The Cameraman

Keaton's first feature after moving to MGM. That this meant the eventual sacrifice of his career can be seen in the story - Keaton becomes an MGM newsreel camera-man in order to get the girl, who works in the MGM office - and the first half of the film, a series of gags (collapsing bed, reflex-testing, mixed-up bathing suits) second-hand enough to have come out of Nickelodeon. But the final sequences make up for this disappointment: Keaton gets involved in a Tong war and (inadvertently) with an organ-grinder's monkey. He shoots exclusive footage, but the monkey steals the film. Keaton returns with an empty camera and is kicked out. Gloomily he goes to the beach. His girl is in a boating accident. Forsaking his camera, he rescues her. The monkey keeps the camera rolling. Keaton gets the girl, and back at MGM, it's the greatest news film they've ever seen...shot by the monkey. A delightful piece of film-making within-a-film which is both an insight into Keaton's own logic, and also, alas, a sort of epitaph.