
-- proves not simply a one-off gag, but key to the plot; and it is this sort of coherence that gives the film as a whole its beautiful sense of shape.The story itself is very simple, almost episodic, compared to some of Keaton's wilder offerings: boy loves girl, boy sets out day after day to prove himself and find his dream, as events conspire to frustrate him.
-- have been an influence on Gene Kelly's famous rapture of delight (and encounter with bemused policeman); the echoes are so close...There are no great set-piece stunts and chases to take over the screen and dominate the plot, as in "Seven Chances" or "The General"; but much as I love Buster's breathtaking skills and endless acrobatic agility, I think the film actually benefits by the more integrated style.
This film quite simply has *everything*, and that's why even among Keaton's work it stands out.Buster Keaton, meanwhile, is in top form, playing perhaps the most fully-realized of his various romantic dreamers: the little street photographer with his hard-saved nest egg, ten cents a time, who longs to become a daredevil cameraman capturing the breaking news.
This is classic Keaton: the fascination and frustration with machinery, the ingenuity applied and misapplied, the beauty of face and body that can express an entire universe without words, the flights of fancy and the inevitable falls.Buster could, notoriously, "run like a jack-rabbit" for all his small size, and here his speed as well as his famous frozen poise are put to memorable use.
Buster Keaton and his leading lady Marceline Day shine in this deliciously romantic comedy from 1928, about a tintype cameraman who longs to become a successful newsreel photographer for MGM.
Best scenes in The Cameraman are the public pool scenes, where Buster tangles with a mafia type in his dressing room, then loses his bathing trunks while swimming; the Tong War scenes with Josephine the monkey (so adorable!); and the regatta scenes, where Luke (Buster) saves Sally, only to have her affection stolen from him by an unworthy competitor.
While THE CAMERAMAN does not really feature any incredible or death-defying stunts, there are a number of set pieces that provide exciting humor (the staircase sequence, for instance), and also some hilarious situations such as when he loses his bathing suit at the "municipal plunge" or when he has to protect his camera from the attackers during the tong war.
Its sight gags may not be as funny, complex and clever as in Buster's independent films (The General, Sherlock Jr, Steamboat Bill Jr and others), but The Cameraman has probably the best romance of all his films, and is certainly one of the best directed.
It starts off rather slowly, but gets better and better as it moves along, leading up to a great finish that is fully worthy of Keaton's genius.The setup, with Buster as a cameraman who desperately yearns to break into the newsreel business, lends itself well to visual gags and also provides Buster with the kind of hard-luck character which he always portrayed so convincingly and humorously.
The early parts do move slowly at times, aside from a few good gags - but Keaton apparently once said that there was some good material in the original film that has not survived because the negatives deteriorated (this seems likely, because there are some noticeable blemishes even in what is left in the prints on the current video version).
While plying his trade of TinType Photographer, Keaton meets up with Sally (Marceline Day) who works at MGM.
It is reminiscent of some of his early slapstick works: there's a pure anarchistic glee throughout that finally explodes in an incredible scene involving a monkey, a movie camera, and Keaton amidst a full-fledged Chinese gang war (!) that must surely go down as one of the most ambitious gags anyone has ever attempted.
Buster Keaton plays a kind hearted but bumbling cameraman trying his best to win over a clerk at MGM studios.
I find The Cameraman, in its best moments, funnier than Buster Keaton's earlier, non-studio production, The General.
So it needs to pull of a few major original gags, which it does: anarchy punctuates the odd scene in the rain with the police officer who wants to test his reflexes to see if he's "goofy"; and, Buster undressing with another man in the changing room at the swimming pool is brutally funny.
Wonderful comedy with Buster Keaton as a 3rd rate day-dreaming cameraman who tries to be a freelance newsreel man.Along with the trademark Keaton chase scenes, there is also a sweet story as he falls for a secretary (Marceline Day) who seems more interested in another man.
"The Cameraman" was Keaton's next to last silent film,and the last feature he had any real measure of creative control over,and it shows,especially in it's new restored DVD release.While still missing some of it's original footage,the existing material has been restored to near perfect condition,allowing the viewer to really see what's going on,and with a visual artist like BK this is essential!
It's said that MGM's print of this was worn ragged because it was considered a perfect example of comedy writing and directing and was REQUIRED viewing for all their new comedians.Why then did those in control at MGM refuse to allow Keaton the freedom he needed to make his kind of picture?
This is such a brilliant little movie, so far ahead of its time, and like the rest of Keaton's work, so influential for generations to come.
