THE CAMERAMAN (1928) B/W "silent" 70m dir: Edward Sedgwick

w/Buster Keaton, Marceline Day, Harold Goodwin, Sidney Bracy, Harry Gribbon, Edward Brophy

From Georges Sadoul's Dictionary of Films: "Buster Keaton, a street photographer, falls in love with Sally (Day), a girl working for MGM and, to win her, becomes a newsreel cameraman. He begins dismally, failing with every reel he shoots, but eventually triumphs. In his first attempt to use the camera, Keaton is enamoured of trick shots and illusionary devices. His first newsreel could be described like this: 'Some horses, tails in front of them, gallop backwards over hurdles that replace themselves afterwards; some beautiful water nymphs dive up from the water onto the diving board; then a battleship leaves the high seas and sails down the streets of New York, which might explain the panic of passersby struggling to get on a bus.'

"Other famous gags: Keaton running around asking everyone if they know the beautiful girl he has photographed; playing a game of baseball alone in an empty stadium; the cannon on a battleship that goes off under his nose after he has ignored the warning 'No Entry'; the bus trip, seated on the mud guard; bathing in the sea with the fat man, who undresses in the same cabin, and his difficulty in leaving the water without his bathing trunks; the fight with the cop; the festival and fight in Chinatown, with Keaton encouraging the fighters; the monkey filming Keaton's rescue of the drowning girl; Buster Keaton phlegmatically accepting the typical New York welcome intended not for him but for Lindbergh. One of the best and most perfect of the Keatons. 'The Cameraman, this Newsreel by Buster Keaton of a newsreel by Buster Keaton, is probably his masterpiece' (P. Demun)."