_*The Frozen North*_ is a comic western by [ Ссылка ] codirected with *Edward F. Cline* . The film parodies the heroic cowboy character that the star of westerns, *William S. Hart*, played in his films.
_Chapters_
00:00 - Titles
00:07 - Last Stop
00:42 - _Use Bull’s Eye Ammunition
02:07 - A mistake
03:02 - Bad Husband
03:58 - The other guy's wife
05:56 - Sleighs
09:05 - Igloo
10:38 - Fishing scenes
13:32 - Return to the other
15:10 - Erich
15:34 - Violent Endings
16:45 - “Wake Up!”
_Synopsis_ . A guy (Buster Keaton) emerges from the last subway stop (00:12) to find himself in a cold village in the Sierra Nevada. He attempts to rob a saloon with a cardboard cutout as an accomplice , but the trick does not work.
(02:25) Returning home, he discovers his wife with her lover: first he bursts into tears (02:29), then draws his gun and fires on the two. He discovers too late that he has made a mistake....
(3:03) Returning to his real home, to his real wife (Sybil Seely), he bickers with her, drawing the attention of a ranger.
Having escaped arrest and looking for a new companion, Keaton decides to court the comely neighbor (Bonnie Hill, 03:57) but will have to deal with her husband (Freeman Wood, 04:41). When the couple sets off by sleigh for a town further north (05:47), Keaton attempts to follow them, but only after several mishaps does he manage to get on their trail along with a companion (Joe Roberts, 06:04). On his journey to the north, Keaton must inhabit an igloo (09:09), fish in the ice (10:37), and confront with a bear (12:51). Having found his neighbor (13:34) he shows up at her house, but her jealous husband also arrives and a tussle breaks out. Keaton is engaged in a hand-to-hand combat with his rival when the betrayed girlfriend reappears and recognizes the betrayer through the window and shoots him in the back. Keaton on the ground, hexamenous, pulls out his weapon and is about to pull the trigger, when awakened by the janitor of the theater in which he had fallen asleep, just as THE END appears on the screen (16:59).
_Cast_
Buster Keaton ... the Villain (00:12)
Sybil Seely ... the villain's Wife (03:04)
Bonnie Hill ... the Neighbor (03:57)
Freeman Wood ... the neighbor's Husband (04:41)
Joe Roberts ... the sleigh Driver (6:04)
Edward F. Cline ... the cinema Janitor (16:51)
The production of _*The Frozen North*_ followed the scandal that had ousted [ Ссылка ] from the film industry. While Keaton had publicly supported his friend's innocence, Hart had been among his greatest and most ardent detractors. It was Arbuckle who came up with the idea of making a film in which Hart would be portrayed as a bully, thief, and violent man, and since he could not do so it was Keaton who wrote, produced, directed, and starred in _*The Frozen North*_ .
After the film's release, *William S. Hart* did not address Keaton again for several years. The parody of the western star began as early as the first scenes, when Buster cut out his silhouette from the advertising poster (00:58); but the scene that infuriated Harts was the one in which Buster Keaton cries with glycerin tears (02:29), a trick Hart often used in his films.
In _*The Frozen North*_ Keaton parodies Erich Von Stroheim in _*Foolish Wifes*_ (15:12) , but unlike S. Hart, Von Stroheim took great pleasure in seeing himself imitated by Keaton.
Also in this film, as in his best work, Keaton plays on the contrast of true and false, dream and reality, and the misuse of objects as when he uses guitars as snowshoes or snowshoes as tennis rackets.
#BusterKeaton #thefrozennorth #williamshart #western
The audio tracks that make up this new soundtrack are by *Sir Cubworth* .
