Steamboat Bill Jr. (1928)

Steamboat Bill, Jr. is a 1928 silent comedy film starring Buster Keaton. Released by United Artists, the film is the final product of Keaton’s independent production team and set of gag writers. It was not a box-office success and became the last picture Keaton made for United Artists. Keaton ended up moving to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where he made one last film in his trademark style, The Cameraman, before his creative control was taken away by the studio.

Directors – Charles Reisner, Buster Keaton (uncredited)

Writer – Carl Harbaugh (story)

Cast –
Buster Keaton as William Canfield, Jr.
Ernest Torrence as William “Steamboat Bill” Canfield, Sr.
Marion Byron as Kitty King
Tom McGuire as John James King
Tom Lewis as Tom Carter
Joe Keaton as the barber

Watch “Steamboat Bill Jr.” (1928)

Plot

William “Steamboat Bill” Canfield is the owner and captain of a paddle steamer, the Stonewall Jackson, that has seen better days. A new steamer the King owned by J J King is stealing all his customers. King also owns the local bank and the town hotel. At a well-attended launch party, he belittles the Stonewall Jackson. Bill receives a telegram saying his son is arriving on the 10am train, having finished his studies in Boston. Bill has not seen him for many years.

King’s daughter Kitty arrives home from college to visit him. She drives a swanky car.

Bill waits at the train station, expecting a big, husky man like himself to get off. He inspects all men getting off but none wear a white carnation which Bill Jr said he would wear. Junior got off on the wrong side. He then goes down the platform pointing his carnation at everyone in turn. Bill Senior and his assistant have given up when they read a luggage tag on a bag reading “William Canfield Jr, Boston”. They have found the right man. William is deepy disappointed with his slight, awkward offspring, who shows up with a pencil moustache, a ukulele, and wearing a foppish beret. He sends him to the barber to have the moustache removed and there he bumps into his college friend Kitty. They (father and son) then go to the hat shop to choose a new hat. After much selection, the chosen hat blows off as soon as he leaves the shop, and he reverts to the beret.

Down at the riverside they meet King and his daughter. Bill is embarrassed by his son and sends him to get some working clothes. He gets kitted out as a naval officer (which is not what Bill wanted). Bill’s assistant quips “no jury would convict you”. On board Bill Jr is awkward. He knocks off a life belt (which instantly sinks). He sees Kitty on the dock talking to a handsome officer off the King. But she runs off when taken onto the King and goes to the Stonewall Jackson instead…to see Junior. Her dad orders her back. Junior ends up getting pushed to and fro between ships. Junior is sent to the engine room to see how the ship works. He pulls a lever making the ship crash into the King.

Both Bill and King are determined to break up the relationship between Junior and Kitty, but at night, Junior slips off and boards the King. As the ships are further apart than before he uses a plank to cross. The King starts moving but the plank does not fall as it is jammed on one side. Junior walks off the end of the plank.

Junior decides to go back to Boston but changes his mind and rips up the ticket.

When Canfield’s ship is condemned as unsafe, he accuses the King of orchestrating it. He assaults his enemy and is then put in jail. On a very wet and windy day his son tries to free him by bringing him a huge loaf of bread with tools hidden inside, but father refuses the bread, especially when Junior says he made it himself. Junior tries to signal to Bill what the plan is and Bill then says he wants the bread. But the tools fall out. Junior says the dough fell in the tool chest. The sheriff gets knocked out and locked in the cell where Bill was. Bill runs off but Junior’s coat gets stuck in the cell door. He accidentally releases the sheriff who hits Canfield Jr. on the head with his revolver, sending him to the hospital.

Then a cyclone hits, tearing down buildings and endangering the ships. A pier collapses and the King breaks loose. The King Hotel collapses. The walls disappear from the hospital leaving Junior exposed. As Canfield Jr. makes his way through the town, a building front falls all around him, as an unbroken facade and Junior fits through the open window (an infamous stunt). Several buildings collapse dangerously close. Then he is blown in the air clinging to the tree and lands in the river. The jail blows off its foundations and starts to sink. He reaches his father’s ship and a house floats by with Kitty on its side. He rescues Kitty with her full weight hanging as he crosses on a rope, then he sees his father floating down in the jail which is sinking lower and lower. He devises a set of ropes to pull the power lever downstairs while he steers and rams the ship into the sinking jail, splitting it open to release his father. Next they see Kitty’s father: the King has sunk and he is in the river. Junior ties himself to a rope and dives in to rescue him. When Kitty goes to her hero, she is puzzled when William jumps into the water. However, his purpose becomes clear when he returns, towing a minister in a lifebelt.