The Sunday Intertitle: When Buster Met Boris
Screened Keaton’s THE GENERAL for students, along with clips of Chaplin, Lloyd, Langdon, Charley Bowers and of course good old Raymond Griffith. And this time, projecting my Kino DVD on the big screen, I noticed something new –
That’s Boris frickin’ Karloff there, as a northern general! Front left.
I’m not the first to spot this: the IMDb has him down as “unconfirmed”, but after watching him carefully, I was pretty much convinced. Not only does the northern general have Boris Karloff’s face, but at one point he makes a Boris Karloff face. You know, one of those faces Boris makes when he’s acting. He has several.
That makes THE GENERAL the 11th film Boris made in 1926, including also THE BELLS, where he’s a sinister mesmerist. I find it apt that the great monster makes his one noted appearance in a silent comedy burning the hero’s elbow with a cigar.
Louise Brooks noted that one shot of Buster hiding under the table in this scene was so beautiful it took her breath away. She lost the ability to laugh for a good ten minutes, so awe-struck was she. “Why didn’t he cut the shot?” she wondered. But in fact, as Richard Lester pointed out, what makes THE GENERAL “a masterpiece of economy” is that you can’t remove a single shot without the sequence collapsing, nor a sequence without the story collapsing. What this means, of course, is that if a single shot had failed, Keaton would have no film. But then, he was working in an age when, if a shot didn’t come out right, you could just go back and do it again: everybody was under contract, so all it would cost you is raw stock and petrol.
Unless you want to do something like THIS –
October 23, 2011 at 1:40 pm
Just enjoying Karloff the other day in The Ghoul, a marvelous “Old Dark House vairant made a year after Whale’s The Old Dark House. It also features Ernest Theisinger. Nver heard of its director before but it’s as assurred as any film of its era.
October 23, 2011 at 2:01 pm
I’ve never seen another film by T. Hayes Hunter either, but The Ghoul is indeed striking. Ralph Richardson adds to the fun. Hunter’s career seems to include several thrillers that might reward viewing, including collaborations with Hitchcock’s pals Charles Bennett and Angus MacPhail.
October 23, 2011 at 2:39 pm
Louise Brooks wasn’t the only woman at that time to consider Buster beautiful. In her book on the Talmadge sisters, Anita Loos says that their mother had schooled Natalie, Buster’s wife, to look down on him “as a mere substitute for a career, but in my opinion the chance to wake up in the morning and look across a pillow into that fabulous face should have been fulfillment enough for any girl.”
I don’t know if that’s Karloff – and I’ve not heard of this being raised as a possibility by any Keaton expert – but I agree it looks like him. It’s odd that the names of only three people (including Joe Keaton) appear in the credits as playing Union Officers. Why would Karloff – if it is him – be left off?
I too recently showed The General to a small group of people who’d never seen it before. What a pleasure to share their surprise and delight.
October 23, 2011 at 3:13 pm
Well, Karloff wasn’t a star at this point. Of his 11 films in 1926, he appears to be uncredited in three others, which appear on the IMDb to be confirmed sightings. Of course Joe Keaton, playing another general, does get credited, but it’s easy to see why.
Lots of heavily featured characters in the film, like those in the recruiting office, who have more to do than Boris, get no credit.
October 23, 2011 at 8:41 pm
Is Karloff on the flatcar with Joe Keaton as well?
October 23, 2011 at 9:00 pm
I think he does carry on into later scenes, but not sure if he makes it that far. More investigation is required!
October 23, 2011 at 9:09 pm
wow…what one does discover now that blue ray has made things more clear. heh…Karloff was a no name in films then,bouncing from one small bit to another .Its possible to do something this small and have completely forgotten about it over time..
October 23, 2011 at 10:34 pm
This was plain old DVD, but projected big. Of course, as you can see from the image above, Boris was hiding in plain view all along, but escaped detection (by me, anyway) by his unlikeliness and by the fact that Keaton directs the eye so well, to the cigar and to his own face.
So much of the excellent ensemble playing in Keaton’s films only really becomes visible when projected on the big screen.
One thing that would help confirm Karloff’s participation in a Keaton film: does anybody happen to know if he was good at baseball?
October 24, 2011 at 12:00 am
..and Cricket ain’t Baseball !…THats gotta be Karloff,I had a look at a clip of that scene..everything adds up ..especially when he stands up ,he has a look that s so obviously karloff like..
October 24, 2011 at 12:11 am
Hard to watch that clip and not want to see more..The General,for me,really picks up at this part and when Buster and Marion make their way back..and Ms. Brooks is right Buster does look great under that table,like a matinee idol..I’m often of the opinion that the “romance in Keaton,Lloyd ad Chaplin films,is far more effective than in films where the stars are notable romantic leads.
October 24, 2011 at 5:51 am
They really worked at the romance — Keaton was generally very careful to preserve sympathy for the leading lady even when she was snubbing him. Marion Mack slightly less so in The General, which I guess is why she gets mistreated so much on the way back. Also, the movie establishes Buster as a shy and overly respectful suitor at the start. By the end, he’s come to a more realistic attitude about his girl, while still loving her.
October 25, 2011 at 10:09 am
I raised the issue of Karloff’s appearance in The General with David Macleod, chairman of the Blinking Buzzards (the UK Keaton Society) and he informs me that the person in question does indeed look like Boris but is in fact a professional baseball player called Mike Donlin.
October 25, 2011 at 10:12 am
There are several images of Mike Donlin on Google so you can check on the resemblance to Karloff. His Wikipedia entry makes reference to his appearance in The General.
October 25, 2011 at 4:10 pm
Damn! That’s quite a resemblance. If the whole baseball thing hadn’t worked out for him, he could’ve made good money a few years later doubling for BK (that’s Boris, not Buster).