Our Hospitality
Short description
Our Hospitality is a silent comedy set against a long-running family feud in the American South. Two clans, the McKays and the Canfields, have carried their vendetta across generations. William McKay has grown up in New York unaware of this history until he inherits property and travels south by train to claim it. On the journey he meets a young woman, Virginia Canfield, and accepts her invitation to visit her home, not realizing that her family is bound to kill any McKay who comes near. The trip becomes a matter of survival as he navigates the household of his family's enemies while falling for their daughter.
The film was directed by Buster Keaton, who also stars as William McKay and shares producer credit with Joseph M. Schenck. It is the third of the thirteen films Keaton directed, following Neighbors and preceding Sherlock Jr., with John G. Blystone also credited as director. The screenplay was written by Jean C. Havez and Joseph A. Mitchell, and the cast includes Joe Roberts, Natalie Talmadge, Francis X. Bushman Jr., Craig Ward and Joe Keaton. Combining comedy, romance and suspense, it runs 73 minutes.
Reception is strong across the board. On IMDb it holds 7.7/10 from around 13,000 votes, while on TMDB it has 7.5/10 from 327 votes. A critics' rating of 8.8/10 from 31 reviews places it above both audience scores, indicating that reviewers have rated the film more highly than general viewers have.
What's left behind the scenes
- Buster Keaton (1895-1966), who never used stunt doubles during filming, nearly drowned while shooting one of the stunts when the safety rope broke and the actor fell into the river. He was found after 10 minutes lying motionless on the shore. The actor recovered from this incident, but decided to move the rest of the filming to studio sets in Los Angeles. The waterfall scene was also filmed in the studio using models. However, the stunt with his character flying on a rope towards the waterfall was filmed without doubles and on location.
- The film used a meticulously recreated model of 'The Rocket' (one of the first locomotives, built in 1829 by George and Robert Stephenson). An equally accurate replica was the bicycle at the beginning of the film – so accurate that, according to Buster Keaton, it later became part of the Smithsonian Institution’s collection.
- By the early 1950s, all copies of the film had been lost. In 1952, actor James Mason (1909-1984), who had bought Keaton’s former home, discovered a surviving copy of the film hidden in a secret compartment, making it available for viewing once again.
- During filming, actor Joe Roberts (1871-1923) suffered a heart attack and was hospitalized. Roberts insisted on returning to the set and died shortly after completing work on the film.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
