{"id":18808,"date":"2023-05-18T11:24:26","date_gmt":"2023-05-18T09:24:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stummfilm-live.de\/?post_type=project&p=18808"},"modified":"2026-04-09T11:09:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T09:09:21","slug":"buster-keatons-college","status":"publish","type":"project","link":"https:\/\/www.stummfilm-live.de\/en\/project\/buster-keatons-college\/","title":{"rendered":"Buster Keaton\u00b4s College"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Short and Sweet<\/h2>\n

Buster Keaton as an eager\u2014though completely unsuccessful\u2014model student, who must suddenly demonstrate unexpected athletic prowess at a sports-obsessed university as he tries to rescue his beloved from the clutches of a villain…<\/p>\n

The greatest sports parody in film history!<\/p>\n

Action<\/h2>\n

Ronald (Buster Keaton), an eager overachiever and teacher’s pet, receives a painful rejection from his beloved Mary after he advocates for more intellectual pursuits over “silly” sports in his graduation speech. To win her back, he enrolls in a sports college. There, he fails not only in all sports disciplines but also in every part-time job he is forced to take. It is only when Mary is harassed by his highly athletic rival that Ronald rises to the occasion, saves his beloved through his sporting efforts, and promptly marries her.<\/p>\n

Production<\/h2>\n

*College* (German title: *Der Mustersch\u00fcler*) was produced following Buster Keaton\u2019s most expensive film, *The General*, which had been a financial flop and was only celebrated decades later as one of the greatest silent films. As a result, Buster Keaton faced severe financial restrictions imposed by his producer, Joe Schenck, and was provided with a screenwriter and a director (James W. Horne). The film also bears a thematic resemblance to *The Freshman*, a college comedy previously made by Harold Lloyd, in which a naive college freshman struggles with college life.<\/p>\n

Stil<\/h2>\n

Although a rather conventional comedy, Keaton’s style is unmistakable. One memorable scene features him as a clumsy bartender. A notable gag, which Donald O’Connor emulated with great physical commitment in his 1957, highly imaginative film biography of Buster Keaton, involves Keaton performing a backward somersault while holding a full cup of coffee in one hand, without spilling any of its contents.<\/p>\n

However, the characteristic, somewhat dark Keaton humor truly comes to the forefront with the final punchline: Ronald (Keaton) finally wins over his love, rushes with her to the church, and gets married. The scene then cuts to them as an older, bickering married couple. The final cut shows two gravestones. The end.<\/p>\n

S<\/strong>tunts<\/h2>\n

Buster Keaton, an enthusiastic athlete himself, is famous for his falls and stunts, which he performed himself in all of his films\u2014often bringing him to the brink of death (as seen in *Our Hospitality* and *Sherlock Jr.*). However, despite his athletic talent, he had to use a stunt double for a pole vaulting scene into a first-floor window (and thus into the room of his love interest) for the first time. The stunt double was Lee Barnes, an Olympic Games participant.<\/p>\n

Music<\/h2>\n

The solo piano music is conceived as a cine-historical homage to the traditional silent film scores of the 1920s.<\/p>\n

It is structurally inspired by the film music dramaturgy of the silent film era and also incorporates themes from 1920s cinema libraries, such as the “Motion Picture Moods for Pianists and Organists,” published by Ern\u00f6 Rapp\u00e9 in 1924.<\/p>\n

This collection contains hundreds of pieces specifically designed for practical use in cinemas, organized by keywords such as “Impatience,” “Horror,” “Romantic Pursuit,” “Auto Racing,” “Indian War Dances,” “Creepy Atmosphere,” and more. These pieces include excerpts from works by well-known composers (e.g., Weber’s *Freisch\u00fctz*, Wagner’s *The Flying Dutchman*, Schumann’s *Kinderszenen*, Mendelssohn’s *Songs Without Words*), as well as short pieces specially crafted by cinema composers such as Huppertz (famous for his music for Fritz Lang’s *Die Nibelungen*) or Kempinski (known for his music for Stroheim’s *Greed*).<\/p>\n

The music is intended to evoke the sound of a 1927 cinema performance by a typical cinema musician at the piano or cinema organ, thereby providing audiences with a special period and emotional color, reflecting how a comedy might have been musically interpreted at the time.<\/p>\n

Register<\/h2>\n

Buster Keaton<\/strong><\/p>\n

(Actually Joseph Francis Keaton; * October 4, 1895, in Piqua, Kansas; \u2020 February 1, 1966, in Woodland Hills, California) was an American actor, comedian, and director. Keaton, along with Charles Chaplin and Harold Lloyd, was one of the most successful comedians of the silent film era. Due to his deliberately serious, stoic expression, he was known as “The Great Stoneface” and “The Man Who Never Laughed.” Another trademark of his was his pork pie hat, a round, flat felt hat.<\/p>\n

His acrobatic talent led him to a career in vaudeville as a child before he appeared in the films of Roscoe Arbuckle at the age of twenty-one. Three years later, he began producing his own highly successful comedies. His breakthrough came with *The Navigator* in 1924, establishing him alongside the most popular comedians of his time, Chaplin and Lloyd.<\/p>\n

Following the financial failure of his elaborate film *The General*, Keaton joined MGM in 1928. By 1933, struggling with alcoholism and persistent conflicts with the studio management, he was dismissed and fell into obscurity. In the 1950s, he was rediscovered and his technically innovative silent film comedies began to receive acclaim, now considered among the most significant works in film history.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16934,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":""},"pj-categs":[],"pj-tags":[105,91,147,87],"class_list":["post-18808","project","type-project","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","pj-tags-stoneface","pj-tags-buster-keaton","pj-tags-college","pj-tags-wilfried-kaets"],"yoast_head":"\nBuster Keaton\u00b4s College - 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