Stubs - The Balloonatic

The Balloonatic (1923) Starring Buster Keaton, Phyllis Haver, Babe London. Directed by Buster Keaton, Eddie Cline. Screenplay by Buster Keaton, Eddie Cline. Produced by Joseph M. Schenck Run Time: 22 minutes. USA. Black and White. Silent, Comedy, Short

In 1923, things were changing for Buster Keaton. Having made 17 shorts since starting his own company, Buster Keaton Productions, Inc. in 1920, he was wanting to make his own feature films, following contemporaries Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd, both of whom were already making them. But before Joseph M. Schenck would talk the stockholders into letting him make the transition, there were still two more shorts to be made, The Balloonatic and The Love Nest. Keaton had appeared in The Saphead for Metro Pictures in 1920, which was released soon after his own production company was launched. In that film, Keaton had taken over a role originally played by Douglas Fairbanks on stage. While the film helped to solidify Keaton’s status as a film star, it was not an original Keaton film nor his production.

Keaton had complete creative control over his own company, which meant long days, often starting at 6 a.m. and going into the wee hours of the morning. While he’s given screenplay credit, there really never was a script, just story conferences every morning. Keaton later recalled, "When the three writers and I had decided on a plot, we could start. We always looked for the story first, and the minute somebody came up with a good start, we always jumped in the middle. We never paid any attention to that. We jumped to the finish. A man gets into this situation; how does he get out of it? As soon as we found out how to get out of it, then we went back and worked on the middle. We always figured the middle would take care of itself."

The film opens with Buster in the House of Trouble.

Such was the case with The Balloonatic, which opens with Buster (The Young Man) at a Coney-Island style amusement park in something called the House of Trouble. Everywhere he turns and behind every door he opens there is either a skeleton, a devil or a monster threatening him. Backing away, he drops through a trap door in the floor and ends up going down a slide which dumps him out in front of the establishment.

Buster falls through a trap door and ends up outside the venue.

A large woman (Babe London) buys a ticket and goes inside. Buster waits outside to see her get the same treatment he got but he gets distracted by a pretty girl who walks by and doesn’t give him the time of day. But he has ended up right in front of the slide and when the large woman does indeed come down the slide, he is there to break her fall. People run over to help her and ignore Buster. The woman is not hurt and indeed enjoys the experience so much that she buys another ticket and goes inside. Buster wisely gets away.

A large woman (Babe London) buys a ticket for the attraction.

Down the street he sees another pretty woman standing at the curb who seems to be a damsel in distress. There is a wide stream of water and mud in front of her. Ever the gentleman, Buster removes his coat and lays it out over the mess for her. However, she’s not trying to cross the street but instead is waiting for a man with a car, which pulls up, driving over his coat. She gets in and they drive away.

Chivalry is a thankless gesture.

Buster doesn’t give up. When he sees The Young Woman (Phyllis Haver) getting on a Tunnel of Love type ride, he races to get in the same boat she’s in. He apparently tries something because when the boat returns from the ride, he has a black eye and his hat and clothes are ruined. They get off on opposite sides and we see her drive away.

Before and after Buster gets on a Tunnel of Love style ride with Phyllis Haver.

Buster moves on and comes across a hot air balloon in an open field. It is loaded with all sorts of gear that will be necessary for its scheduled trip. There are a group of dignitaries there to see the balloonist off. Buster is very curious about the balloon and annoys the men prepping it. One of them gives him the job of attaching a pennant to the top of the balloon, which Buster is eager to do.

A balloonist tries to launch his balloon.

However, he is still attaching it when the balloonist decides it is time to launch. When he jumps into the basket, the bottom drops out, and he is left on the ground while the pilot-less balloon takes off. On top of the balloon, Buster finishes his task before he realizes he is afloat. Climbing down the webbing and guidelines, Buster makes it into the basket, almost falling through.

Buster climbs down the guide ropes to the basket of the balloon.

Unable to pilot the balloon, Buster makes himself at home with his situation. We see him washing some socks and lowering decoy ducks for a little duck hunting. But all Buster manages to do is shoot the balloon and it drops from the air and crashes in a tree.

