I'll be making three posts in total tonight. The first is for the 1920 Buster Keaton short Convict 13, posted on Letterboxd this past Friday night:
While I have been having fun on my Thanksgiving break, I am still glad to have some time to talk about a silent short. I'll be returning home and in about 24 hours, I hope to have a review of something else, short or feature-length.
I felt like Buster Keaton, as it's been awhile. Keaton starts off unsuccessfully playing golf for the purposes of wooing Sybil Seely-a lady I've mentioned before as the 1920's version of Milana Vayntrub. The titular Convict 13 is a prisoner who escapes and runs into a knocked-out Buster. Unsurprisingly, the prisoner exchanges clothes with Keaton, and of course Keaton literally runs into prison. While behind bars, his main foe is the prison's main foe... a large human portrayed by Joe Roberts.
This was not top-tier Buster; that's not a slight as Keaton still had his creative moments and funny pratfalls. Black comedy is also present-they attempt to hang our hero but the rope is like a bungee chord. There's also an old gag that is used at the conclusion of the short which evidently was used by Buster during his vaudeville days, at least according to a mutual's review. The final 10 or so seconds could have been a groaner even back in 1920-it sure is in 2025... even then, there's more carnage and people being knocked out cold than you'd expect, so I can't carp about Convict 13 too hard.
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