Buster Keaton in His Own Time ― What the Responses of 1920s Critics Reveal

Buster Keaton “can impress a weary world with the vitally important fact that life, after all, is a foolishly inconsequential affair,” wrote critic Robert Sherwood in 1918. A century later Keaton, with his darkly comic “theater of the absurd,” speaks to modern audiences like no other silent comedian. Drawing on film reviews of the day, this book explores the enduring appeal and legacy of his features of the 1920s. Keaton as actor and auteur is contrasted with his eminent contemporaries—Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd and Harry Langdon.

Wes D. Gehring is a distinguished professor of film at Ball State University and associate media editor for USA Today magazine, for which he also writes the column “Reel World.” He is the author of 36 film-related books, including award-winning biographies of James Dean, Carole Lombard, Steve McQueen, Robert Wise, Red Skelton and Charlie Chaplin.