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Overrated and overhyped

Good start, but then it gets ruined

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

For some unknown reason, Buster Keaton seemed to enjoy lampooning the idle rich. Once again he plays the no account rich son of a wealthy family.Alfred Butler (Keaton) is a lazy lay about who has a faithful valet (Snitz "arrange that" Edwards) at his service. To make a man of him, Butler's father sends him on a camping trip with his valet. Alfred has all of the comforts of home including an ice box (the iceman cometh each day), newspaper delivery, a comfortable bed etc. etc.The pair embark on a hunting excursion, but in spite of game all about them, Alfred fails to see the animals. What he does do is accidentally discharge his gun (backwards no less) and come upon a comely young mountain girl (Sally O'Neil) with whom he becomes immediately smitten. After rescuing Alfred from a failed fishing trip, the girl takes Alfred home to meet her father (Walter James) and brother (Bud Fine). The two are not impressed with Alfred and consider him to be unworthy of the girl.When the valet goes to "arrange" the marriage, he sees a picture of prize fighter Alfred "Battling" Butler (Francis McDonald) in the newspaper and decides to masquerade Buster as the fighter in order to gain the respect of the girl's family. You know where this is going to lead.Thinking Buster has won the world championship, and with her family's blessing, the two marry. Buster and Snitz decide that the deception must continue as "Battling" Butler is to begin training the very next day for the defense of his title. And the fun begins.Buster tries to work out with the champion but is found out. The champ walks out and his manager (Eddie Borden) and trainer (Tom Wilson)are told to get Buster in shape for the fight. The fight day arrives and.....................................................This was not Buster Keaton's best feature. In the first place, gone is his famous pork pie hat. He dresses, except for the training and fight sequences, in rich man's clothes throughout. He just doesn't look comfortable in that attire. Maybe that was intended, I don't know. Up to the point that he goes into training, I didn't think the film was all that funny. The laughs are just too few and far between during the first part of the film. The climatic fight at the film's climax was a little hard to believe in my opinion.Buster would hit a home run however, with his next film, "The General".As an aside, Francis McDonald had a career that spanned well over 50 years from the early silents to the 1960s. He was a regular in westerns playing mostly despicable characters is parts of varying size. He did have a small but effective part in Cecil B. DeMille's "The Ten Commandments" (1956).

Buster plays a pampered wealthy aristocrat, who in order to experience a bit of rough and tumble and become "a real man" as his father wishes, goes on a hunting and camping expedition with his assistant. As is often the case in Keaton films he is a fish out of water, and we get numerous funny moments about the foolishness of someone in an unfamiliar environment - from uncertainty about walking through the woods at night, to dining in a suit with three sets of cutlery on a table (with cloth of course) erected by the river. While there he meets a beautiful woman he wishes to marry, but her hard edged father and brother won't approve of such a city slicker who appears unable to look after himself without an assistant, so Buster is forced to assume the identity of a champion boxer with the same name in order to win them over. This leads him to a training camp in the mountains, where the real champion boxer mistakenly believes Buster is flirting with his wife, and a nasty grudge ensues.The tightly woven plot is one of Keaton's best, full of twists that while improbable, are not outside the realm of possibility enough to turn you away, and we humorously get a story about the power of attraction, and the lengths one will go to in order to win the one they love. As usual with Keaton films, it is often the small details along the way that charm the best. A scene where the two young lovers are so involved in their conversation they don't notice the table and chairs sinking into the soft ground until their faces are only inches apart. It is moments like these that show why Keaton was one of, if not the greatest silent filmmaker, for without dialogue he is expertly able to show the progression of the relationship from far apart strangers to infatuated friends, with a wonderful visual and a laugh to boot. Elsewhere he gets good laughs out of the difficulty climbing in and out of a boxing ring, the dangerous driving of country roads, and the unreliability of newspaper columns - the love advice therein proving of no help. It also happens to feature excellent cinematography, some of the finest cinematography I've seen in a Keaton film.If there is one let down to this film however, unusually for Keaton, it is the climax. While not without it's charms, it fails to deliver the otherworldly uniqueness of his more regarded films, which is probably the reason it doesn't tend to be raved about as much. Still, just as it doesn't reach his highest of highs, it doesn't fall to any lows either, and is a joy to watch.

The first 30 minutes of this Buster Keaton film are some of the stupidest he ever made, at least from what I've seen. I don't blame him; this is the film world where even since this period - around 1920 - marriage is always trivialized and people are always lying. Why was that so frequent in classic movies, in particular? It's disgusting. Here Alfred "Battling" Butler, a spoiled rich young man - in order to keep his girl - lies about being the lightweight boxing champion of the world, because that guy, who has the same name as him, is a hero and he wants to impress her and her big brother and big father. He wants to marry her right away because she's pretty and she consents as soon as she hears he's a big shot. Boy, those are great reasons for marriage!After the quickie marriage, Buster heads off for training camp for his supposed title defense against the "Alabama Murderer." Later, the real "Battling Butler," to do the impostor a favor and save his marriage, lets him be the real thing and fight while he retires.The training - and the first real laugh of the film - isn't until 47-minute mark when Buster begins training and can't get over the ropes. He is helpless outside and inside the ring as it turns out.The training escalates as Buster begins roadwork the next day.....but he isn't up to training or fighting or any of this. Fortunately, a big twist occurs late in the movie which saves Buster from going into the ring, although the little man does save his honor after he fights the real "Battling Butler."I would agree with the critics on this one: it's far from Buster's best work.

This is a very good Buster Keaton film. However, some might be put off by the scarcity of pratfalls and belly laughs compared to many of his other efforts. That's because this film is much more plot driven and character driven than most silent comedies--and that works well for me, though you might miss the more acrobatic and violent character he plays in his shorts and in some of his full-length ones.Buster plays a spoiled rich young man who really needs to be toughened up--so his dad tells him to go camping. The next segment is probably the funniest, as it cuts to a "wilderness" scene--complete with a butler, tub, poster bed, and all the other modern conveniences (that's the way I'd like to camp!). While "camping" he meets a nice girl and he is smitten. Instead of Buster going to propose, he sends his butler--who immediately knows her dad will say "no" because he wants a virile, more "studly" son-in-law. So, the butler panics and says that Buster is the famous boxer Alfred "Battling" Butler! Now, the two men do have the same name and are roughly the same size--but that's about the only similarity. Daddy gives his hearty approval and Buster is married. But, when the real Butler wins the title, Buster has a hard time pretending any longer. Later, the real Butler retires and Buster takes his place--going to training camp and working for a title defense! You'll have to tune in to see what happens next, as this only takes you through about half the film--watch it and enjoy.