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In Reply to: Re: Great list, but... posted by rico on July 7, 2004 at 13:05:25:
...but both films are excellent. Sherlock Jr. is undoubtably a marvelous piece of filmwork, technically a masterpiece, but I consider it more of a short than a full length feature, which boils down to a judgement call I guess. The Cameraman, while being the first silent feature Keaton made without full creative control, still contained his influence and all the touches of brilliance of his earlier work; it's also one of the funniest features he EVER made.Here's an anecdotal story which I'll try to paraphrase, based on my recollections from a University level Film History class I took long ago:
After Keaton's brother-in-law and co-producer Joseph M. Schenck convinced him to sell out his holdings to MGM for a theoretically better long-term deal (i.e., which Schenck also profited from handsomely), Keaton ended up fighting with studio heads for creative input and final cut on his films. MGM was rapidly becoming one of the most profitable studios of the era, but it achieved this through the ruthless control of all aspects of production, helmed by Louis B. Mayor and his tight-fisted production staff.
Eventually, with the advent of sound Keaton's influence over his films diminished completely and he was given weraker and weaker material, eventually teaming him with Jimmy Durante, then his demotion from star to supporting character and finally being relegated to a screenwriter or script-doctor, but at least on his first feature with MGM (i.e., the first of his last two silent features) he ended up with a compromise that worked.
The studio wanted him to smile in certain scenes which would have destroyed the "stoneface" character he had carefully nurtured with his viewing public. When the studio's director wanted him to smile in one of the key romantic scenes, he balked, and the decision was made to shoot the scene both ways and then in a pre-release screening gauge the audience reaction. Needless to say, with the director still scratching his head after seeing how the audience reacted to Keaton's perfectly timed dead-pan they decided to leave the scene as Keaton wanted it.
Sorry about rambling on about The Cameraman, but it's a fascinating story which I felt was worth sharing.
Cheers,
AuPh
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