The Cameraman (1928)

Directors: Edward Sedgwick, Buster Keaton (uncredited)
Writers: Clyde Bruckman (story), Lew Lipton (story)
Stars: Buster Keaton, Marceline Day, Harold Goodwin

After becoming infatuated with a pretty office worker for MGM Newsreels, Buster trades in his tintype operation for a movie camera and sets out to impress the girl (and MGM) with his work.
The first film that resulted from this new arrangement with MGM was the comedy The Cameraman (1928). This was the only MGM film where Keaton was still able to be a filmmaker of sorts. He was able to bring a few people from his old crew on board, such as Eddie Cline, Elgin Lessley and the talented Clyde Bruckman. It’s the only one of Keaton’s MGM films that the most clearly shows his creative stamp, with the added polish of MGM production values. And it is one of Keaton’s masterpieces (and as some people say, his last).

The story is of a humble tintype photographer (an out-of-date profession even in the late ’20s) who falls in love with a young woman who works in a newsreel office. Hoping to win her love, he aspires to be a newsreel cameraman himself. Although his attempts at his new career are bumbling, his determined little character doesn’t give up…

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