Steamboat Bill, Jr
CINEMA

 Silent Film & Live Music 

Brilliant gags and heart-stopping stunts, in one of Buster Keaton’s finest comedies. 

‘Steamboat Bill’ Canfield captains a dilapidated paddle steamer from a small Mississippi town. When news comes that his estranged son (Buster Keaton) is returning home, he hopes for a strapping lad to help him with the business. 

But Junior turns out to be a college-educated city-slicker with no sea legs. And worse, his sweetheart is the daughter of Canfield’s deadly rival – the successful, luxury riverboat owner JJ King. Junior tries and fails to win his father’s approval, until a cyclone hits and the weedy urbanite gets a chance to prove himself.

Steamboat Bill, Jr features some of Keaton’s finest stunts on camera and perhaps one of the most iconic scenes in all silent cinema – famously revisited by artist Steve McQueen – in which an entire house’s facade falls on the oblivious performer. 

Watch it at Barbican Cinema 1 with live piano accompaniment by John Sweeney. 

US 1928 Dir Charles Reisner 70 min Digital presentation . Certificate U