mark.waltz They either laugh, show him a wedding ring, a baby, and even a different skin color. One's underage, and another's not even a woman. Each of them gets a proposal from Buster Keaton, about to inherit a huge fortune, as long as he is married by seven that night. It's a simple premise with many funny moments, accelerated by Keaton's strong detail for comedy. But as word gets out, this creates a stampede of anxious money grubbing brides. What results from there is nothing short of genius in the art of film comedy, leading to a long chase sequence and a confrontation with a bunch of rolling rocks, and I don't mean beer. I've always believed that chaos results from the abundance of idiots in large groups, and while I cannot attest to the intelligence of the female crowd, I can show proof of the genius in Keaton through even such simple visuals of watches with different times. The sudden stalking of Keaton by the enraged non- brides is outrageously funny, and when I first saw this years ago in film history class, I was one of several dozen students with sore chests by the time the film was over. At just over 90, this film continues to hold up very well.

framptonhollis Although Charlie Chaplin seems to have been hailed as the silent comedy king, I always liked Buster Keaton a tad bit more. Sure, Chaplin had more heart, but Keaton had more thrills! And "Seven Chances" is certainly no exception. What starts off as a romantic comedy with a witty and simple premise soon morphs into a lengthy, bizarre, and almost surreal chase scene that makes this movie one of the funniest and most creative comedies of all time. Although slapstick and romantic comedies are normally looked down upon in modern cinema, the silent masters knew how to execute these genres with perfection, and Keaton was perhaps the most perfect. The slapstick in this movie isn't just dumb, pointless injury, it's chaotic and complex, as it escalates in insanity and humor, getting funnier and funnier. Half of the film doesn't even contain slapstick, and its still laugh out loud hilarious. Silent comedians may be most well known for their slapstick, but they were also masters of visual, situational comedy, as is evident in much of this movie's running time.If you're ready for an insane, laugh out loud ride, you cannot go much better than this hilarious, and only 50 minute long Keaton classic!

Byron Brubaker (hypathio7) It was a real joy to watch this at the local Cinematheque with lots of people laughing and enjoying this classic comedy. It is a premise that has been repeated many times since. Buster Keaton is Jimmie Shannon. A prologue was included in the showing. This prologue was shot with color tinting, but did not screen with most theatrical releases here in the states. In it Jimmie's longtime courting of Mary (Dwyer) is consistently met with cold feet and her dog coming between them. In the main film Jimmie and his buddy Billy (Barnes) are having difficulty keeping their financial firm in the black. An attorney (Snitz Edwards) must track down Jimmie to read his grandfather's will. Jimmie will receive an inheritance of 7 million dollars, IF he is married before 7 p.m. on his 27th birthday! Oh, look at that, today is his 27th birthday. He blunders through proposing to Mary and so Billy and the attorney tag along to the nearby country club to find a bride. They count 7 women lounging in the club, hence the Seven Chances. However, before it is all over Jimmie will have a large church full of women, including women spilling out all over the street outside, chasing him when they find out he will be a millionaire. There is a long, complex chase scene with lots of great visual gags and Keaton hurling himself from one attempt at escape to another. It's a riot. Will he make the deadline? Does he have the stamina? I am growing to really love Buster Keaton's craft as a comedian.

Bill Slocum True love takes a lot of work - but this is ridiculous!Jimmie Shannon (Buster Keaton) is a partner in a brokerage who can't quite bring himself to propose to Mary (Ruth Dwyer), the only woman he loves. Then, his business facing ruin, he discovers he stands to inherit a fortune if only he gets married that day. He proposes to Mary, but she's put off by his apparent insincerity. So Jimmie is left to find a woman, any woman, who will marry him. Will love prevail?The film is an odd one for Keaton, starting off with a brief color sequence (in 1925) and moving quite slowly for Buster through the first third. The story was one Keaton had handed to him, rather than one he worked on himself, and feels at times like a "ladies' picture," focusing as it does on Jimmie's frustrated feelings and Mary's unhappiness.For a while, Buster's not even the main laugh-getter in the film. For a while, he plays a kind of straight man to troll-visaged Snitz Edwards, playing the lawyer bringing the news of Jimmie's inheritance. Snitz chases after Jimmie and his partner, who think he's a process-server and dodge him, but Snitz prevails. Buster still pines for Mary, saying he can love no other woman (which she happens to hear over a telephone connection, changing her mind), but agrees to bring to bring a woman to church before the deadline out of loyalty to his partner."In case two show up, I'll marry the other," Snitz declares.There are other oddities about "Seven Chances," like racial humor (Jimmie almost proposes to a black woman; a blackface actor plays a thick-headed hired hand) and the "Saphead"-style character Buster plays. It would seem like a lesser Keaton for that, but instead emerges as a masterwork of pacing and narrative. Just as you begin to settle in to "Seven Chances" tea-cozy aesthetic, it ramps things up for one of the great double-rally endings in movie history.There's also a charming sequence where Jimmie tries to find a bride among a list of female members of his country club, the "seven chances" of the film's title. He burns through those chances in six minutes, and then gets rejected by a receptionist (Jean Arthur) and a hat-check girl (Rosalind Byrne) for good measure. The sequence plays with set design and framing to keep you always wondering as to what will happen next.One amazing thing about the film you might not notice is the clever use of panning. Camera pans were still fairly new in cinema; framing was often stationary. But Buster is always in motion, and the camera moves with him. One clever shot, of Buster finding a turtle attached to his tie, apparently employs a treadmill in order to achieve an overhead camera angle.The gags here keep coming, and give "Seven Chances" the feel of a classic Keaton short. Except there's a real story here to be told, and the humor always works to move the ideas forward. It's a classic demonstration of Keaton's ingenuity - even if he didn't have a hand in the film's conception or writing he directed it, and it shows - as well as his ability to find as many ways of making you laugh in as little time as possible.