There are comedy bits that are still fresh today, a sweet romance blended in, and what seems like one great scene after another for 67 minutes.Keaton's character is lovable as a sweet guy who has fallen for a women (Marceline Day) who works in a newsreel agency, and who tries his best to 'make good' there as a cameraman.
THE CAMERAMAN (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1928), directed by Edward Sedgwick, is a comedy, a silent comedy featuring that "stoneface" comedian, Buster Keaton, in the title role.
Though not essentially that of a cameraman working behind the scenes at a movie studio, but one working for an MGM newsreel company in New York City.
Feeling he hasn't a Chinaman's chance in obtaining enough footage covering a tong war, Buster acquires unexpected situations that not even he could have ever imagined.If the plot sounds overly familiar, it should, for that THE CAMERAMAN was reworked in both story and gags as a Red Skelton comedy retitled WATCH THE BIRDIE (MGM, 1950).
Portions of it are still from the old negative and the difference dramatically shows the value of proper film presentation."For THE CAMERAMAN, the Keaton style made famous in the twenties soon leaned towards a new creative Buster, MGM style.
Great moments in Keaton comedy consist of pantomiming a baseball game playing all positions in the completely empty Yankee Stadium; Buster's struggles to open a piggy bank; he running up and down a long flight of stairs in his apartment building to answer the phone in the lobby; and best of all, Buster's first screen encounter with big and burly Edward Brophy in a tight scene where they attempt to change into bathing suits in a small bathhouse.
Though Buster works basically alone as the man with a camera, he does acquire a sort of sidekick, that of a monkey who's annoyance as well as good deeds add to some really clever and creative comedy timing.
Keaton's got a double motive not just the job, but he wants to win the heart of newspaper secretary, Marceline Day.The rest of the film is a succession of gags with the camera, and poor Buster's efforts to take pictures in some perilous circumstances.
Funniest sequence is when he's sent to cover the Chinese New Year celebration and two rival tongs start a war on the spot.In these days where now photographs are taken from hand held cellphones, younger viewers might not get some of the problems with the bulkiness of those old movie cameras.
Although the most famous of his silent films include THE GENERAL (1927), COPS (1922) and THE BOAT (1921), THE CAMERAMAN (1928), which had for long been feared lost, includes many of his most powerful acting pieces and moments which make this movie a truly amusing and authentic comedy.The movie presents us to the character: a cameraman so intensely sought by the people and so intensely seeking the better chance for self promotion.
Buster (Buster Keaton), though so close to a great career at MGM Newsreels, meets attractive Sally (Marceline Day) and, from this moment, he does his best to impress her.
There are terrific camera shots in the movie, including the sequence on the stadium while the main character is having a rehearsal, the city shots while Buster is running in order to date with Sally, the scene at the swimming pool.
It seems that Keaton's deal with MGM had a promising start, but things went downhill from there as the silent era came to a close.DOUG: Despite all the creative freedoms that Keaton sacrificed, this manages to be the best film of his that we've watched since The General, with some of his best and most inspired sequences.
Buster tries to get a job as one of the studio's cameramen, and after buying a second hand camera at a pawnbroker, he gets advice from Sally (who wants him to make good) to find something interesting to film to audition to the office boss to get a full time job.
After Sally goes on a date with Buster, trying to cheer him up, where he has trouble getting into his swim suit, diving, and trying to compete for Sally's attention with every guy, including Stagg (another cameraman for the studio), Buster tries to succeed on his next assignment: Getting exclusive pictures of a Tong War on the streets in Chinatown.
If you're not immediately drawn to him, try out a different movie for tonight's entertainment and come back to Buster Keaton after you've had a heartbreak or two.Buster finds out Marceline works for MGM's news department, so to impress her, he strives to become a professional cameraman.
"The Cameraman" was also the last time Buster got to work with his usual gag writers, camera people, directors and other staff.
The Cameraman is Buster Keaton's last great film..
When he pawns his tintype machine to buy an outdated, hand cranked movie camera, all in the service of getting closer to Sally, the newsreel production office receptionist, things spin out of Buster's control pretty damn fast.
That's not the typical response to your typical slapstick and reflects the elevation of Buster's small-man-in-a-big-world character beyond mere comedy prop.With hindsight being 20/20, it's difficult to not find a tinge of the bittersweet in The Cameraman, solely because it is Buster Keaton's last great film.
