Bring friends, bring family or just gift yourself a special treat! For our 50th Sunday Silent (yes – time surely does fly when you’re having fun), we joyously present a fantastic show of three wonderful slapstick short films from Palace favourite Buster Keaton with the wonderful Lillian Henley on piano accompaniment.
These three classic shorts have in common homes (ashore & afloat), families and various ways to survive them. All show off Buster’s trademark limitless inventiveness, combining wild stunts with soulful moments as his brilliant plans to get out of whatever scrape he’s got himself into are often undone, alas, by downright daftness…
We begin with THE ELECTRIC HOUSE (1922) in which Buster accidentally agrees to re-wire a wealthy businessman’s mansion with the latest electrical mod cons. Buster sets to enthusiastically, ensuring that plates arrive on tables by rail, baths can be conveniently moved closer to beds and the effort is taken out of walking up stairs. What could possibly go wrong?
Next up is MY WIFE’S RELATIONS (1922) which finds Buster the victim of mistaken identity, leading to getting married, also by mistake. It could happen to anyone. Once he’s accepted that the marriage certificate is inescapable, he moves in with his wife’s (many) relations who are neither as welcoming nor as accommodating as one might hope, until a chance discovery leads them to change their tune…
We finish with the excellent THE BOAT (1921), a tale of one family man’s determination to give his wife and children the life at sea they have always dreamed of (or he has, at least). There are some issues with this, relating to the size of the boat, the size of the building the boat was built in, the seaworthiness of the boat and, of course, the best place to hang a picture below deck. All these are handled with customary ineptitude, doggedness and unwavering heart full of hope that make Buster Keaton such a wonderful watch, time and again.
We look forward to seeing you!