The next morning, Keaton has patched the balloon and is filling it with hot air from a fire. He assembles a three-piece canoe, then grabs his fishing tackle and head off to the river. Meanwhile, The Young Woman is, coincidentally, also fishing.

Phyllis Haver is more adept at camping than Buster.

Buster goes into the river up to his neck before getting out. He drains his hip waders by standing on his head. He has no luck in getting a bite until he herds the fish to a narrow part of the river, builds a dam, and picks them up out of the riverbed. His creel's bottom isn't shut, so they fall back into the water. When he notices, he stuffs fish in his pockets and down his waders.

Phyllis about to take a dip.

Haver, already having landed herself a big fish, changes into her suit for a swim. Meanwhile, Keaton's makeshift dam collapses and he's swept downstream. When The Young Woman dives in she lands on him. They both stand up and she yells and throws rocks at him. In his hip-waders, he can only waddle away.

Keaton builds a fire in the bottom of his boat the Minnie-Tee-Hee.

Next, Keaton loads his canoe (the Minnie-Tee-Hee) with a paddle, fishing rod, and two tennis rackets. He sets out but the boat is tied to a branch and it separates. As Keaton puts it back together, Haver grills her fish. Buster, sitting in his boat, catches a fish. He builds a fire in the bottom of his canoe and uses his tennis rackets to grill the fish. But the rackets catch on fire and he ends up throwing them overboard into the water. Then the fire burns through the bottom of the boat, and Keaton must bail.

Haver, who is more adept at camping, drinks some very hot coffee and breathes smoke. She tosses the rest away.

Buster sets off in his canoe, walking down the river since his legs are now dangling through the hole the fire made. He sees a rabbit on shore, grabs his gun but can’t shoot when he sees baby bunnies as well. He continues downriver, reading a magazine, and doesn’t notice a small waterfall, which capsizes the boat with him still in it. The Young Woman, who is washing her dishes, notices the upside-down boat and tries unsuccessfully to lasso it. When the canoe runs into a bank, she wades out to turn it over. Buster is not there. However, when he stands up beneath her, he knocks her over. She's disgusted that it is him again.

Later, after Buster has put the finishing touches on his canoe, a canopy and flags, a bull confronts The Young Woman, who screams for help. Buster picks up his gun and because the water is so shallow, walks rather than swims across the river to help her. However, when he first fires the gun it squirts water on her, then it fires a bullet that lands a pitiful few feet from him. While he examines the gun, it goes off, frightening him. The Young Woman finally has enough and she literally takes the bull by the horns and wrestles him to the ground. She then chases the useless Buster away.

Buster doesn't know there is a bear behind him.

Buster walks and is unknowingly being followed by a bear. The Young Woman is busy chopping down a tree, which falls on her. Buster sees a squirrel and gets ready to shoot it, but the bear chews on the seat of his pants. The Young Woman can't stand to watch what’s happening to Buster. Another bear pops up in front of him and Buster slowly stands and hits the bear in front of him with the butt of his gun. It fires, killing the bear in back.

Haver gets caught under a tree she chops down.

The Young Woman is now entranced by Keaton's bravery and they flirt. When the bear comes to, Buster hurries The Young Woman to his canoe so they can get away. They cozily float down the river, again blissfully unaware they are headed straight to a tall waterfall. But when they go over the edge they don't drop since we now see that the balloon is attached. Instead, they float. They kiss, and the two ends of the canoe fall away.

Buster finally gets a kiss from Phyllis Haver.

Released on January 22, 1923, The Balloonatic is one of his last shorts (two-reelers as they were called) before his studio switched over to features. The last one would be The Love Nest that would be released only two months later. The first feature released from the studio would be Three Ages, released in September of that same year.

A lot has been written about how strong the female character The Young Woman, played by Phyllis Haver, is, especially in Keaton’s films. She seems strong-willed, determined and someone who doesn’t really need a man to get by; wrestling the steer to the ground when Buster’s efforts were fruitless is proof of that. Haver was an old pro with film by this time, having appeared in silent films since Whose Baby? (1917), a film starring Gloria Swanson from Mack Sennett’s Keystone Studios.

