Steamboat Bill, Jr.

Steamboat Bill, Jr. follows a young man who returns to the Mississippi river town where he grew up to meet the father he has not seen since childhood. Willie Canfield has just finished college and arrives as a refined, city-dressed young man, a poor match in the eyes of his blunt, hard-working father, who runs an ageing paddle steamer. The reunion is further complicated when Willie falls for Kitty, the daughter of his father's wealthy rival, a man whose modern vessel threatens the older captain's livelihood. The rivalry between the two boat owners sharpens, and a cyclone sweeping through the area forces everyone to confront the conflict.

Buster Keaton stars as Willie and co-directed with Charles Reisner. The screenplay was written by Keaton, and the cast includes Ernest Torrence as Steamboat Bill Sr., Marion Byron as Kitty King and Tom McGuire as her father. It was released in 1928 and runs seventy minutes, mixing comedy and action with romance and drama. It is the twelfth of the thirteen films Keaton directed, arriving between The Cameraman and a later 2026 project.

On IMDb the film holds a critics' rating of 9 out of 10 from 52 reviews, while on TMDB it has 7.6 out of 10 from 405 votes, a strong showing for a silent comedy of its era.