Romancefest 2018: Seven Chances

So far we've been going in roughly chronological order this Romancefest but now we're going to take a step back to the 1920s for Buster Keaton's silent comedy SEVEN CHANCES. I saw this as part of the Hollywood Theatre's great Pipe Organ Pictures series, where organist Dean Lemire performs live accompaniment for silent films using a bonafide antique organ designed specifically for movies. If you have the means to see a movie like this, I highly recommend it. It is so choice.

Keaton stars as a young partner in a brokerage firm on the verge of going broke who learns that his grandfather has left him $7 million – on the condition that he is married by 7:00 pm on his 27th birthday. And guess what? It's his 27th birthday!

Keaton first tries to marry his true love (Ruth Dwyer) but she turns him down when she finds out about the conditions. Thus begins a series of proposals, with Keaton proposing to pretty much everyone at the country club and being turned down in a series of funny rejections.

Eventually Keaton's partners put an announcement in the newspaper and all of the women in town form a mob, chasing Keaton first in deseperation to try to become his wife and then in anger after being told the whole thing's a hoax (it's not).

Apparently Keaton wasn't that into this story, but he still manages to come up with several memorable set pieces, including a climactic chase down the side of a hill as huge boulders threaten to crush him. It's a perfect romantic comedy and an example of Keaton at the height of his powers.