Our Hospitality
Encyclopedia
Our Hospitality is a silent comedy directed, produced, written by and starring Buster Keaton
. Released in 1923
by Metro Pictures Corporation, the movie uses slapstick
and situational comedy to tell the story of Willie McKay, a city slicker
who gets caught in the middle of the infamous Canfield & McKay feud, an obvious satire of the real-life Hatfield-McCoy feud
.
, and in Oregon
. The famous waterfall rescue scene was shot using a special set at Keaton's Hollywood studio.
Keaton set the film in the 1830s so he could indulge his passion for trains by creating a working model of Stephenson's Rocket
, an early locomotive. He also employed a dandy horse
which, by the 1830s, would have been out of fashion. The traveling shots of the locomotive are clear precursors to later work on The General (1926), and were shot in the same Oregon locations.
Actor and Keaton friend Joe Roberts
suffered a stroke while making this film, and died of a subsequent stroke shortly after the film's completion.
This is the only film to feature three generations of Keatons. Buster's father plays a train engineer while Buster's infant son plays a baby version of Buster in the film's prologue. Keaton's wife Natalie was pregnant with their second child during filming, and late in the production she had to be filmed to hide her growing size.
One stormy night in 1810, after family patriach John McKay falls victim to the feud, his wife Mrs. McKay women decides her son, Willie McKay (the infant Buster Keaton Jr.), will not suffer the same fate. She relocates to New York to live with her sister, who after the mother's passing raises him without telling him of the feud.
Twenty-one years later, Willie (now played by Buster Keaton Sr.) receives a letter informing him of his father's estate is now in his name. His aunt tells him of the feud, but he decides to return to his birthplace anyway, to claim his inheritance.
On the train ride, he meets a girl, Virginia (played by Keaton's wife, Natalie Talmadge
). They are shy to each other at first, but once they arrive (after many train malfunctions), she invites him to dinner at her house. She is greeted by her family, the Canfields. Soon the Canfield paterfamilias knows the young McKay is in town and he's coming to dinner that night. He affirms the blood feud will continue but decrees that McKay must not die in the Canfield house. His sons take this to mean that anywhere beyond the walls of the house, Willie is fair game. The father refers to this as "our hospitality", a fictionalized version of the Southern code of hospitality.
Meanwhile, McKay is oblivious to the seriousness of his situation, and manages to dodge bullets without really meaning to. The McKay estate turns out to be perfectly uninhabitable.
Soon after arriving to the Canfield house McKay learns both that he is in the Canfields' house and that they will not kill him inside. A parson comes to visit. After a while, the parson prepares to leave, but opening the door he finds a tremendous downpour of rain outside. The Canfield patriarch insists the parson stay at the house that night. McKay invites himself to stay the night also.
The next morning, McKay does his best to stay inside the house while the Canfield men try to put him out. After the father catches McKay kissing his daughter, McKay decides he can no longer keep trying to stay in the house. He leaves, but putting on a woman's dress first.
He's able to elude the Canfield men all the way to the mountain and the waterfalls. After Willie trips and falls into the rapids, Virginia goes after him in a rowboat; overcome by the current, she winds up approaching the edge of the waterfall. In a resourceful and fearless effort, McKay swings trapeze-like on a rope, catching her hands and pulling her to a nearby embankment in mid-fall! (One of Keaton's remarkable performances of actrobatics, ranking as one of the most thrilling rescues in motion picture history).
It grows dark and the Canfield men decide they can kill McKay the next day. Back home they find the gun cabinet completely empty, and in another room they see Willie and Virginia embracing in their bedclothes; assuming fornication, elder Canfield furiously ignores hospitality and rushes the room gun in hand. His clearer view reveals the parson completing nuptials for Willie and Virginia. Realizing the wrong of the violence thanks to a hanging "love thy neighbor" sampler
, the father blesses the union and calls off the feud. Ordering his family to disarm, Canfield's place their individual pistols on the desk; Willie surrenders the 10 or 12 guns he took from the gun cabinet!
starring Sunil
, written by S.S. Kanchi, and directed by S.S. Rajamouli, was released on 23 July 2010. It received good acclamations from critics.
Buster Keaton
Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton was an American comic actor, filmmaker, producer and writer. He was best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the nickname "The Great Stone Face".Keaton was recognized as the...
