Our Hospitality

Buster Keaton's second feature film as a director (Jack Blystone co-directed) is also his first genuine masterpiece. While it opens on a dark note with a widowed mother fleeing her rural shack to save her infant from a Hatfield-and-McCoy-like feud, the comic sun soon comes out as we return years later to find the baby grown up to become the gentle Willie McKay (Keaton), a New York city slicker traveling south (on a deliriously surreal train engineered by Keaton's father, Joe) to receive his inheritance. When Willie falls in love with a pretty fellow passenger (Natalie Talmadge) who happens to be the daughter of the rival clan, the generations-old grudge heats up all over again—but Southern hospitality forbids the feuding family from harming him while he's a guest in their home. Plenty of laughs are mined from Keaton's desperate attempts to prolong his stay (and sneak out unobserved), while the ending includes an impressive rescue stunt involving a rope, a log, and a mighty waterfall. Arriving in a newly remastered DVD 'Ultimate Edition' and debuting on Blu-ray, Our Hospitality features two musical scores (the original, composed and conducted by the great Carl Davis, and another by Donald Hunsberger). Extras include a new 'making-of' featurette, the 1923 Fatty Arbuckle short The Iron Mule (featuring the same train from Our Hospitality), and an alternate 49-minute cut of the main film (simply titled Hospitality). A fine example of silent star Keaton's timeless appeal, this is highly recommended. (S. Axmaker) [Blu-ray/DVD Review—Oct. 22, 2019—Kino Lorber, 75 min., not rated, DVD: $19.99, Blu-ray: $29.99—Making its latest appearance on DVD and Blu-ray, 1923’s Our Hospitality features a great transfer and a DTS-HD 2.0 soundtrack on the Blu-ray release. Extras include audio commentary by film historians Farran Smith Nehme and Imogen Sara Smith, a segment on 'Scoring for Buster' on the recording of composer Robert Israel’s new score (25 min.), the 1947 short film 'Un duel à mort' starring Buster Keaton (24 min.), the 1925 short 'The Iron Mule' with Keaton in an uncredited role (14 min.), a presentation on 'Our Hospitality' by Serge Bromberg (5 min.), and a booklet featuring an essay by Jeffrey Vance. Bottom line: this early Keaton classic benefits from a new 2K restoration.]