Fresh and Exciting

Don't listen to the negative reviews

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Buster plays a pampered wealthy aristocrat, who in order to experience a bit of rough and tumble and become "a real man" as his father wishes, goes on a hunting and camping expedition with his assistant. As is often the case in Keaton films he is a fish out of water, and we get numerous funny moments about the foolishness of someone in an unfamiliar environment - from uncertainty about walking through the woods at night, to dining in a suit with three sets of cutlery on a table (with cloth of course) erected by the river. While there he meets a beautiful woman he wishes to marry, but her hard edged father and brother won't approve of such a city slicker who appears unable to look after himself without an assistant, so Buster is forced to assume the identity of a champion boxer with the same name in order to win them over. This leads him to a training camp in the mountains, where the real champion boxer mistakenly believes Buster is flirting with his wife, and a nasty grudge ensues.The tightly woven plot is one of Keaton's best, full of twists that while improbable, are not outside the realm of possibility enough to turn you away, and we humorously get a story about the power of attraction, and the lengths one will go to in order to win the one they love. As usual with Keaton films, it is often the small details along the way that charm the best. A scene where the two young lovers are so involved in their conversation they don't notice the table and chairs sinking into the soft ground until their faces are only inches apart. It is moments like these that show why Keaton was one of, if not the greatest silent filmmaker, for without dialogue he is expertly able to show the progression of the relationship from far apart strangers to infatuated friends, with a wonderful visual and a laugh to boot. Elsewhere he gets good laughs out of the difficulty climbing in and out of a boxing ring, the dangerous driving of country roads, and the unreliability of newspaper columns - the love advice therein proving of no help. It also happens to feature excellent cinematography, some of the finest cinematography I've seen in a Keaton film.If there is one let down to this film however, unusually for Keaton, it is the climax. While not without it's charms, it fails to deliver the otherworldly uniqueness of his more regarded films, which is probably the reason it doesn't tend to be raved about as much. Still, just as it doesn't reach his highest of highs, it doesn't fall to any lows either, and is a joy to watch.

This is kind of a typical Buster Keaton story, except in reverse: the girl comes along earlier in the movie, the men are impressed with him earlier on, everything works out for him earlier on, and then the rest of the movie is him trying to maintain his luck versus trying to get the girl against all the forces of bad luck. It also goes in a couple surprising directions, which are noteworthy.I notice through the evolution of Keaton's movies that he did more and more acting and less and less physical comedy, with the exception of course of The Saphead, which was his first feature-length that was mostly drama-based, not slapstick-based. By now, 1926, Keaton knows what he's doing and knows where he's going, and thus this is a pretty clean and well-put together movie.Still, the stuff he does in the training-ring scene is amazingly original and marvelous. When watching this movie, one expects something more along the lines of Chaplin's moment in City Lights, where he dodges around limberly and almost succeeds. Not the case, this was more real and brutal. Marvelous stuff, really, and surprising in its own right.--PolarisDiB

A nice little comedy about a wealthy young man with nothing to do. He finds himself taking a trip into the mountain country to put some adventure into his life. It is here where he meets a young Mountain girl played by actress Sally O'Neil. Soon, Keaton and O'Neil fall in love and want to marry. The problem is O'Neil's father and brother are giant of men and won't allow her to marry such a small man. It is Keaton's butler / servant who gets the idea to lie to her parents by telling them that Keaton is a professional boxer (who happens to have the same name as Keaton's character (Butler). One lie leads to another as Keaton as to pretend he is a boxer. A nice story with some moments of comedy, Battling Butler is a Keaton comedy with very little stunt work from Buster Keaton. Besides the moments spent in the ring, Keaton hardly does any stunts. Most of the comedy comes from Keaton's silent comedy as oppose to his physical (stunt) comedy.

One of the best paced of all Keaton films, `Battling Butler' is not uproariously funny but is consistently amusing and entertaining. Being mistaken for an up-and-coming boxer, Alfred Butler (Keaton) falls in love and marries on the basis of this mistaken identity. Trying to keep his wife from finding out creates the needed comic situation to allow the humor to emerge. His leading lady, Sally O'Neil, sparkles in her supporting role. Snitz Edwards, humorous in his own right, is a delight as Keaton's valet. The final scene is a gem!