But this film must be an exception to that rule, because it has Keaton's footprint all over it, and is one of his finest works.Keaton plays a lowly tintype photographer who vows to become a MGM newsreel cameraman, in order to impress a pretty girl (Marceline Day).
However, when a full-blown gang war breaks out in Chinatown, Buster is there with camera cranking (and, no joke, a monkey with a machine gun!)Keaton is well-known for his death-defying stunts, and there are a few of them here, but the film really shines in the quieter moments, as the lovelorn cameraman must accept failure at every turn: there's one unforgettable image of Keaton sitting on the beach, having been abandoned by his girl, looking completely and utterly dejected, a broken man.Despite being thought lost for decades, 'The Cameraman' has proved surprisingly influential.
The silent MGM lion roars in the beginning.The comedic masterpiece begins.It stars Buster Keaton as our tragic hero.This time he's a cameraman who wants to become a newsreel photographer for MGM to win the heart of a beautiful office worker, Sally Richards (Marceline Day).The uncredited Buster Keaton directed The Cameraman (1928) with Edward Sedgwick.Keaton was one of the true geniuses of the silent era.Sadly his career started going down with the sound pictures, after this movie.But in The Cameraman you get to watch the brilliance of Keaton.It's full of incredible gags, like the one with the double decker bus.Or at the swimming pool.And the Tong war.The leading lady, Marceline Day is amazing.I fell in love with this woman the very second I saw her.Just watch her in the bathing suit...Wow!
Harry Gribbon is hilarious as Hennessey (the cop).And let's not forget the monkey.Keaton alongside other masters was very good at combining tragedy and comedy.There's a scene where there's no room for him under the rooftop so he has to travel at the back of the car getting all wet in the rain.Then he has to walk in the rain and the mixture of laughter and tears can be seen and heard in the audiences.This movie is truly memorable.Everything is just perfect.The beginning, the middle and the end..
If you are one of these people just watch "The Cameraman" (or any one of Chaplain's great silent comedies) and you can easily see that good humor is not a new thing.
THE CAMERAMAN (working title SNAPSHOTS) was the first film Buster Keaton made at MGM, the studio that drained his creativity.
Hopelessly in love with a woman (Marceline Day) working at MGM Studios, a clumsy man (Buster Keaton) attempts to become a motion picture cameraman to be close to the object of his desire.This seems like a pretty good film, with a similar premise to many other silent comedies: boy wants to win over girl.
I understand why people want to call "The Cameraman" Buster Keaton's last silent film: It makes for a helluva swan song before a hellacious fall, not to mention a powerful and hilarious example of Buster's screen persona's drive and moxie against terrible odds."No one would ever amount to anything if they didn't try," Buster is told early on by the woman he is trying to court by taking up the job of newsreel cameraman.
In 1928 he was being forced to adapt to a new way of doing things at big studio MGM, and even had to hand over the director's chair to Edward Sedgwick, though Keaton clearly contributed.In his art, if not in life, Buster could always beat the odds.
'The Cameraman' was also the last time Keaton performed the reckless physical stunts he'd become famous for, which the studio saw as an unreasonable risk to their valuable star.Buster wanders the city streets with camera and tripod making tintypes for ten cents.
In one scene Buster cranks away on his camera, filming a gang war in Chinatown, while the tiny monkey in a sailor suit cranks away on a machine gun!
I LOVE this movie; it's one of my favorite Buster Keaton films of all time!
Film historians know that Buster Keaton signed on as a contract player with MGM Studios after his contract with independent producer Joseph M.
Whatever Keaton's future problems, the new agreement certainly began well, as his first MGM effort, The Cameraman, shows little, if any, waning from some of his great movies.
Keaton is a clumsy tintype photographer (appropriately named Buster) who desires to become a great studio newsreel cameraman at MGM Offices in order to impress Sally, a lovely lass.
There are a few things that really stand out about this movie and about Buster Keaton's comic genius (which I never would have appreciated without The Cameraman!).
He gives up being a newsreel cameraman and gives MGM his last roll of film, which contains (of course) both the Tong War and footage of Buster saving Sally (that's one helpful monkey!).
The Cameraman (1928) is Buster Keaton's last great film, before drink and MGM's misguided stifling of his creativity effectively ended his career as a director-star.
All is not lost as "de monk" has been doing some camera-work on his own and has filmed Busters' rescue of Sally on the end of the missing Tong War reel.I would highly recommend this film as I found it a lot more enjoyable than "The General".
What makes the relationship between Buster and love interest Sally (Marceline Day) work so well?