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Steamboat Bill, Jr (U)

Silent Film & Live Music

,Cinema 1
A black and white image of a man dressed in a cap and holding a hollowed out loaf of bread.

Brilliant gags and heart-stopping stunts, in one of Buster Keaton’s finest comedies, screened with live piano from John Sweeney.

‘Steamboat Bill’ Canfield captains a dilapidated steamer from a small Mississippi town. When news comes that his estranged son (Buster Keaton) is returning home, he hopes for a strapping lad to help him with business. 

But Junior turns out to be a college-educated city-slicker with no sea legs. And worse, his sweetheart is the daughter of Canfield’s deadly rival – the successful, luxury riverboat owner JJ King. Junior tries and fails to win his father’s approval, until a cyclone hits and the weedy urbanite gets a chance to prove himself.

Featuring some of Keaton’s finest stunts on camera and perhaps one of the most iconic scenes in all silent cinema – famously revisited by Steve McQueen – in which a house’s facade falls on the oblivious performer. 

With live piano accompaniment by John Sweeney. 

Presented in association with MimeLondon.

Tagged with: Cinema Silent Film & Live Music

USA 1928 Dir Charles Reisner 70 min 

Digital presentation 

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