The Cameraman (1928)

Interesting facts

• Filmed in: Los Angeles

The Cameraman is a 1928 American silent romantic comedy film directed by Edward Sedgwick and an uncredited Buster Keaton. The picture stars Keaton and Marceline Day.

Production

On January 26, 1928, Keaton signed a two-year deal with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The deal required 2 films per year from Keaton and paid him $3,000 a week, making him the third highest-paid actor at the studio. Keaton brought most of his own crew with him from his own independent production company. He immediately pitched the idea for The Cameraman to MGM, who paid him $1,250 for it.

The film was overseen by producer Lawrence Weingarten. Weingarten and Keaton fought on set and Weingarten called Keaton a child. Keaton was accustomed to complete control over his own productions and was unaccustomed to interference from producers. However, MGM's head of production Irving Thalberg loved the finished film and laughed during screenings of its rushes (a rare display of emotion from Thalberg).

The Cameraman would later serve as inspiration for part of the 1950 comedy Watch the Birdie, starring Red Skelton, with Keaton working as a gagman for MGM and serving as an advisor to Skelton. The dressing-room scene in which Buster and another bather attempt to change while being pressed up against each other and getting entangled in one another's clothes was the inspiration for the stateroom scene in the Marx Brothers 1935 film A Night at the O…

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