Buster Keaton: The Later Years

In the golden age of silent cinema, Buster Keaton was one of the world's most revered filmmakers, his fame and acclaim matched only by Chaplin. However, when his career and personal life took a down turn upon the arrival of sound, Keaton's achievements were forgotten, and for years he was seen as a faded relic from another era. Contrary to popular belief however, Keaton bounced back. He quit the drink, remarried and got his career back on track. In the 1950s and 60s, he kept on working steadily on TV, in commercials, telefilms, mainstream movies and independent features. This book explores the final years, and days, of Buster Keaton. Chris Wade looks at the wide variety of work he took on, such as Film, which Keaton made with Samuel Beckett; The Railrodder, one of his final two- reelers; and a host of other lost curiosities worthy of dusting off and re-evaluating. Wade makes a case for this latter period being a Keaton renaissance. Also includes a new Q and A with Gerald Potterton, director of The Railrodder.