BusterKeaton_vk

Since we're planning to present a copy of Sherlock Jr. preserved in the Gosfilmofond to the world in the near future — and, if all goes well, other treasures too (besides Sherlock Jr., the official Soviet film distribution lineup also included Our Hospitality, Three Ages, and The General, in that order) — let's take a moment to dive into the history of the Soviet fascination with Hollywood in general, and Buster Keaton in particular, to understand what these copies are and how they ended up there.

In many interviews over the years, Buster Keaton delighted in recalling that at one time he even surpassed Charlie Chaplin in popularity in "the most impossible country in the world" — Russia (then, of course, the Soviet Union). This was brought to his attention by the famous movie stars Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, who visited Moscow in the summer of 1926. Archival press studies reveal some truth to this claim. Just before the actors couple’s visit, following the triumphant Soviet screenings of Our Hospitality in the winter of 1926 and Three Ages soon after, Soviet audiences indeed fell in love with Keaton. Local film critics didn’t merely view his films as good entertainment, but admired them as high art, praising his acting style, subtle humor, and cinematic craftsmanship. However, Keaton also never forgot to note that despite his popularity, he received no financial benefit from it, because the Soviets allegedly used to get a single copy of his film from Germany for $5,000 and then just duplicate it for screenings all across the country. Let’s try to investigate how true this claim might be by delving into the history of Soviet film distribution.

Let's take a brief break from our discussion of "Sherlock Jr." for a little exclusive – a fragment from the MGM film "Switching to Hollywood" (Wir Schalten Um Auf Hollywood), created specifically for the German market. This fragment has been digitized from a 35mm print, which, to our amazement, we discovered in the Gosfilmofond. Remarkably, the archive not only holds a Soviet positive copy but also the original German negative. As far as we can tell, this film has never been released or published in decent quality before, although you can watch

As you can understand from the previous post, it was "Sherlock Jr." that became my gateway into the world of Buster Keaton. To this day it remains, along with "The General" (and, in a close third place, "Our Hospitality"), my favorite. This incredibly clever and inventive film  still feels so modern that  after seeing it, a person, unfamiliar with silent film culture, once asked me in all seriousness if "Sherlock" was a modern stylization of turn-of-the-century cinema. And as befits a detective, this film has the most mysterious production story of all Buster's pictures.

Hello everyone, my name is Olga Egorova and this is a new, English branch of busterkeatonvk project. Some of you might already know me from our Buster Keaton discussions on Facebook, or perhaps you've come across our website, read our Instagram channel, or watched our Keaton videos on YouTube. Either way, I'm thrilled to welcome every reader, and here I will try to share something new and unique about Buster and his films that you won't find in any of his numerous biographies. For those of you who have never encountered our project before (or perhaps even Buster Keaton himself!) — here is our most popular video essay, dedicated to his stuntwork, narrated by none other than Buster's wonderful great-granddaughter, actress Keaton Talmadge: