Mostly a series of loosely connected comic stunts and set-pieces, The Cameraman includes some classic Keaton moments: playing baseball against himself; running up and down several flights of stairs, which the camera captures by floating between floors on an elaborate, multilevel set; spending a good three minutes trading elbows in a tiny dressing room with a much larger man (Edward Brophy). All of this takes place while Keaton’s aspiring newsreel photographer tries to woo an employee at the MGM lot (Marceline Day). Eventually the movie winds itself up to some large-scale action (including a gang war in Chinatown that unfortunately exoticizes and criminalizes the Asian characters), but mostly The Cameraman registers as a strung-together package of exceedingly clever Keaton shorts.
(6/6/2022)
