Buster Keaton On Blu-ray: SEVEN CHANCES ULTIMATE EDITION Review

Our look into Buster Keaton's solo features finds its next subject in an unusual entry in his oeuvre, Seven Chances.  Whereas most of Keaton's silent work was a mostly the invention of his own imagination, Seven Chances was a departure in that it came from a previously published and performed stage play licensed by his producer.  As such, the film plays a bit differently than many of Keaton's early films, but also features some of his most memorable gags and has had perhaps more of an impact on long term film history than some of his better films.  Kino brings the latest of their Keaton holdings to Blu-ray in a stunningly gorgeous HD transfer with an upgrade for Robert Israel's bouncy score and a number of fantastic bonus features.  This is another "must buy" release from Kino!

This dazzling comedy showcases Keaton's genius for super-sized slapstick as it tells the story of an eligible young bachelor who must marry by 7:00 p.m. in order to receive a $7 million inheritance. After bungling a proposal to his longtime sweetheart (Ruth Dwyer), Jimmie (Keaton) embarks on a desperate quest for a bride. He experiences a hilarious series of rejections, until a newspaper announcement of Jimmie's predicament provides him with more fiancées than he can handle, setting in motion the most epic and surreal chase sequence of Keaton's career.

Seven Chances is a film that seems like a Buster Keaton invention, and for that reason alone it is a tribute to his ingenuity.  The 1925 film was actually based on a stage play written by Roi Cooper Megrue and was acquired for film production by Buster's producer, Joseph Schenk, who convinced Buster that it was in his best interest to make it. Buster wasn't too keen on the idea, but eventually relented and the result is another comic masterpiece.  The film features some of Buster's trademark gags on a scale only hinted at in his short films.  While the film doesn't quite have the depth of his later work, as a series of screwball sequences, it is really quite satisfying, and at 55 minutes, he hardly leaves any time for the viewer to get bored.

Buster plays a down and out banker on the hook for a great deal of money. Suddenly an attorney appears with a will declaring that he'll inherit $7 million if he can marry by 7 PM on his 27th birthday, which happens to be that very day.  So begins the merry chase.  In the prologue we become privy to Jimmy Shannon's (Keaton) abiding love for a girl to whom he can never manage to say those three little words. As such, this girl, Mary, is Jimmy's first stop.  However, after bungling his words and letting on that he will gain an enormous amount of money if he marries "some girl" by 7PM, his advances are refused, in spite of Mary's shared feelings. In his rejection, Buster relies on his business partner and the attorney to help him find someone to marry, which results in numerous hilarious sight gags and prat falls in true Keatonian fashion.

Seven Chances fits into an odd slot in Buster Keaton's filmography.  This was his fifth feature in three years, slipping in between The Navigator and Go West. In the years since his jump to features, he'd already made several classics, along with The Navigator, he also had Sherlock, Jr. and Our Hospitality under his belt, so the move from original material to an adaptation was not Buster's idea. However, he persevered and managed to create the finest foot chase ever captured on film nearly ninety years ago. From Seven Chances, Buster went on to his greatest artistic successes, including The General, Steamboat Bill, Jr., and Battling Butler.

There are a few novel things about Seven Chances that are unique to this early Keaton feature.  The opening sequence of this film was the first chance that audiences had to see the great comedian in color.  The opening titles and prologue were filmed in two-strip technicolor, a relatively new and very expensive process.  They haven't survived the ravages of time in the best of condition, but it is nice to see them in this print. In addition, this film features one of Keaton's few inclusions of a blackface performer, who were actually still somewhat common in 1925, though the practice was moving out of style quickly. The "house man" is portrayed in a stereotypical fashion for those times, and while not as wildly racist as those in The Birth of a Nation, he certainly is unnecessarily dopey.

Seven Chances is a great film and well worth watching.  The fact that Buster Keaton could make this good a film with material he wasn't excited about is pretty astonishing.  There are some large scale gags in this that, while certainly augmenting his previously acknowledged love of grandeur, are still only hinting at the madness to come in films like The General and Steamboat Bill, Jr.  The fact that this film lived on in shorts from The Three Stooges and a 1999 remake starring Chris O'Donnell (The Bachelor), is all the more evidence of Keaton's influence on film history.

The Disc:

Kino has done it again with one of their best looking and sounding Keaton Blu-rays yet!  Seven Chances was a tricky film to convert for one big reason: color.  The two-strip technicolor process used in the shooting of this film was questionable in 1925, and has not stood the test of time as archival.  As such, the color sequences look nowhere near as good as the black and white portions.  However, as shown in the bonus material, there has been an incredible amount of restoration work done to those three minutes of film and it surely looks better than it has in eighty-five years.  Once you get past the color sequence, it is smooth sailing.  The black and white photography looks fantastic, and Kino restoration work from the Library of Congress' 35mm materials is beautiful.  The film's grain is retained wonderfully, and the image is crisp and clear with relatively little print damage to note.  This is certainly better looking than their last release, which presumably had more problematic archival materials. The 1995 score by Robert Israel sound beautiful in DTS-HD MA 5.1, while not adding much of a surround effect, the audio in this remix is certainly fuller sounding than the Dolby Digital 2.0 track also included.  This is a stunningly gorgeous effort from Kino, another bravura release!

The folks at Kino also took a risk by calling this the "Ultimate Edition" of Seven Chances, and from my perspective, they've done a fine job living up to that title.  Seven Chances includes a feature commentary from historians Ken Gordon and Bruce Lawton that is informative, well-researched, and engaging.  A lot of the material above is from that commentary and I found it invaluable.  They also dig deep into the histories of the supporting performers and every frame of this film is dissected in a wonderfully listenable way.  In addition, there are two related shorts included.  The first is a 1904 Edison short with a similar theme directed by Edwin Porter that looks pretty damned good for it's age, and the second is a 1947 Three Stooges short that is, um, well a Three Stooges short.  The Stooges are great on their own, but watching them perform directly after watching Keaton performing the same material is a stark contrast, and one that does not benefit the former.  In addition, Kino have kept up their series of location featurettes from author John Bengtson, who gives us a visual tour of the many still standing locations from Seven Chances.  It is interesting to see how much changes and how much stays the same in the last century. The final substantive bonus feature is a brief but interesting featurette on the restoration of the color sequence from film historian Eric Grayson. Of the many great things about this brief piece is a split screen comparison between four different versions of the opening, I found it fascinating, and it truly helped me appreciate the work that went into making that sequence look as good as it does for this release.

Kino's latest addition to their Buster Keaton Blu-ray line-up is a home run.  Seven Chances is a great, quick blast of classic comedy that deserves a place in the collection of any comedy fan.  This leaves three Keaton features yet to be upgraded: College, The Navigator, and The Saphead.  Let's hope they get to those sooner than later.  My guess is that your purchase may hasten the process, so what are you waiting for???