Witness Keaton do satirical impersonations in 'The Frozen North'

The Frozen North (1922)
Starring: Buster Keaton, Freeman Wood, Bonnie Hill, Sybil Seely, and Joe Roberts
Directors: Buster Keaton and Eddie Cline
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

After failing to rob a casino, shooting his neighbors due to mistaken identity, covering up the apparent death of his wife (Seely), and being stopped from ravaging the wife of another neighbor (Hill), a Bad Man (Keaton) goes on the run (and fishing) in the frozen wilderness of Alaska.

"The Frozen North" was the last movie Buster Keaton would make with Sybil Seely, and it was her last film, period, as she retired from show business to focus on her family after completing it. It's different than any of the other four films they made together. Where the other films featured plots and gags that flowed smoothly into each other, with the plot driving the gags and the gags likewise furthering the plot, there isn't much connection between segments here. Even "One Week", which essentially is a series of connected individual skits, felt like it had more of a plot than this film. Here, the main character moves from event to event, and gag to gag, with only the faintest of motivation for doing so--not even the plot moves him to do so, because there is very little plot to speak of here.

This is probably because "The Frozen North" was motivated by very different creative impulses than those previous films. This is, first and foremost a satire of western melodramas starring the extremely popular actor William S. Hart. Although Hart is not well-remembered today, audiences in 1922 recognized who Keaton was lampooning--because Keaton reportedly mimicked several of Hart's gestures perfectly--and they reportedly loved it. Hart, however, was not amused, and he made his displeasure known, publicly. According to some sources--including a aquote from Keaton himself--Keaton was upset that Hart was angered, because Keaton was motivated to make the film because he admired and respected Hart. Other sources, however, hold that Keaton didn't mind angering Hart, because they state the motivation for making this film was anger with Hart, who had been a loud and sanctimonious voice condemning Keaton's friend and mentor Roscoe Arbuckle when Arbuckle was falsely accused of raping and killing a starlet. This article (which also reviews "The Frozen North, but contains more spoilers for the film than I usually include here) addresses both theories, and it's an interesting read.

Comedic highlights of "The Frozen North" include Keaton robbing a casino with a cardboard cowboy as his accomplice; the melodramatic scene involving the murder of Keaton's neighbors, perhaps the most savage swipe at Hart's films, as well as one of the funniest dismissal of double homicide ever put on film; where Keaton's dogsled is pulled over by a traffic cop in the Alaskan wilderness; an ice-fishing trip gone wrong; and an attempt on the part of Keaton's character for force himself on his pretty neighbor--a scene that pokes fun at Erich von Stroheim, another melodrama mainstay of the time. (Unlike Hart, Von Stroheim reportedly got a kick out of being the subject of a spoof.)

"The Frozen North" feels a little more disjointed than some of the other early Buster Keaton comedies, and, because the satire has been has been muted by the passage of time, a little lighter on the laughs. However, it's still worth checking out if you enjoy silent movies, because watching Keaton make fun of many of the period's tropes is well worth your time. In fact, you can watch it right now by clicking on the embedded video below.