Buster Keaton was one of the three legends of silent film, along with Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd. Keaton’s films are considered masterpieces of the time, and you could convincingly argue that The General, along with Steamboat Bill Jr., Seven Chances, and The Cameraman were truly Keaton’s finest work. Trust me. Put The General up against Chaplin’s The Gold Rush or Lloyd’s Safety Last!, and you’d have a triple feature for the ages.
As the silent era ended and title cards were replaced with spoken dialogue, Keaton’s career wavered, but never faded. He remained active in film throughout the 1940’s, 1950’s and 1960’s – even appearing in such Hollywood blockbusters as It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum.
What I have here are two films that Keaton made in 1965. The first one, called The Railrodder, is essentially his final truly silent film in that he has no spoken dialogue. The plot features Keaton traversing Canada on a runaway railroad speeder, and it’s just straight up amazing.
Concurrent with The Railrodder, Keaton participated in a documentary about the making of The Railrodder, a film called Buster Keaton Rides Again. It’s a fascinating behind-the-scenes view of Keaton as he works with and occasionally butts heads with director Gerald Potterton. During the making of The Railrodder, Potterton continually fretted that Keaton’s suggested stunts were too dangerous, while Keaton kept insisting that all would work out fine.
Here’s the documentary, and surprisingly, the documentary itself is twice as long as The Railrodder.
Fun stuff for today. Enjoy!
Chuck The Writer 
I remember wondering as a kid whether his face would crack if he smiled.
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