Haver began her career as one of Sennett’s bathing beauties but would eventually rise above that, though not to the heights of Swanson. She would appear not only in other comedies, including The Battle of the Sexes (1928), directed by D. W. Griffith, but also Westerns, like Hard Boiled (1926) and 3 Bad Men (1926), the latter directed by John Ford, as well as films like What Price Glory (1926) and the early silent version of Chicago (1927) in which she played the lead role of Roxie Hart. She would only make two sound films before retiring from the screen. Her retirement seems to be prompted by her marriage in 1929 to millionaire William Seeman.

The other actress identified in the film, Babe London, made 97 appearances in films, mostly silent. She made her film debut in The Expert Eloper (1919) and that same year played opposite Charlie Chaplin in A Day's Pleasure, his fourth film for First National. During her career, she would appear in The Perfect Flapper, The Boob (1928), opposite W.C. Fields, and would also appear in films with Harry Langdon, Chester Conklin as well as The Three Stooges. In this film, she doesn't really have that much to do except to be the heavyset woman who falls down on Buster.

Overall, The Balloonatic is not one of Buster’s better outings. More than a cohesive story, it is a series of gags that are funny in places but don’t stand up to his better works. The lack of a written script may be the culprit here. If the practice was to gather every day and wait for inspiration, that might explain how the film was built one gag at a time.

This only proves that not every film by one of the great comedic geniuses is a masterpiece. More of an aberration than a trend, The Balloonatic is more for someone who is already a fan of Keaton’s and not for someone who is unfamiliar with his work. If this is the only film of his that you ever saw, you would get the wrong impression of his work.

Stubs – Safety Last!

Safety Last! (1923) Starring: Harold Lloyd, Mildred Davis, Bill Strother, Noah Young, Westcott Clarke. Directed by Fred C. Newmeyer, Sam Taylor. Screenplay by Hal Roach, Sam Taylor, Tim Whelan. Produced by Hal Roach. Run time 73 minutes. U.S.  Black and white, Silent, Comedy, Romance

Ninety years ago this year, one of the most famous films from the silent issue was released, Safety Last! If you have never seen the film, you have probably seen a photograph from the film. One of the most iconic images from the silent film era features Harold Lloyd hanging from the hand of an outdoor clock mounted on the side of a building. That image, symbolic of the thrill comedies Lloyd was known for throughout his career, comes from Safety Last!

A veteran of over two hundred films, including shorts and features, Lloyd is lesser known these days than his contemporaries, Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, but at one time was considered their equal. Like Chaplin’s Little Tramp, Lloyd had his own characters. Lloyd played Lonesome Luke in shorts from 1915 through 1917. But he’s probably best known for his Glasses character, which he played in shorts from 1917 until 1921. From then on, Lloyd made mostly feature films (11 silent and 7 sound) until 1947.

While Lloyd was more prolific than Chaplin, releasing twelve features to Chaplin’s four during the 1920’s, his individual films were not as successful. But overall his films made more money at the box-office. And like Chaplin, Lloyd owned his films. But unlike Chaplin or Keaton, Lloyd released his films very infrequently after his retirement. While Keaton’s films had fallen into public domain and Chaplin rereleased his films every few years, Lloyd virtually disappeared from public awareness until the early 1960’s, when he produced two compilations of his old films, Harold Lloyd’s World of Comedy and The Funny Side of Life. He also began to show his films at charity and educational events to great acclaim.

After his death, his films were leased to Time-Life, which butchered them, changing the frame rate and adding a musical score. It wasn’t until the early 1990’s before his films were restored and released on home video. In 2005, restored versions of most of his features and some of his shorts were released on DVD.

Lloyd came up with the idea for Safety Last! when he saw Bill Strother doing his human fly act on one of the high rise buildings. Lloyd could see the crowd the feat attracted; people were screaming, fainting and yelling. Wanting to get that reaction himself, Lloyd introduced himself to Strother and then introduced him to Lloyd’s longtime producer, Hal Roach.

Bill Strother's antics inspired Safety Last! He was cast as Limpy Bill.

