Our Hospitality [Blu-ray]

Director: Buster Keaton, John G. Blystone Buster Keaton

Overview

In this film, Buster Keaton travels down South to take charge of his family mansion. En route, Keaton befriends pretty Natalie Talmadge, who invites him to dinner. However, Keaton soon learns that he is the last surviving member of a family with whom Talmadge's kin have been feuding for years.

Product Details

Release Date:	10/15/2019
UPC:	0738329240660
Original Release:	1923
Rating:	NR
Source:	Kino Classics
Region Code:	A
Sound:	[silent, DTS 5.1-Channel Surround Sound, Dolby Digital Stereo]
Language:	English
Time:	1:15:00
Sales rank:	31,108

Special Features

Audio commentary by film historians Farran Smith Nehme and Imogen Sara Smith; Un duel à mort (A Duel to the Death, 1947, a short film starring Buster Keaton); The Iron Mule (1925, a short film starring Al St. John); A presentation on Our Hospitality by Serge Bromberg; Scoring for Buster, a documentary on the recording of Robert Israel's score

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Buster Keaton	William McKay,The Engineer
Natalie Talmadge	Virginia Canfield
Craig Ward	Lee Canfield
Kitty Bradbury	Aunt Mary
Buster Keaton Jr.	Willie McKay - 1 Year Old
Erwin Connelly	Husband Quarreling with Wife
Edward Coxen	John McKay,John McKay
Jack Duffy	Sam Gardner
Tom London	James Canfield
Francis Bushman Jr.	Clayton Canfield
Jean Dumas	Mrs. McKay
Monte Collins	Rev. Benjamin Dorsey
Robert Israel	Conductor,Composer

Technical Credits

Jean C. Havez

Joseph Mitchell

Clyde Bruckman

Buster Keaton	Director,Producer
John G. Blystone	Director
Jean C. Havez	Screenwriter,Screenwriter
Joseph Mitchell	Screenwriter
Joseph Schenck	Producer
Clyde Bruckman	Screenwriter

Editorial Reviews

Though it was not his first multi-reel movie, Buster Keaton hit his feature-length stride with this period comedy. Set in the carefully recreated 1831 South and shot on location near Lake Tahoe, the film turned the legendary feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys (re-named the Canfields and the McKays) into a send-up of Southern politeness. Two exterior sequences became vintage Keaton. Precisely duplicating one of the first-ever trains (the "Stephenson Rocket") and hiring his vaudevillian father to play the engineer, Keaton turned the crudeness of early train travel into a dreamlike and hilarious trip southward over rough yet beautiful forested terrain. And the final river rescue showcased Keaton's agility, as he snatches his beloved (played by then-wife Natalie Talmadge) from a waterfall; it also inadvertently revealed the risks of Keaton's drive for authenticity, as he almost drowned on camera. The potentially lethal work paid off, as Our Hospitality became a box office hit and confirmed Keaton's talent for integrating comedy into a larger narrative rather than simply stringing together gags.