Hard Luck (1921)

Description

After serving a three-year apprenticeship under slapstick superstar Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, former child vaudevillian Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton was promoted from supporting player to comic lead, and hired to star in a series of twenty two-reel comedies (usually written and directed with Eddie Cline). This collection of Keaton's seven initial solo efforts—authorized by the estate of Buster Keaton and mastered in HD from archival 35mm elements — reveals his cinematic genius just as it was beginning to flower. Already one can see the qualities that would define his later work: the facination with oversized mechanical props (the prefabricated house of ONE WEEK), dynamic stunts and chases [THE SCARECROW, THE HAUNTED HOUSE), and a penchant for dark comedy (CONVICT 13, HARD LUCK).