User Reviews

Buster Keaton's films will always be amusing, but that doesn't mean they are flawless. This is a good short comedy he was making on his way up, and shows he is learning his craft. But the key to this film is a little flaw that is not really resolved until the last shot. The short is really two shorts stitched together. In the first we see Buster playing golf and trying to impress an expert female golfer (Sybil Seeley). The highpoint is a spoof by Keaton of water traps: his ball goes into a stream full of trout and he has to try to locate the trout that swallowed his ball. It works because of the typical Keaton determination to get to the heart of the matter - he goes through several fish before he finds the trout and removes the ball. Probably that would have been the conclusion for most comics, but not Keaton. He tops it with two other jokes (hitting the ball out of the stream back into the fairways; and then paddling his makeshift river raft to shore with his golf club).

Had he stuck to the golf game only the resulting short might have been a "10". Likewise when he goes into the prison section: the prison section could have been a "10" also. But when pushed together that stitching shows, as does it's resolution at the conclusion. Supposedly, while Buster is golfing, a convict flees a nearby prison. Buster manages to knock himself out with his own golf ball. The escapee sees Keaton lying on the ground and exchanges clothes. Buster ends up "Convict 13" in the local prison, and he discovers he is to be hanged soon. He also discovers the girl he likes is the daughter of the warden. He is prepped for his hanging by hangman Eddie Cline (who would be a successful director in Hollywood). One of the best moments in this section is when Buster corners Sybil in the prison yard, puts a handkerchief on the ground, kneels on it announcing how he loves her forever and wants to marry her, and is dragged up by the guards and hustled over to be hanged! Sybil does try to help ruin the hanging by substituting an elasticated rope for the hangman's rope. Cline is left puzzled by Buster bumping up and down in a weird anticipation of bungee chord exercise. Another nice touch in the hanging sequence is that the other prisoners are enjoying the show from bleacher seats.

The final section is dealing with the meanest of the prisoners, Joe Roberts. We see him effortlessly beating up on guards until confronted by Buster (now having switched his prison garb with a guards) and threatening Buster. There is even a repeat of the hanging business, this time varied with Joe being attached to the rope from the wrong end. Buster ends up thwarting a prison break (set at 3:00 P.M.) and being made Assistant Warden.

If you noticed how effortlessly Keaton steps from golf player to prisoner to guard to Assistant Warden, something would tip you off as to what is going on. That comes out in the last moment of the film, when all these crazy switches that everyone accepts are resolved. I won't explain how, but look over the sequence of events and you'll probably figure it out.

It is a very funny comedy, with Keaton using his physical abilities to show he could have had fun with an Argenine bolo if one came his way. It's just the seams that ironically keep it from being one of his best shorts.

One thing I like a lot about Buster Keaton's shorts is that they tend to throw themselves forward at an exhausting and quickened momentum that his features couldn't, by nature, keep up. Also, his character is slightly different, as in this case where Keaton comes off as a bit more brazen and arrogant than his longer roles.

This is a strong short. Keaton finds himself from playing golf to being a prison inmate, from being an inmate to being a warden, and so on at an astounding rate with nothing really streaming it together but some form of happenstance and cleverness... typically found in a lot of Keaton but a little more random and inexplicable this time around.

It is, however, very funny. Also, once again Keaton does things with his body that if one takes a moment to pay attention to, could have easily resulted in some very severe injuries (the hanging gag comes to mind).

If only it weren't all a dream. Such storytelling reoccurs often in Keaton shorts, but is still pretty weak.

--PolarisDiB

This is a truly odd Buster Keaton short (not that his others are "normal"). That's because while playing golf (and frankly, overdoing the slapstick a bit), Buster is knocked out by a runaway prisoner and the prisoner changes clothes with him. When he awakes, he finds lots of guards chasing him. When finally apprehended, Buster is told that he's due to be executed, but the job is botched and they decide to put it off until later. Soon after, a riot breaks out and Buster puts a stop to it--gaining his girl's love and undying admiration as the film ends.

The film has a very maudlin and surreal quality about it with jokes about death, weirdly improbably chains of events and is almost non-stop action. The problem is that while this is all mildly amusing, it isn't a particularly memorable film. Other Keaton shorts such as COPS and many others are simply funnier. Still, compared to many of his contemporaries, even a poor Keaton film is quite watchable.

