Steamboat Bill, Jr.

(1928) dir Buster Keaton, Charles Reiser w/Buster Keaton, Marion Byron, Ernest

Torrence, Tom McGuire [70 min; DCP]

The last of the independent features made in the prime of Buster Keaton's

career, STEAMBOAT BILL, JR. is a large-scale follow-up to The General, substituting

a Mississippi paddlewheel for the locomotive, and replacing the spectacle

of the Civil War with a catastrophic hurricane. Keaton stars as William

Canfield, Jr., a Boston collegian who returns to his deep-southern roots to

reunite with his father, a crusty riverboat captain (Torrence) who is engaged in

a bitter rivalry with, coincidentally, the father of Willie's sweetheart (Byron).