A Film Canon

For the first half of Seven Chances, Keaton's logistical ingenuity finds expression in narrative-based comedy, as he attempts to procure a bride in time to satisfy a clause in his grandfather's will. In the second half, Keaton returns to his trademark physical comedy, traversing a landscape that consistently reconfigures and reconstitutes itself according to his requirements. Yet this reconfiguration is far more grudging than in Sherlock, Jr., bringing Keaton much closer to the violent flux that surrounds him. Chased by a massive crowd of desperate, brick-wielding brides, he encounters barbed wire, bees, an angry bull and an assortment of other violent possibilities that eventually extend to the mechanical world, personified by a temperamental crane that swings him around a scrapyard and into the path of an oncoming train. At these moments, the aptness of the nickname "Buster" becomes clear - although this exploitative dimension is neutralised by Keaton's proportionate oblivion to it. There is never any sense that he is performing, just because his body rarely registers the violence it encounters. If anything, it becomes more like the object encountered, giving the final sequence, in which he strategically dodges a torrent of boulders running down a hill, the character of a collaboration, rather than a confrontation.