The Railrodder
1965
24 min
Coming soon
This short film from director Gerald Potterton (Heavy Metal) stars Buster Keaton in one of the last films of his long career. As "the railrodder", Keaton crosses Canada from east to west on a railway track speeder. True to Keaton's genre, the film is full of sight gags as our protagonist putt-putts his way to British Columbia. Not a word is spoken throughout, and Keaton is as spry and ingenious at fetching laughs as he was in the old days of the silent slapsticks. For more background information about this film, visit the NFB.ca blog.
Details
This short film from director Gerald Potterton (Heavy Metal) stars Buster Keaton in one of the last films of his long career. As "the railrodder", Keaton crosses Canada from east to west on a railway track speeder. True to Keaton's genre, the film is full of sight gags as our protagonist putt-putts his way to British Columbia. Not a word is spoken throughout, and Keaton is as spry and ingenious at fetching laughs as he was in the old days of the silent slapsticks.
For more background information about this film, visit the NFB.ca blog.
-
writerGerald Potterton
-
directorGerald Potterton
-
producerJulian Biggs
-
cameraRobert Humble
-
musicEldon Rathburn
-
editingJo KirkpatrickGerald Potterton
-
assistant directorJo Kirkpatrick
-
sound effectsKarl Duplessis
-
sound recordingGeorge CrollTed Haley
-
castBuster KeatonKats R. Nasu
Education
Ages 7 to 10
Geography - Human Geography
History - Canada 1867-1914
Track the path travelled by the man in the film. Can you tell when he was in a new place? Discuss geographical clues, landmarks, etc. Find updated images of the CPR and its surroundings and compare and contrast it in the past with now.
