The Frozen North
[This is a sample article for a BUI 301 assignment. It was largely copied from the Wikipedia article on The Frozen North.]
The Frozen North is a 1922 American short comedy film directed by and starring Buster Keaton. The film is a parody of early Western films, especially those of William S. Hart.[1] The film was written by Keaton and Edward F. Cline. The film runs for around 17 minutes.
Plot
[Sample plot taken from the Neighbors article on Wikipedia because the Wikipedia plot summary for The Frozen North was too long.]
"The Boy" and "the Girl" are young lovers who live in tenements, the rear of which face each other, with backyards separated by a wooden fence. Their families constantly feud over the lovers' relationship. Each morning the Boy and the Girl exchange love letters through holes in the fence, much to the dismay of their families who insist they stay away from one another. The Boy sneaks into the Girl's bedroom window as the parents are arguing but he is caught by the Girl's father who ties him to a clothes line and slowly sends him back over to his family's house. After much arguing and fighting the two families eventually go to court to settle their differences. The Boy demands the right to marry the Girl, and the judge insists that the two families not interfere in their plans.
On the day of the wedding the two families are naturally hostile to one another. After the wedding is delayed due to the Boy's belt repeatedly breaking and in his pants continuously falling down, the Girl's father discovers that the ring the Boy intends to give to her is a cheap 10-cent ring purchased from Woolworths. He angrily calls off the wedding and drags the Girl home. Determined to rescue his love and with the help of his two groomsmen, the Boy uses trapeze skills to snag the Girl and the two run off together. They eventually find themselves in the coal shed of a blacksmith who has been ordained as a minister who pronounces them husband and wife.
Production
The film was photographed on location at Donner Lake outside Truckee, California, in mid-winter. The film's opening intertitles give it its mock-serious tone, and are taken from The Shooting of Dan McGrew by Robert W. Service.
Many of the gag sequences from The Frozen North, including the fishing sequence and wearing guitars as snowshoes while carrying a mattress, were later used by The Three Stooges in Rockin' thru the Rockies.
The gag of a protagonist being in a film in a dream sequence and waking up in the end is also in the film Sherlock Jr..
Cast
- Buster Keaton as The Bad Man
- Joe Roberts as The Driver
- Sybil Seely as Wife
- Bonnie Hill as The Pretty Neighbor
- Freeman Wood as Her Husband
- Edward F. Cline as The Janitor
See also
References
- ↑ James Curtis, Buster Keaton: A Filmmaker's Life (New York: Knopf, 2022), p. 201.
