Home » Film & TV » Black-and-White Movies » Short Subjects: Buster Keaton in The High Sign (1920) - Page 2

Short Subjects: Buster Keaton in The High Sign (1920) - Page 2

© John Vincent Brennan

There is more emphasis on the plot than later Keaton shorts. Keaton has joined a secret brotherhood and his first assignment is killing an enemy. That enemy, however, happens to be his girlfriend’s father. So Keaton must kill him or be killed himself. In the end, Keaton chooses to let his potential future father-in-law in on the assassination plot, and as Keaton pretends to shoot, the victim pretends to die. However, the other members of the brotherhood are quick to catch on and a mad chase develops.

Most silent shorts ended with a chase at this point in film history, but Keaton, being Keaton, manages to make his different. The house is filled with secret passageways, hidden holes in the floors and ceilings, wall panels that act as revolving doors, and Keaton knows every one of these clandestine openings. So as the angry brotherhood members chase him, he makes use of every hidden secret to escape his pursuers. With the comedian running, jumping and sliding with the dexterity of a circus acrobat, the chase highlights Keaton’s amazing physical agility as well as his obsession with all things mechanical.

Keaton eventually did release The High Sign, but only after he was an established solo comedian whose reputation could not be damaged by what he considered a sub-par film. Perhaps the film is sub-par when compared to other great Keaton shorts, such as One Week (1920), The Playhouse (1921) and The Boat (1921). But Keaton’s output was always remarkably consistent up to his last great feature THE CAMERAMAN (1928), and eighty years after its release, The High Sign holds up as an inventive and funny short comedy.

The copyright of the article Short Subjects: Buster Keaton in The High Sign (1920) - Page 2 in Black-and-White Movies is owned by . Permission to republish Short Subjects: Buster Keaton in The High Sign (1920) - Page 2 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.