Buster Keaton’s 1928 silent movie Steamboat Bill, Jr, now on rerelease, is most famous for that staggeringly clever and ambitious shot of the house front with the strategically positioned open window collapsing on top of our hero, leaving him unscathed. It is a sublime vision of innocence being protected by comically benign forces – famously pastiched by British artist and Oscar-winning film-maker Steve McQueen in his 1999 video piece Deadpan. Steamboat Bill, Jr is a Romeo-and-Juliet drama and also a gently tender story of a man coming to respect and love his son. Bill Sr (Ernest Torrence) is the captain of a tatty old pleasure boat who hasn’t seen his son since the boy was a baby. He’s hoping for a strapping lad to help out with the business. But Bill Jr (Keaton) turns out to be a delicate aesthete with an absurd ukelele and annoying bohemian beret. Even worse, he’s in love with Kitty (Marion Byron) the daughter of JJ King (Tom McGuire) the arrogant owner of a rival boat. The ensuing farce involves miraculous physical comedy and stunt-work. Keaton makes it look easy. The final storm sequence is a breathtaking apocalypse.