. Released in 1923
1923 in film
-Events:*April 15 - Lee De Forest demonstrates the Phonofilm sound-on-film system at the Rivoli Theater in New York with a series of short musical films featuring vaudeville performers.-Top grossing films :-Films released in 1923:U.S.A...
by Metro Pictures Corporation, the movie uses slapstick
Slapstick
Slapstick is a type of comedy involving exaggerated violence and activities which may exceed the boundaries of common sense.- Origins :The phrase comes from the batacchio or bataccio — called the 'slap stick' in English — a club-like object composed of two wooden slats used in Commedia dell'arte...
and situational comedy to tell the story of Willie McKay, a city slicker
City Slicker
City slicker is an idiomatic expression for someone accustomed to a city or urban lifestyle and unsuited to life in the country. The term was typically used as a term of derision by rural Americans who regarded them with amusement...
who gets caught in the middle of the infamous Canfield & McKay feud, an obvious satire of the real-life Hatfield-McCoy feud
Hatfield-McCoy feud
The Hatfield–McCoy feud involved two families of the West Virginia–Kentucky back country along the Tug Fork, off the Big Sandy River. The Hatfields of West Virginia were led by William Anderson "Devil Anse" Hatfield while the McCoys of Kentucky under the leadership of Randolph "Ole Ran'l" McCoy....
.
Production
Some exteriors were shot near Truckee, CaliforniaTruckee, California
Truckee is an incorporated town in Nevada County, California, United States. The population was 16,180 at the 2010 census, up from 13,864 at the 2000 census.-Name:...
, and in Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
. The famous waterfall rescue scene was shot using a special set at Keaton's Hollywood studio.
Keaton set the film in the 1830s so he could indulge his passion for trains by creating a working model of Stephenson's Rocket
Stephenson's Rocket
Stephenson's Rocket was an early steam locomotive of 0-2-2 wheel arrangement, built in Newcastle Upon Tyne at the Forth Street Works of Robert Stephenson and Company in 1829.- Design innovations :...
, an early locomotive. He also employed a dandy horse
Dandy horse
The dandy-horse, also known as hobby-horse, is a human-powered vehicle that, being the first means of transport to make use of the two-wheeler principle, is regarded as the forerunner of the bicycle. The dandy horse was invented by Baron Karl Drais in Mannheim, Germany, and patented in January 1818...
which, by the 1830s, would have been out of fashion. The traveling shots of the locomotive are clear precursors to later work on The General (1926), and were shot in the same Oregon locations.
Actor and Keaton friend Joe Roberts
Joe Roberts
Joe Roberts was an American comic actor, most notably in Buster Keaton's silent short films of the 1920s....
suffered a stroke while making this film, and died of a subsequent stroke shortly after the film's completion.
This is the only film to feature three generations of Keatons. Buster's father plays a train engineer while Buster's infant son plays a baby version of Buster in the film's prologue. Keaton's wife Natalie was pregnant with their second child during filming, and late in the production she had to be filmed to hide her growing size.
Cast
- Buster KeatonBuster KeatonJoseph Frank "Buster" Keaton was an American comic actor, filmmaker, producer and writer. He was best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the nickname "The Great Stone Face".Keaton was recognized as the...
- Willie McKay - Joe RobertsJoe RobertsJoe Roberts was an American comic actor, most notably in Buster Keaton's silent short films of the 1920s....
- Joseph Canfield - Natalie TalmadgeNatalie TalmadgeNatalie Talmadge was an occasional silent film actress who was more well-known as the sister of her movie star siblings Norma and Constance Talmadge until her marriage to silent film actor and comedian Buster Keaton....
- Virginia Canfield - Ralph BushmanRalph BushmanRalph Everly Bushman , was an American actor. He appeared in fifty-five films between 1920 and 1943.The son of notable silent film star Francis X. Bushman and Josephine Fladine Duval, he was born in Baltimore, Maryland, USA and died in Los Angeles, California. In his early film career, he was often...
- Clayton Canfield - Craig Ward - Lee Canfield
- Monte Collins - The Parson
- Joe KeatonJoe KeatonJoe Keaton was an American vaudeville performer and silent film actor. He was the father of actor Buster Keaton.-Information:...
