Hard Luck

Hard Luck

Hard Luck

Hard Luck

Buster Keaton's style of humor is fairly well-known for its dark edge, but the starting premise of Hard Luck is a bit extreme even by his standards. Penniless and down on his luck, evicted from the simple shelter of a drug store window, he sets out to end his own life via whatever means he can scrape together. Alas, even this macabre escape eludes him, though not for lack of trying. Like the bleak suicide montage that would run through the second act of Bill Murray's Groundhog Day, seventy years later, there's a wild sense of taboo delight linking these lightning-quick flashes of easy death; unity through the sheer, helpless futility of it all. In failing to do himself in, Buster hits his rock bottom, finds his feet, and (inspired by the fuzzy embrace of a stiff drink, fortuitously mislabeled as a poison) musters the courage to immediately tackle brighter pursuits. In these, he finds no better luck - fishing, hunting and high-diving being no easier than suicide - but, again, we're delighted to see him fail upward. Whether trying to improve himself or end himself, Keaton can't break his date with destiny. The pacing can be a bit jagged (owing to the film's long-term status as a lost gem, only partially reconstructed in 1987) and the ending is an absurd non-sequitur, but the daring, off-color subject matter is striking and (as always) there's no shortage of good, silly, physical comedy to be had. I'd love to see the complete, Keaton-approved first cut.

This was Buster's favourite short; the big final gag got, he said, the biggest laughs of his whole career. Having tried to kill himself many times, in many ways, and failed ignominiously, Buster finds himself rescuing a girl. A reason to live! He asks, 'is there anything now that can stop us being married?' 'No, apart from my husband'. So Buster throws himself off the highest diving board and then - nothing... For 80 years and more, the big final audience-wowing gag has been lost, leaving Buster diving off a board and nothing else. But the most recent versions of Kino's superb 'The Art of Buster Keaton' have the original ending RESTORED! I shan't spoil it, but yes, it is great.

According to a critic, Keaton stated that this was his favorite of his comedy shorts. Well, I can't see it. To me, it's subpar compared to most others I have seen. Keaton's character is depressed because he can't seem to hold a job, and his girl jilted him. He's feeling suicidal, but his clumsy attempts to carry it out are all failures, although some were not his fault. His attempt to be run over by a trolley is foiled when the trolley suddenly reverses its direction, apparently oblivious to him. Then, at night, he runs out into the road, between 2 headlights, but was unscathed by the 2 motorcycles driving in parallel. His attempt to hang himself on a tree limb is a failure because he forgot to tie the rope to the limb!. Yet, next, we see him tethered to the limb, with his feet on the ground and the rope around his neck.......Given a horse to ride, he has trouble mounting it, the elastic stirrup strap not helping. Eventually, he mounts via the neck of the animal. Later, at the pavilion of the riding club, Lizard Lip Luke(Joe Roberts) and his gang of thieves attack, and Luke tries to rape the diminutive young woman(Virginia Fox). Keaton goes about protecting her, then proposes marriage. But she laughingly points out that she's married to wrestler Bull Montana. In response, he climbs to the pool high diving board, and dives off, aiming his dive too far forward(presumably on purpose),making a big crater in the pool surround. If his purpose was to commit suicide, he again failed. However, he could not be found in that hole, but several years later emerged from it wearing Chinese garb and sporting a Chinese wife and 2 kids. This is said to be one of Keaton's favorite gags. But, to me, it wasn't terribly funny, knowing the nature of the Earth. Just silly and ironic. Perhaps you don't agree?......This last gag was missing from the copy found in the 1980s. Thus, a still picture of the Chinese family is supplied in some copies. However, this ending was later found, and is incorporated in most copies at present. I wonder how he avoided injury on his landing from the diving board? .....See it at YouTube, where there are a number of copies.

This Keaton film is missing its last couple of minutes, which is a shame, but what is left still shows him at the top of his game. He plays a suicidal chap who just can't seem to kill himself: he lies in the path of a street car only for it to stop before it reaches him, he stands in front of oncoming headlights in the darkness only to have a motorcycle pass either side of him, he tries to hang himself with a rope that's too long, and becomes totally smashed when he drinks poison that is really a tipsy waiter's secret stock of booze. Buster shows off his athletic prowess in one of his funnier shorts. I think there's a tendency for some people to shower praise on these comedy legends regardless of whether it is really deserved. Chaplin, Keaton, Lloyd, Stan and Ollie – they all had their 'off days' and there's no shame in that, so why pretend mediocre product is anything else? Happily, this energetic short delivers laughs from the opening credits to the last shot. It's just a shame we can't see Buster's ill-fated dive into that pool

One of the many adjectives you could use to describe Buster Keaton is Fearless. Whether it's casually latching on to a car driving by, laying down in front of a streetcar, sitting a few feet from an explosive, or jumping off a high board into a wax coating over water to make it look like brick, he gives it all for his viewers, and he's just as magnetic to them over a century later (well, this viewer anyway). This short is all over the map, starting with Buster in little tramp mode, desperately scrounging for food, but unlike Chaplin, Buster's character has a darkness to him, attempting suicide a few times. It then segues into adventures with animals (fish, horses, a bull, and a bear) and the rescue of a damsel in distress. Of course, right? It's not the most cohesive script in the world (to put it mildly), but I liked its anarchy, and was amused throughout. The "fall through the Earth and end up in China" bit has grown stale over a century later, but this is one of its earliest film references, and it's notable that Buster is shown happily married with children to a Chinese woman at a time interracial marriage was illegal in most of America. That's quite possibly the reason the ending was missing from the first print which was recovered in 1987. Watch for the cute little pratfall from his "Chinese son" at the end too. Like father, like son.

It seems a puzzle. Different pieces together, the genius of Buster Keaton as glue, the unlucky poor man and his adventures. Significant- it is the right expected film. Rediscovered in 1987, it represents new proof of perfect art , in which the gags , performances and adventure are windows to a fascinating creation process and trip across the sensitivity of a time.

This is a Buster Keaton comedy film from 1921 that runs for 22 minutes. It is obviously still black-and-white and silent as it was common for that era. I basically think this could have been more interesting if we had seen Buster try suicide unsuccessfully from start to finish here, but unfortunately it's only the very first and very last scene and everything in-between is not really memorable including the ways in which Keaton goes up against several animals (fish, horses, bears). Virginia Fox and Joe Roberts are on board again as in so many Keaton movies, but their roles are fairly forgettable here. It's a single Buster show, even more than usual and it's not that great to watch. I personally prefer if the supporting character also have good story lines and interact more with the lead character. The wild shooting scene with Roberts' character could not save it either. Edward F. Cline co-wrote and co-directed this film with Keaton once again. The idea of suicide in this movie is among one of the factors that made Buster's characters always look more depressed and sad than the one of Chaplin and Lloyd for example. All in all, not among Stoneface's best. Not recommended.