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Borrowing a riff from Harold Lloyd’s Grandma’s Boy, Buster Keaton perfects the lovable loser’s battle for the girl – a plot line that is still in play in most comedies today - in this 1923 classic from the silent era of filmmaking. Our Hospitality might have been Keaton’s first foray into feature-length movies with one narrative, but its scripted genius shows off a true talent of cinema and not a newbie to the medium of feature-length narrative construction.
Kept blissfully unaware of a longstanding feud between his family and the Canfields, Willie McKay (Keaton) learns of his inheritance upon the death of his father. He fantasies about inheriting a Southern Gothic-tinged mansion, yet his Aunt informs him of the feud so that he will know that not everyone will be kind to him on his journey back to where he was born – especially not the Canfields. McKay climbs aboard an Iron Horse named ‘Rocket’ and sits next to Virginia (Natalie Talmadge). The two “enjoy” a rather hysterical trek – full of some wonderful passenger train gags - across New Jersey and become interested in each other. Little does the naive McKay realize that Virginia’s last name is … Canfield.
Upon their arrival, she invites him over to dinner. Her father Joseph (Joe Roberts) allows the young McKay to enter his home, yet has to calm his two sons, hellbent on killing the oblivious McKay, with the politeness of their hospitality. Everyone agrees. McKay can not be killed while under their roof – only upon his exit…which, once McKay understands this, offers for some genuinely hysterical moments of cinematic history.
There’s no secret that the Canfield and McKay grudge that drives the story is based off of the Hatfield and McCoy feud of our nation’s history. Yet, Keaton changed the location and the year of his feud so that he could feature an early locomotive and some other modern technologies (such as the bicycle) with which to draw laughs and inspire gags from. For contemporary audiences, everything works. The bits on the train – moving the tracks because the donkey won’t move – are great moments that invite familiarity and fun for anyone used to travel via train.
One thing is for certain - as funny as Our Hospitality is – no discussion of the film has any merit if it doesn’t mention the film’s dramatic and harrowing opening. A risky five minutes of pure drama that certainly doesn’t pave the way for the comedic gold that follows. In fact, that opening – full of tension and gunplay and an ingenious use of color plates – would be something more aligned to D.W. Griffith territory, but Keaton, who co-directed the film with John G. Blystone, uses the drama to provide the rationale in Young McKay’s thinking of sending her son to be raised elsewhere. It’s a brilliantly striking opening for such a comedic film.
Our Hospitality is filled with everything Keaton would later perfect in his feature-length comedies: trains, adventurous set-pieces, and impressive locale (here being the Tuskegee River), but that doesn’t diminish its quality. The hair-raising stunts are still there and so are the hysterical gags. Driven by a hungry blood feud between two families that just won’t be quenched, Our Hospitality provides ageless satire at its finest.
MPAA Rating: This title not rated by the MPAA.
