Even the small cameos by Jerry Lewis and Jack Benny were right. Keaton seemed to be lost. It's a shame, because he still had physical skills, almost to the end. Just watch the short film The Railroader, done two years later, to see what he could do.
What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence.
I read somewhere that there was a deleted scene with Tracy and Keaton talking by phone about his plans to charter a boat and leave his car. I would guess that Tracy would only tell Keaton so much as to spare him the possibility of being implicated as an accessory or aiding and abetting.
shareI remember watching the film when it was first released. I knew who Keaton was because of his occasional appearances on TV but then I never regarded him as much more than a semi-clown figure whose character was always wearing the hat and clothes. I don't think I'd ever seen any of his silent films, though I knew he'd made some. I didn't rank him as a comedian much higher than Ben Blue. Now, all these years later, I knew his work well and wonder why he apparently wasn't used more in front of and behind the camera, since he was an advisor on many other comedy movies through the years. Of everyone associated with the movie, he was the one most knowledgeable and more talented for that kind of comedy. What a loss he wasn't used more.
"All necessary truth is its own evidence." - Ralph Waldo Emerson