The Cameraman: The Art of Unrequited Love.
Released: September 1928
Directed by: Edward Sedgwick and Buster Keaton
Cast: Buster Keaton, Marceline Day, Harold Goodwin, Sidney Stacey, Harry Gribbon, Edward Brophy, Josephine the Monkey, and Vernon Dent as Man in Tight Bathing Suit.
Love is frequently a theme of Buster Keaton’s films. Love of the unrequited variety, you know, loneliness, rejection, pain, physical and mental, and the ever popular little guy getting sand kicked in his face. The Cameraman is one such picture, and my favorite of Mr. Keaton’s films. Why? Because I’ve been there.
The Cameraman is a film I can relate to. If you’ve seen the movie, well, the guy kneeling on the beach completely defeated, rejected, while a monkey in a sailor suit cranks the shutter of a movie camera, filming the despair. That guy was me. That shot also happens to be one of the funniest shots I have ever seen. The ultimate in adding insult to injury.
I first saw The Cameraman was when I took my mom to see it for her birthday. It was an outdoor screening at a local winery with a live jazz quintet providing the music. Whether it’s a single piano, or a larger combo, that is the best way to watch a silent film. When Buster (Buster Keaton) is kneeling on the beach, the camera pulls back to reveal the monkey operating the camera. I was taken by surprise. The shot was devastating. Devastatingly funny.
There are several feelings conveyed between Buster and the audience with this one single shot. Sadness, loneliness, rejection, empathy, compassion, then…hilarity.
In The Cameraman Buster Keaton plays Buster, a down on his luck tintype photographer, who meets Sally (Marceline Day) at a spontaneous ticker tape parade. He immediately has a crush on her. Sally works as a secretary for MGM Newsreels and encourages Buster to become a freelance cameraman, and if his work is good he might be able to get a job there.
Buster buys a broken-down motion picture camera outfit and sets about to film interesting things to impress MGM and more importantly Sally. Unfortunately, Buster has a rival for Sally’s affection, Harold (Harold Goodwin) a crack MGM cameraman who enjoys shoving Buster around.
Buster has several adventures filming interesting things including a Tong war, where he captures amazing footage in the middle of the action. Unfortunately, when Buster goes to turn in his film it appears that he forgot to load his camera. Buster’s status as a laughingstock is secure. He gets kicked out of the newsreel office. However, Buster’s not willing to give up.
The next day Sally is on a date with Harold, racing around in a speedboat. Buster, unaware of Sally and Harold’s date, is filming interesting things out on the same bay, with his monkey as an assistant. Harold, the idiot that he is, turns too fast. They get thrown from the boat. Harold swims away. The boat now going in circles, traps Sally.
Witnessing all this, Buster rescues Sally, but she is unconscious. Without hesitation Buster runs to the nearest drug store. Meanwhile, Harold washes ashore and comforts Sally who awakens thinking Harold is her rescuer. They walk off down the beach.
Buster returns, finding Sally gone. He looks and sees the couple walking away, arm in arm. Buster’s crushed. Cue the monk.
Many of us have been there. Filled with good intentions only to have the love of our life go off with a lunkhead, knowing that said lunkhead is a creep, and will likely be mean to the person that we want to be nice to and be happy with. That’s the way of the world I suppose. I was even once told I was too nice, ain’t that a poke in the eye.
Anyway, Buster Keaton was a genius, and didn’t have to always rely on fantastic stunts and set pieces to provide a huge laugh. He simply gives us heartbreaking honesty, coupled with comedic absurdity, and puts them into one single shot. He understands, if we don’t laugh, we’d be despondent and cry. So it’s much better to laugh, even if it’s a little bit at ourselves.
The Cameraman is arguably Buster Keaton’s last great film. And while it doesn’t have the huge, outrageous spectacle of The General, or Steamboat Bill Jr., the film still delivers solid comedy, just perhaps on a more relatable scale.
The Cameraman is available on DVD and Blu Ray from the Criterion Collection or rent from various streaming services.