Safety Last! opens with Harold Lloyd, also referred to as The Boy, behind bars with his mother and girlfriend, Mildred (Mildred Davis), also known as The Girl, are seen consoling him. A somber looking official and a priest show up and the three of them are seen walking to what looks like a noose. But in reality, the noose is really a trackside pickup hoop, which train crews used to pick up orders without stopping. Likewise, the bars turn out to really be a ticket barrier.

The Boy is really at the train station in his home town of Great Bend, bidding farewell as he leaves for the big city. Harold promises Mildred he will send for her as soon as he has “made good”. But success is elusive. Harold gets a job as a salesclerk at the De Vore Department Store and shares a rented room with his friend Limpy Bill (Bill Strother), a construction worker.

In order to make Mildred think he’s doing better than he really is, The Boy sends her gifts that he cannot afford. Harold has to admit to Limpy that he pawned their phonograph and record albums to buy Mildred a gold pendant, and that they now have no money for rent.

But back in Great Bend, Mildred is delighted with his gift and the accompanying letter, in which she learns that Harold has made it sound like he has a much more prestigious position at the store.

One day, Harold nearly misses work, even though he's there early. Looking for a place to write one of his daily letters to Mildred, Harold sits inside a delivery truck, which takes off and does not stop until it is on the other side of the city. Harold then rushes to find swift transportation back across town, first by clinging to the edge of an overloaded streetcar and then jumping into a stranger's automobile. Finally, he fakes an injury in order to ride in an ambulance. When the ambulance gets close to the store, Harold astonishes the attendant (Charles Stevenson) when he pretends to awaken and instructs the driver to stop.

Harold keeps looking out the front of the ambulance while it dodges through traffic.

After seeing a co-worker nearly lose his job because of tardiness, Harold poses as a mannequin and is carried into the store, thereby avoiding the watchful floor manager, Mr. Stubbs (Westcott Clarke).

When Harold finishes his shift on Saturday, he runs into Jim Taylor, an old neighbor from Great Bend, who is now a policeman. Bragging about his pull with the police to Bill, Harold tells him he can get away with anything and convinces him to help him trip Jim. However, Harold does not notice that Jim has been replaced by another patrolman, aka The Law (Noah Young). This policeman is so angered by the prank that he chases Bill up the side of a building while Harold hides.

Bill is about to push over The Law (Noah Young) not Harold's old friend, Jim Taylor.

Bill safely reaches the roof and eludes the patrolman, who shouts “YOU'LL DO TIME FOR THIS! THE FIRST TIME I LAY EYES ON YOU AGAIN, I'LL PINCH YOU!"

Harold later spends his entire paycheck on a necklace for a pendant he’d already sent her.

Harold practically shops until he drops from hunger so Mildred thinks he's a success.

When she receives it, his mother urges her to leave immediately to visit Harold in the city. Mildred arrives shortly after a very frenzied fabric sale at the store, during which Harold was reprimanded by Stubbs for his unkempt appearance.

Women at a fabric sale practically pull Harold in two.

Surprised by Mildred's visit, Harold tries to act like a supervisor, which bewilders his co-workers. Shortly thereafter, Harold is summoned to the general manager's office where he receives an official reprimand about his attire. But when Mildred sees him leave the office, she assumes it is his office and insists on going inside. Harold distracts her until the general manager leaves. Inside, they experiment with the paging machine which summons Stubbs to the office. Hiding behind a large piece of paper, Harold impersonates the manager, ordering Stubbs to refrain from complaining about their employees' attire.

Mildred makes a surprise visit to see Harold who she thinks is a big success.

When the general manager returns, Harold tells Mildred to sit, close her eyes and open her mouth. He tricks the manager into believing that Harold is helping an incapacitated woman. But Mildred forgets her purse in the office and when Harold returns for it, he overhears the manager exclaim that he would pay a thousand dollars for a new idea that would draw customers to the store. Remembering Bill’s climbing ability, Harold boldly proposes to draw crowds the very next day by having a "mystery man" climb up the exterior side of the 12-story Bolton building, which De Vore occupies.

