Go West / The Scarecrow / The Paleface

A lot of the classic silents are now being released by Kino Video on DVD in a nice format: one feature film and two shorts. I watched this one, since I had heard that Go West was one of Buster Keaton's best feature films. It's the story of a down-and- out man who stumbles into work as a cowboy. As you can imagine, there is much fumbling and many prat-falls and even better, in this film one of the stars is a cow. Yup, and she's good, too. However, to be honest, I admit that I preferred the shorts, especially The Scarecrow. The genius of Keaton, besides his comedic physical prowess, was the ingenious contraptions he designed. A Victrola that turns into a stove? Salt and pepper shakers that fly across the room on strings as the diners require them? A bed that turns into a piano? I have a feeling that with his feature film, it's as if he had too much time to perform his magic, and so it ended up diluted for the audience.

years: 1925 / 1920 / 1922
length: 69 min. / 17 min. / 33 min.
rating for all: 3.0
IMDB links:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0015863/combined
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0011656/combined
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0012543/combined