Our Hospitality: ULTIMATE EDITION [Blu-ray]

Decent HD transfer of one of Keaton's best
For some reason this film is less well-known than a lot of Buster Keaton's others...yet I find it a lot more satisfying than something like Steamboat Bill, Jr. or even Sherlock Jr.! It's got his fixation with trains in the first act, a very fun depiction of old narrow-gauge trains that, like most historical depictions in Keaton films, is based on actual accurate history (exaggerated for comic effect). It's got great comedy and suspense in the main plot, which involves Buster inadvertently stumbling into the home of a family, after falling for the girl who lives there, who are the Hatfields to his family's McCoys (or is that the other way around?), and relying on the family's strict Southern Hospitality rules to keep himself from being shot. Of course, if you know much about Keaton you probably already know this film, but if you've just seen a little, this is one of his best.

As for the Blu-Ray: the main musical option is the Thames Silents score by Carl Davis. This alone is...

Great!
The picture quality of this film is superb, even better for that it is in HD. The Carl Davis score creates such a beautiful and climatic mood which this film requires. The extras are fantastic and the the film itself I have always enjoyed, but now with the Carl Davis score and the beautiful way it has been presented now shoots up amongst my favourite Keaton movies.

The Keaton's Real McCoy
OUR HOSPITALITY (writ./dir. Buster Keaton, 1923, 73 minutes) is another favorite of mine given to us by the immortal Buster Keaton. I rank this with his The General (The Ultimate Two-Disc Edition) and Our Hospitality/Sherlock, Jr. (I recommend this awesome two-fer DVD set). HOSPITALITY is BK's first great feature-length film, though he had already done a couple of them.

Set in the Antebellum South (1830, Keaton was impossibly ahead of his time making this period authentic-looking) Buster plays Willie McKay, a New York-bred unwilling member of the old Canfield-McKay feud. (Yes, loosely based on the Hatfield-McCoy feud that really lasted only a few years.)

Returning to Kentucky to claim his inheritance (an "estate" that will make you howl with laughter when you see it), Willie soon falls right into the arms of the waiting...

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