Jumping through the window into the dress

I thought I saw in one of the Keaton documentaries (years ago, so I might be wrong) that he did do the whole trick and that it was an old vaudeville trick that had been done before.

"And before we go any further, who the hell orders pizza under the name of Torchwood?"

I watched it in slo-mo forward and backward again and again. I followed the trajectory of Buster's body and he's clearly diving into the costume and out the window.

All he has to do to make it work is get his head into the hat part of the costume, and the rest will follow. He then wraps it around himself like a blanket.

Remember this is film, not stage. Buster could do as many takes as needed to get himself properly into the costume.

Interesting question, since this gag has usually been discussed in far less detail than the more famous one that immediately follows (jumping into ”the lady peddler’s” suitcase and apparently vanishing). But according to Rudi Blesh’s biography, both of these tricks had been remembered by Buster from his vaudeville days.

I have just been watching the scene several times in slo-mo, and have reached the same conclusion as Chrissie: Buster is definitely diving straight at the window and landing on the other side. For him to have done a lightning-quick turn to the right, and another performer to stand ready at the window to complete his action convincingly, would have been all too complicated to work out and get right, in my estimation.

I’m not sure of the details on how the old-time ”quick-change” artists performed their tricks, but possibly they had a curtain or something to assist in their dazzling feats — for the same reason that we see the wall at an angle, to hide the props. I also agree with Chrissie that Buster turns his back on the camera to hide the fact that his ”old lady” get-up is, at this point, less convincing than in the next cut when we see him face forward.

Also, it seems to me that the whole action of landing on the pavement, getting up and walking away is performed with a definitely Keatonesque elegance. Veteran stuntman Harvey Parry made the point in Brownlow’s Keaton documentary that the main reason Keaton was seldom doubled was that you couldn’t copy his physical mannerisms before or after the stunt itself. (Parry in fact categorically states that Keaton was never doubled, but there is at least one known exception — the pole vault at the climax of College which was performed by a professional pole vaulter.)


"An empty cab pulled up and Louis B. Mayer got out."

I feel like MythBusters should get on this.

"Despite everything, I believe that people are really good at heart."

In the Kino DVD documentary of the film, it is explained that this was a stage trick that Keaton, a lover of magicians, borrowed for the movie. That IS him in the dress.