Our Hospitality is a 1923 silent comedy film directed by Buster Keaton and John G Blystone. The film stars Keaton, Natalie Talmadge, and Joe Roberts. It was inspired by the real-life Hatfield-McCoy feud in the nineteenth century.
Directors: Buster Keaton and John G. Blystone
Production Company: Joseph M Schenck Productions
Distributor: Metro Pictures Corporation
Cast: Buster Keaton, Joe Roberts, Natalie Talmadge
US Box Office: $1,344,610 ($51,500,000 adjusted for inflation)
Film Format: Black & White (Silent)
Genre: Comedy, Action
Release Date: November 3, 1923 (premiere); November 19, 1923 (general release)
Plot Summary: In the 1830s Willie McKay (Buster Keaton) has been living in New York for most of his life to avoid his family’s feud with the Canfield family, but decides to move back to the South to reclaim his family’s estate. On a train ride South he meets a girl named Virginia (Natalie Talmadge) and falls in love with her. However, Willie doesn’t know that Virginia’s father is Joseph Canfield (Joe Roberts), who wants to kill all the McKays, including Willie!
Production: In 1923, Buster Keaton began working on two feature films: Three Ages and Our Hospitality. Keaton had previously starred in and directed many short films, but he had not yet directed any feature films. Three Ages was structured like three short films cut together, while Our Hospitality had one continuous story (thus making its Keaton’s first real feature length film). Both films were produced by Joseph M. Schenck, and John G. Blystone co-directed Our Hospitality with Keaton.
Keaton decided to base to story for Our Hospitality around the Hatfield-McCoy feud, a violent conflict over land disputes between two families along the West Virginia-Kentucky border. Although the Hatfield-McCoy feud mainly occurred between the 1870s and the 1890s, Keaton decided to set the film in the 1830s. Keaton was fascinated by railroads and wanted the story to take place when railroads had only recently been invented. Keaton instructed art director Fred Grabourne to build two fully functional replicas of 1830s trains: the DeWitt Clinton Engine and Stephenson’s Rocket. Keaton decided to use the Stephenson’s Rocket train in the film because he thought it looked funnier.
Buster Keaton cast his wife, actress Natalie Talmadge, as Virginia, the film’s leading lady. She was instructed to play the role as both a southern belle and an innocent schoolgirl. Keaton cast Joe Roberts, who frequently had supporting parts in his earlier short films, as Joseph Canfield, Virginia’s father and the main antagonist. Keaton’s father, Joe Keaton was cast as the train’s engineer. Keaton’s fourteen month-old son Buster Keaton Jr played the infant version of Willie at the beginning of the film.
After production on Three Ages wrapped up, Keaton and Blystone began filming Our Hospitality in July of 1923. Many of the exterior scenes in Our Hospitality were shot on location in Truckee, California and along the Truckee River along California and Nevada. The fully functioning Rocket along with three carriage-passenger cars for the train and several miles of railroad tracks were transported to Truckee for the shoot. Aside from the cast, there were only about twenty crew members who participated in the on location shooting. As with many of Keaton’s other productions, the shoot was casual and the cast and crew members would frequently fish or play baseball together when they had free time.
Keaton nearly drowned on the Truckee River when his safety wire broke during the filming of one of the River Rapid scenes. After being rescued by the crew, Keaton made a quick recovery, but he decided to shoot the Waterfall scene and the rest of the river scenes on a set back at his studio in Hollywood.
Fun Facts and Trivia: Our Hospitality was the last film of Joe Roberts, who frequently played supporting roles in Keaton’s short films. During filming, Roberts suffered a stroke. After a short stay at a hospital in Reno, Nevada, he was able to return to the set to finish filming. Unfortunately Roberts died of a second stroke before the film released. Natalie Talmadge, who was married to Buster Keaton, was pregnant with their second child during filming. Later on during the shoot, she had to be filmed in ways to hide her growing baby bump. Our Hospitality is the only film to star three generations of the Keaton family: Buster’s father Joe Keaton played the train engineer, Buster and Natalie play the main roles, and Buster’s infant son played the infant Willie McKay at the start of the film.
Reception: Our Hospitality was released on November 19, 1923. It was a success at the box office and earned more money than Keaton’s previous film Three Ages, which was released less than two months earlier. The film’s success showed that Keaton’s comedic formula worked in feature-length films and it helped to establish Keaton as a silent film legend.
Our Hospitality received positive reviews on its initial release. The staff at Variety gave the film a positive review. They praised Keaton and writer Jean Havez for successfully combining laughs and thrills with a serious story. The San Francisco Call praised Keaton’s ability as both a dramatic and comedic actor as well as his thrilling stunt work. Time also praised the performances of Keaton and his family members and thought that they made the film hilarious.
Our Hospitality has also received generally positive reviews in retrospect. Leonard Maltin gave the film a perfect rating and he described it as a, “sublime silent comedy, one of Buster’s best, with a genuinely hair-raising finale.” Steven D Greydanus of Decentfilms.com also called it one of Keaton’s best films. Jim Emerson of Rogerebert.com gave the film a positive review and argued that it was Keaton’s first masterpiece as a director. In 2000 Our Hospitality was one of the 500 films nominated by the American Film Institute for their list of the Top 100 funniest American comedy films. In 2010 Trains magazine ranked Our Hospitality number 61 on its list of the Top 100 best train-related movies of all time.
Why You Should See It: Our Hospitality is a very good silent comedy film. Keaton does a good job co-directing the film, which is impressive since he was also the lead actor. Keaton’s stunt work in the film is also great. The film is very funny, with the journey on the Rocket train, the scenes at the waterfall, and Keaton’s interacts with the dog, are all standout moments. The dramatic moments in the film, mainly the opening scene, are effective as well. The film’s depiction of the early Stephenson’s Rocket train makes the film unique as well, and it serves as a predecessor to Keaton’s The General (1926), also about trains.