Neighbors

An imposible love story becomes pretext for gags and fascinating adventures. And start point for a great reflection of the genius of one of magnificent actors. A film who could be a Chaplin one. But the difference consists, first, in the force of nuances. And in the impecable art of Buster Keaton to transform ordinary situations in roots of impressive gems.

Buster is in love with his next door neighbor, but her father hates Buster and won't allow them to see each other. As a result, again and again, Buster does a lot of crazy stunts in order to see her--as well as eventually kidnap her so they can elope. The stunts are amazing and this is a very good movie. However, if it weren't for all his better brilliant films, I might have scored this a bit higher. But films such as STEAMBOAT BILL, JR., COPS, OUR HOSPITALITY and THE PLAY HOUSE (among others) are simply better than NEIGHBORS. So, I would recommend you try watching these other films and then come back to it. Still, it's enjoyable and fun.

This Buster Keaton short has some outstanding and breathtaking stunts. You have to see it to believe it.

Buster is in love with his neighbour. They send notes through a hole in the fence. Their respective fathers disapprove of the romance.

Buster is determined to marry his girl even though he goes through a series of mishaps involving both families and the police.

The plot itself is frothy and silly. Buster constantly gets detained by a policeman and then escapes. At one point he is blacked up when escorted by a policeman and then runs away for the policeman to arrest a black man who walks past.

Given that this short was made in 1920. This is still the early days of cinema. Some of the physical acrobatic stuff Buster does is impressive, including three men standing on top of each other which happens at the end. A few times I had to rewind it and watch it again.

A viewer who has never seen a Buster Keaton comedy might get the wrong idea of what to expect from this film's introductory title card, which reads: "The Flower of Love Could Find No More Romantic Spot in Which to Blossom Than in This Poet's Dream Garden." We are then shown a grungy courtyard between two tenement buildings divided by a fence, and on opposite sides of the fence we find The Boy (Buster) and The Girl (Virginia Fox), sweetly in love but kept apart by feuding parents. But fear not, for the flowery wording of that introduction is meant in jest: Neighbors is no exercise in Griffith-style sentimentality about poor people. (For one thing, if D.W. Griffith had directed this he'd have called it "Romeo & Juliet of the Slums" or perhaps "Pyramis & Thisbe of Pig Alley.") This isn't a melodrama of life among the lowly, it's Buster in his youthful prime, and it's funny. There's action and comedy galore, and it's interesting to observe that the attitude expressed towards love and marriage is far from sentimental --which is a little surprising, considering that 24 year-old Buster was still a fun-loving bachelor when he made this movie.

In any event, once the situation is established we are treated to a series of fast-moving gag sequences emphasizing the hostile relationship between The Girl's father (played by Buster's frequent screen nemesis Big Joe Roberts) and The Boy's father (played by Buster's own dad Joe Keaton). It is clear that the two fathers hold each other in contempt, and vigorously oppose any closer relationship between their respective families. There's a great example of Keaton's special brand of physical comedy early on when Buster attempts to visit Virginia in her third floor room. When he's caught by her father he promptly flings himself out her window, across a clothesline that leads to his own window across the way, down a banister and back across the clothesline to Virginia's building, right smack into Big Joe. The sequence flashes by in seconds and may leave you blinking in amazement, but before you can catch your breath Buster has been forcibly hung upside down by his feet from the clothesline, hauled back across the courtyard like dirty laundry, and then (accidentally) beaten by his father, who has mistaken his own son for a rug. Moments later, Buster is dumped head-first through a rain barrel into sopping wet mud. And so it goes! Welcome to This Poet's Dream Garden.

Neighbors is a comedy better seen than described. At times it feels like a live-action Warner Brothers cartoon, but instead of Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam we're watching actual people perform these stunts. The premise of feuding families is a simple and effective framework for Keaton's terrific set-pieces. (He would return to the family feud motif on a much grander scale in Our Hospitality a few years later.) The rougher slapstick material is briefly held in check as the brawling families are dragged into court, chastised by a judge, and ordered to permit their offspring to wed. But needless to say the ceremony is a disaster, and the action resumes with a wild finale in which Buster and Virginia escape from their families to elope. The best gag sequence is saved for last, as Buster takes part in a three-man balancing act racing through the streets, a bit that required the participation of the Flying Escalantes, a team of acrobats Buster knew from his vaudeville days. Latter day cartoon directors such as Chuck Jones and Tex Avery often gave credit to the influential silent era comedians they'd admired as kids, and the finale of this film must surely have been the sort of thing they were talking about.

While Neighbors may not rank in the very top tier of Keaton's output it's an exhilarating, highly amusing comedy that holds up well today. Besides, Buster's second-echelon efforts are better than most anyone else's masterworks!

Really do appreciate all kinds of comedy, though admittedly more so than others (i.e. preferring the witty, sophisticated kind of comedy over the crude type). For me, Buster Keaton was and still is one of the greatest of all comedy geniuses. He was a very daring and athletic performer with brilliant comic timing and one of the very few people alive or dead to make deadpan (hence "The Great Stone Face" nickname), a very acquired taste style usually and how well it has been done has widly varied, look good.

Keaton may have done even better than 'Neighbors', both short and feature films. Not all the pacing is quite there, but the light-hearted charm, daringly athletic stunts and funny gags certainly are and in large quantities for all three. Cannot say anything bad about Keaton either and have little to fault 'Neighbors' even overall, almost everything is done right if just lacking the extra something of his best work that were paced a little more evenly and were even more imaginative.

'Neighbors' is let down solely by some lagging pacing in the middle, where the storytelling does slow down and doesn't feel as eventful. The slightness of the story is betrayed here.

The first and especially third acts however are paced beautifully and despite it sounding routine on paper it is in execution anything but. The early portions are zany and incredibly charming, without feeling too much like set up. The chemistry between Keaton and Virginia Fox is light-hearted and sweet without being sugary. The third act has some truly inventive moments of slapstick and gags, not to mention the to-be-expected bold Keaton stunts.

While the washing line escape from the apartment is a masterful set piece where Keaton's athletic ability is something to behold, it also features one of the most inspired endings of any of Keaton's films. It looks good, if not imaginative perhaps, and all the sight gags work, being never less than very amusing and they are not predictable. The slapstick doesn't become too goofy and doesn't get clumsy or repetitive, and the stunts are wonderfully athletic and bold. 'Neighbors' is beautifully directed too.

Virginia Fox is lovely, her character meatier than in other collaborations with Keaton, and one can see what Keaton sees in her, but Keaton is the star. One envies his physicality and how he is able to do all those difficult stunts and make them look easy, and he also has witty comic timing and is still an unparallelled master at making deadpan interesting and expressive.

Overall, not one of Keaton's best but still great. 9/10