The Cameraman (Criterion Collection)

Cast View all

	Buster Keaton	Buster
	Marceline Day	Sally
	Harold Goodwin	Stagg
	Sidney Bracey	Editor
	Harry Gribbon	Cop
	Richard Alexander	The Big Sea Lion
	Edward Brophy	Man in Bath-House
	Ray Cooke	Office Worker
	Vernon Dent	Man in Tight Bathing Suit
	Gertrude Ederle	Gertrude Ederle
	William Irving	Photographer
	Harry Keaton	Swimmer in Swimming Pool
	Louise Keaton	Swimmer in Swimming Pool
	Charles A. Lindbergh	Charles A. Lindbergh
	Bert Moorhouse	Randall
	Jack Raymond	Swimming Pool Attendant

Crew View all

Director	Edward Sedgwick
	Buster Keaton
Writer	Clyde Bruckman, Lew Lipton, Joseph Farnham, Al Boasberg, Byron Morgan
Producer	Buster Keaton, Lawrence Weingarten
Musician	Mitja Reichenberg
Photography	Reggie Lanning, Elgin Lessley

Personal

Notes

Birthday gift from The Welch family, 2021
(exchanged for duplicate gift)


Buster Keaton is at the peak of his slapstick powers in The Cameraman-the first film that the silent-screen legend made after signing with MGM, and his last great masterpiece. The final work over which he maintained creative control, this clever farce is the culmination of an extraordinary, decade-long run that produced some of the most innovative and enduring comedies of all time. Keaton plays a hapless newsreel cameraman desperate to impress both his new employer and his winsome office crush as he zigzags up and down Manhattan hustling for a scoop. Along the way, he goes for a swim (and winds up soaked), becomes embroiled in a Chinatown Tong War, and teams up with a memorable monkey sidekick (the famous Josephine). The marvelously inventive film-within-a-film setup allows Keaton’s imagination to run wild, yielding both sly insights into the travails of moviemaking and an emotional payoff of disarming poignancy.


SPECIAL FEATURES
New 4K digital restoration undertaken by the Cineteca di Bologna, the Criterion Collection, and Warner Bros.
New score by composer Timothy Brock, conducted by Brock and performed by the orchestra of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna in 2020, presented in uncompressed stereo on the Blu-ray
Audio commentary from 2004 featuring Glenn Mitchell, author of A–Z of Silent Film Comedy: An Illustrated Companion
Spite Marriage (1929), Buster Keaton’s next feature for MGM following The Cameraman, in a new 2K restoration, with a 2004 commentary by film historians John Bengtson and Jeffrey Vance
Time Travelers, a new documentary by Daniel Raim featuring interviews with Bengtson and film historian Marc Wanamaker
So Funny It Hurt: Buster Keaton & MGM, a 2004 documentary by film historians Kevin Brownlow and Christopher Bird
The Motion Picture Camera (1979), a documentary by A.S.C. cinematographer and film preservationist Karl Malkames, in a 4k restoration
New interview with James L. Neibaur, author of The Fall of Buster Keaton: His Films for MGM, Educational Pictures, and Columbia
PLUS: An essay by film critic Imogen Sara Smith
New cover by Victor Melamed

Tags

Links