The High Sign (Buster Keaton, 1921)
The High Sign is a silent, black and white short film made in 1921 about a man played by Buster Keaton, who tries to get employed at a shooting range. To prove he can shoot he creates a contraption with a dog so that everytime he puts his foot on a pedal, some food is dropped down towards the dog who tries to run. The dog is attached to a string and when it moves the bell which says a target has been hit rings.
He uses this to con his way into working at the shooting range. However he impressed a murderous gang who give him the name of someone they want him to kill. Unfortunately for Keaton this same person has also asked him to protect him since he was too impressed by his shooting. Keaton must decide whether to protect or kill this man. His choice is chosen for him as the gang notice he is close with the man after Keaton gets invited to the targets house to be a bodyguard. Keaton pretends to kill the target but the gang dont fall for it. After using all the hidden passage ways in the house Keaton manages to escape and protect the target.
The High Sign is Buster Keaton’s first independent film. The chase sequence in the house is an example of Keaton’s creative mind as he had created a set of a house on a splitlevel, cutaway set showing 4 rooms at once from one angle. The house also included lots of different contraptions and secret passage ways which he uses throughout the sequence. The High Sign was released April 4th 1921, however it finished production and was ready for release a year earlier. Keaton hadn’t thought it was good enough and that it slightly copied Arbuckle’s style.
The studio that The High Sign was filmed at was previously Arbuckle’s studio and Keaton had also used Arbuckle’s former cinematographer and technical director. So, he didnt release it until he was desperate and in 1921 he had broken his ankle during production of The Eletric House and he needed to publish something so he released The High Sign. I personally liked the film and thought the fact the film had a proper story compared to other films like Cops. My rating is 4.5/5.