Yogi's Movie Consumption Blog

A young man is taken for the escaped criminal and hunted all over town. I still can't remember if the title has any specific meaning there are definitively no animals harmed, ridden, or otherwise made fun during the whole course of this small slapstick shtick. Somewhere it says "funny" on a wall, but the irony is superfluous - the film is just as funny, as all the other Keatons I have come to really like. The slapstick ideas are numerous, and even after a hundred years still really enjoyable and surprising to watch. I'm starting to wonder if there has been no physical comedy at all in the last 30 years? And I don't mean police academy which I vividly remember being extremely predictable humor.

A man gets into the trouble with police men that seem to multiply faster than rabbits. I can't really remember the original incident that sets off this wonderful chain of mishaps and myriads of slapstick action. It's been a while since I watched it, and what definitively remains is the image of Keaton being chased by an enormous army of increasingly disgruntled police men. This one didn't have the melancholy of the other Keatons that I enjoyed so much. But in terms of physical action there is so much going on, that it got even hard to follow sometimes. Maybe I need a re-watch of this one sometimes.

A futile attempt to build a do-it-yourself house goes completely off the tracks, when some of the plans are held the wrong way. I do often favor Keaton's films over Chaplin's from that time. Although Chaplin has developed his tramp character way more thoroughly than any of Keaton's figures I feel that the variety of hapless characters in Keaton's films is much bigger. While all of Chaplin's films share the same character, in Keaton's films all they do is share a certain characteristic determination, combined with a stroke of luck and complete and utter clueless behavior. Although this film has a comparatively weak storyline, there are still many great ideas to marvel at. The poor husband comes up with an extremely creative though useless ideas to solve the many problems he faces during the construction of the house. Biggest laugh is the actual house, "freely deconstructed" and nevertheless the couple decides to live in it - and pretending that ev...