Bill agrees to climb the building when Harold offers to split the fee with him. Harold also proposes to Mildred, telling her to come back tomorrow at three, when he presumes he’ll have his money. The stunt is highly publicized, so the next day, the store is surrounded by expectant crowds who have heard of the stunt through the newspapers. When a drunkard shows The Law the newspaper article about the climb, he is convinced the mystery man is the same one who knocked him over. The Law goes to the store to wait for the climber to appear, despite Harold’s best efforts to get him to leave.

Bill convinces Harold to start the climb while he ditches The Law.

Unable to make the climb without getting arrested, Bill convinces Harold to climb to the second floor in his place. By then, Bill expects to elude the cop and replace Harold. Harold reluctantly agrees, but after he starts up, The Law spots Bill and chases him into the building. When Harold reaches the second floor, the policeman is still chasing Bill. Harold unsteadily climbs floor after floor. Every time they start to trade places, the policeman appears and chases Bill away.

Harold about to start the climb up the Bolton Building.

Although Harold nearly falls several times, and at one point perilously clings to the hands of a large clock, he eventually reaches the roof ledge, where his foot catches in a rope and he is swung upside down several times. Finally, he lands on the rooftop, where he is greeted with a kiss from a relieved Mildred. Harold then sees Bill still being pursued by the policeman across the rooftops. Harold and Mildred walk to the door leading to the stairs, and he unintentionally steps out of his shoes when they get stuck in a puddle of tar.

One of the most iconic images from silent films is from Safety Last!

Box-office numbers from this time are very sketchy at best, but it is safe to say Safety Last! was a big success at the time of its release. But back then the biggest film of 1923, The Covered Wagon, a silent western, earned a whopping $3.8 million in gross rentals. (I think they spent that much on water during the filming of the recent The Lone Ranger film.)

Thanks to some movie magic, Lloyd, who did his own stunts, did not actually climb a building. Using facades on rooftops and certain camera angles, the impression is given that Lloyd is risking life and limb. However, it should be pointed out that Harold was basically working with only one hand. For an August, 1919 publicity shoot for the Roach studios, Harold was holding a prop bomb. However, the bomb exploded, temporarily blinding him, burning his face and causing him to lose the thumb and one finger on his right hand. Using a prosthetic flesh colored glove to hide the disability, Lloyd carried on, though occasionally the glove does not go unnoticed.

How they did it. Lloyd wasn't in as much peril as it would appear on screen.

First and foremost, Safety Last! is funny. For the most part, comedies from the silent era are easier for a modern audience to watch. Silent dramas can come across as long winded, over acted films, while the comedies are, by necessity, mostly visual. And Safety Last! is full of some very funny visuals. On his climb up the building, Harold is thwarted from trying to get inside the building, by scaffolding being used by painters in one of the offices when one of the boards nearly hits him square in the face. On another floor, a vicious dog chases him off. On one floor a mouse crawls up his leg, causing Harold to dance a jig to the delight of the crowd gathered below. In one of my favorites, Harold opens the window on a photographic studio where a study is being made of a gangster pointing a gun. The model shoots the gun just as the flash powder goes off. Thinking he’s being shot at, Harold hurries up to the next floor. Even when Harold finally reaches the top, the window gauges on the roof strike him in the head, causing him to ultimately lose his balance.

Someone or something always stops Harold from going inside during the climb.

One of the more clever gags happens earlier in the film, when Harold and Bill realize they don’t have the money to pay their overdue rent. When the landlady opens the door, the two hide by putting on their overcoats and hanging themselves on pegs on the wall. They pull up their legs just as the landlady enters their room. Thinking they’re out, she leaves. Later, when Bill is sitting at the desk where Harold wants to, he knocks on the wall and pretends to be the landlady. Bill hangs himself on the peg and Harold sits in the now empty chair.

If you see only one Harold Lloyd film, Safety Last! would be the one. The film holds up very well considering it’s 90 years old and on its own would almost be enough to cement Lloyd as one of the great comedians of the silent era. Even if you don’t list Lloyd on par with Chaplin or Keaton, Safety Last! is certainly as funny as the films either made that year. Watching it might even encourage you to see more of Harold Lloyd’s work and there is plenty to go around considering the actor’s productivity. Most of them are not as funny as Safety Last!, but then few films are.