Steamboat Bill, Jr. with Live Piano by Ben Model

Tickets: $20 Regular ($17 Member), $30 Premium ($25.50 Member)

Starring: Buster Keaton, Ernest Torrence, Marion Byron, Tom McGuire, Tom Lewis
Directors: Charles Reisner, Buster Keaton
Screenplay: Carl Harbaugh

Bedford Playhouse welcomes back musician and historian Ben Model providing live piano accompaniment to the classic silent comedy Steamboat Bill, Jr. featuring the legendary Buster Keaton. This feature-length film contains some of Buster’s most famous stunts, all done without the aid of visual effects or body doubles. Recommended for ages 3 to 93.

Steamboat Bill, Jr. was Buster Keaton’s last independent silent comedy and also one of his finest. He stars as the effete son of a gruff riverboat captain (Ernest Torrence), who struggles to earn his father’s respect (and the love of beautiful Marion Byron). But the film is best remembered for the climactic cyclone sequence—a slapstick tour-de-force in which Keaton’s comedic stunts are performed amid the full-scale destruction of an entire town.

“The ensuing farce involves miraculous physical comedy and stunt-work. Keaton makes it look easy.”

– Peter Bradshaw, Guardian

“Boasts the most astonishing and indelible images in Keaton’s body of work, and some of the best moments in movie history … wildly inventive, increasingly audacious stunts.”

– Steven D. Greydanus, Decent Films