The Scarecrow (Buster Keaton, 1920)
The Scarecrow follows a two brothers who live on a farm. All of the rooms in their house are in one place, which leads to an inventive sequence where their house transforms into a kitchen, a dining room, a bathroom, and back into a bedroom. The men then go out onto the farm where they begin competing for the love of the farmer’s daughter. One of the men, played by Buster Keaton, is chased by a dog who he believes has rabies. He then annoys the father and his brother, and has to put on a scarecrow’s clothes to hide from them. After escaping the pair, he accidentally proposes to the daughter. This leads to another chase with the farmer and the brother, and culminates in the two getting married in a stream.
The film follows Keaton’s typical style of comedy film, involving chases, small stunts, and a little bit of cartoonish violence. His status as an auteur is demonstrated in this film too, with one particular example being the sped-up running which still makes me giggle when it catches me off guard.
Like many of Keaton’s earlier films, this one does give the impression that it was filmed in a closed off set. None of the places (apart from the stream at the end) really feel like real places, adding to the sense that this is a comedy routine that is meant to be enjoyed and not thought about much more.
Personally, I found that The Scarecrow started strong, and then fell off quite quickly. I’m sure a dog chasing a man was extremely engaging in 1920, but I ended up getting a bit bored. If I’m perfectly honest, I’m really reaching for things to say about this one. It was nowhere near as inventive as One Week (apart from the opening) and all of the stuff with the dog just doesn’t work after seeing that kind of thing over and over and over in the 100+ years of film which have followed this one.
2.5/5