As if his golf game wasn't bad enough, Buster Keaton ends up in prison stripes when he is knocked out by escaped prisoner # unlucky 13 and has to outwit the guards who spot him then later incarcerate him. As if nobody would realize that it's not really the missing prisoner, and then later to fins out that #13 is really unlucky, due to be hung, and not by the chimney with care. This is dark but funny, ironic and filled with the magic that only Keaton can do. Shots of other prisoners applauding his pending execution, being given snacks as if they were at the movies.

A great peppy musical score accompanies the action, showing that there were and are geniuses interested in the art of silent films, where the comedy can often be violent, the villains dastardly and the down on his luck hero wonderfully lovable. With many of these close to a century old, it's nice to still have access to them. Certainly, every one of the silent legends had their style, and in the case of Keaton, it is hard to find fault in his style of comedy, no matter how silly or dated it seems to be.

Convict 13 (1920) may not be as great as One Week (1920) or The Goat (1921), but it is one of the better of Buster Keaton's short films from his early period and the best showcase for the master's love of black humor. The gags are among the darkest Keaton ever conceived, foreshadowing the bleak tone of what is considered by many to be Keaton's greatest short, Cops (1922). My favorite part has to be the way Buster's would-be hanging is considered a sporting event, complete with popcorn vendors and a clapping, cheering crowd of inmates acting as the audience.

The ending is a tad disappointing since it's the tried and boring "it was all a dream" trope, but it does not harm the film all that much.

This is a 20-minute short film from 95 years ago. It is silent of course and in black-and-white and it stars Buster Keaton who also wrote and directed this one together with his longtime aide Edward F. Cline. Keaton plays the lead character here and Cline actually also has a role. But it's a very early film with Keaton and one of his first works behind the camera too. Then again, he was only in his early 20s when this was made. Sybil Seely, who plays his love interest, was even younger. The villain is played by Joe Roberts, a fairly prolific actor usually typecast for enemy roles because of his threatening physique. And Keaton made this a family affair by casting his two younger siblings and his dad is also in here. After some golf action early on and a bad fashion choice, the protagonist ends up in jail. Unfortunately, it did not turn out so well. The humor wasn't too funny really on my opinion and consisted mostly of something like a big bald guy throwing people around. So there is some violence and also some gunfire, but it's all harmless and playful as always with the short films of Lloyd, Chaplin and Keaton. It's not horrible, but it's also not really good compared to some of Keaton's later works. Not recommended.

There are two sections to this funny, if unbelievable and occasionally grim, comedy short. The first section has Keaton as a very incompetent and unlucky golfer, in contrast to the prison warden's daughter, Sibyl Seely, who shows talent. This section occupies about the first 4 min. This is followed by the long dream(nightmare) sequence, in which Keaton is mistaken for an escaped convict(# 13)(Joe Roberts) who is sentenced to be hanged that day.(Given their dramatically different heights and girths, it's very difficult to believe they could be mistaken for each other!). But Sibyl is visiting the prison that day, and takes a liking to Keaton. She notices the elastic exercise rope her father uses. Somehow, she managed to put this in place of the normal hangmen's rope , when no one was looking. Thus, Keaton bobs up and down like a bungee diver after the trap door is opened. Eventually, Keaton accidentally knocks out a prison guard and changes clothes with him, then acts like a guard. Eventually, he's made assistant warden for breaking up a prison riot with a cannon ball tethered on a rope, after the other guards have been knocked out by Joe Roberts, with his sledgehammer. Unusual for comedy shorts of this era, several guards and inmates apparently are killed in the riot. Many others are unconscious and possibly dead......Returning to the beginning, after knocking himself down trying to tee off, Keaton hits the ball into a pond. Stepping on a small raft, he wonders why the ball isn't floating. He guesses that a fish swallowed it. Hence, he grabs several fish with his hand and squeezes them. Finally, the ball pops out of the last one, which he spanks before letting it go. He puts the ball in the water and hits it with his club. We don't see where it lands. He tries to tee off, but, at the last second, a small dog runs in and snatches the ball. Next, he hits the ball, but it ricochets off a building, hitting his head, knocking him out. This is where his dream sequence begins, with the giant escaped inmate Joe Roberts changing clothes with him. (But how is this possible, given the huge differences in their heights and girths??)........See it at YouTube