Behind the Camera on STEAMBOAT BILL, JR.

Filming for Steamboat Bill, Jr. began in late 1927 on the west bank of the Sacramento River, just across from the junction with the American River. There near the California capitol, a full three blocks of city sets were built for the mythical town of River Junction, Mississippi. Buster's technical director was Fred Gabourie, who was responsible for the sets and in particular for rigging gags - and re-rigging them when changes in plot dictated substituting a cyclone for a flood in the film's climax. Multiple buildings were required to either splinter into a million pieces, collapse inward a section at a time, or in one particularly notable instance, lose its facade and plop to the ground with pinpoint accuracy.

In Tom Dardis' biography, Keaton: The Man Who Wouldn't Lie Down, "The heroine of Steamboat Bill, Jr., Marion Byron, recalls the more strenuous parts of the shooting, especially the scenes involving her immersion in the river. Marion was only sixteen when Steamboat was shot and was not a very good swimmer, so Buster's sister, Louise, was used as a double for all her underwater scenes - the women were nearly identical in height and weight...Louise recalls the lengthy diving sequence into the extremely cold water of the river, from which she and Buster would emerge half-frozen after several of these unsuccessful takes. Buster had instructed his man Caruthers to stand by with a bottle of the best procurable French brandy. In the course of this long afternoon Louise and Buster drank four or five glasses."

That famous cinematic storm also includes one of the comic star's most legendary stunts, when the facade of a three-story house falls down on top of Bill, Jr., who is saved from being crushed by a well-placed window. The gag appeared in two other Keaton films, Back Stage (1919) and One Week (1920) with smaller buildings, but the Steamboat Bill, Jr. version was the ultimate stunt, posing a great deal of danger for Keaton if he in any way miscalculated the complex gag. The comedian remarked later in his career, "I was mad at the time, or I would never have done the thing."

For the wind effects, six enormous airplane propellers powered by Liberty engines were brought in. A large crane and a number of cables were also needed to carry aloft buildings, props, and in one scene, Buster himself - clinging to an uprooted tree trunk. The latter effect was achieved using a conventional crane swinging the tree, yet another of the stunts Keaton performed without a body double or special effects.

Steamboat Bill, Jr. was released in May 1928. Unfortunately, it was the biggest money-loser of all of Buster's features released by United Artists. Its negative costs alone exceeded $404,000 but its domestic gross was only $359,000. Buster's fate was already sealed, however - by the end of 1927, Keaton's patron Joe Schenck had decided to devote his full energies to United Artists and pull out of independent film financing. Buster Keaton Productions, Inc. would be shut down. Keaton was taken by surprise, but Schenck convinced him to sign with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. After all, Joe's brother Nicholas ran M-G-M from the Loew's office in New York, so Buster would be in good hands...or so he thought. Keaton soon found himself to be merely a hired hand at M-G-M, under strict budgetary and creative supervision. Keaton became increasingly unhappy and self-destructive, later calling the signing with M-G-M "the worst mistake of my life." Steamboat Bill, Jr. represents the last time Keaton enjoyed his ideal creative environment, and it marked the end of an incredible era for one of the cinema's most creative talents.

by John Miller & Felicia Feaster