- The Engineer - Kitty Bradbury - Aunt Mary
- Buster Keaton Jr. - Willie McKay (1 year old)
Plot summary
The Canfield and McKay families have been feuding for so long, no one remembers the reason the feud got started in the first place.One stormy night in 1810, after family patriach John McKay falls victim to the feud, his wife Mrs. McKay women decides her son, Willie McKay (the infant Buster Keaton Jr.), will not suffer the same fate. She relocates to New York to live with her sister, who after the mother's passing raises him without telling him of the feud.
Twenty-one years later, Willie (now played by Buster Keaton Sr.) receives a letter informing him of his father's estate is now in his name. His aunt tells him of the feud, but he decides to return to his birthplace anyway, to claim his inheritance.
On the train ride, he meets a girl, Virginia (played by Keaton's wife, Natalie Talmadge
Natalie Talmadge
Natalie Talmadge was an occasional silent film actress who was more well-known as the sister of her movie star siblings Norma and Constance Talmadge until her marriage to silent film actor and comedian Buster Keaton....
). They are shy to each other at first, but once they arrive (after many train malfunctions), she invites him to dinner at her house. She is greeted by her family, the Canfields. Soon the Canfield paterfamilias knows the young McKay is in town and he's coming to dinner that night. He affirms the blood feud will continue but decrees that McKay must not die in the Canfield house. His sons take this to mean that anywhere beyond the walls of the house, Willie is fair game. The father refers to this as "our hospitality", a fictionalized version of the Southern code of hospitality.
Meanwhile, McKay is oblivious to the seriousness of his situation, and manages to dodge bullets without really meaning to. The McKay estate turns out to be perfectly uninhabitable.
Soon after arriving to the Canfield house McKay learns both that he is in the Canfields' house and that they will not kill him inside. A parson comes to visit. After a while, the parson prepares to leave, but opening the door he finds a tremendous downpour of rain outside. The Canfield patriarch insists the parson stay at the house that night. McKay invites himself to stay the night also.
The next morning, McKay does his best to stay inside the house while the Canfield men try to put him out. After the father catches McKay kissing his daughter, McKay decides he can no longer keep trying to stay in the house. He leaves, but putting on a woman's dress first.
He's able to elude the Canfield men all the way to the mountain and the waterfalls. After Willie trips and falls into the rapids, Virginia goes after him in a rowboat; overcome by the current, she winds up approaching the edge of the waterfall. In a resourceful and fearless effort, McKay swings trapeze-like on a rope, catching her hands and pulling her to a nearby embankment in mid-fall! (One of Keaton's remarkable performances of actrobatics, ranking as one of the most thrilling rescues in motion picture history).
It grows dark and the Canfield men decide they can kill McKay the next day. Back home they find the gun cabinet completely empty, and in another room they see Willie and Virginia embracing in their bedclothes; assuming fornication, elder Canfield furiously ignores hospitality and rushes the room gun in hand. His clearer view reveals the parson completing nuptials for Willie and Virginia. Realizing the wrong of the violence thanks to a hanging "love thy neighbor" sampler
Sampler (needlework)
A sampler is a piece of embroidery produced as a demonstration or test of skill in needlework. It often includes the alphabet, figures, motifs, decorative borders and sometimes the name of the person who embroidered it and the date...
, the father blesses the union and calls off the feud. Ordering his family to disarm, Canfield's place their individual pistols on the desk; Willie surrenders the 10 or 12 guns he took from the gun cabinet!
Adaptation
A Telugu-language film adaptation, based on the same story, and titled Maryada RamannaMaryada Ramanna
Maryada Ramanna is a Telugu comedy thriller film directed by S.S. Rajamouli starring Sunil and Saloni in lead roles. This is the second film for Sunil as a hero. The film opened to favorable reviews by critics and turned out to become a super hit...
starring Sunil
Sunil (actor)
Sunil Varma is an actor from the Telugu film industry. His roles usually are to provide comic relief to the audience. In Andala Ramudu , he appeared in the lead role for the first time and his Second one as hero is Maryada Ramanna directed by S. S. Rajamouli...
, written by S.S. Kanchi, and directed by S.S. Rajamouli, was released on 23 July 2010. It received good acclamations from critics.