Convict 13
About Convict 13
Buster Keaton knocks himself out on a golf course, and an escaped convict swaps clothes with him. The prison warden's car delivers him to jail as Convict 13, due to hang that morning. His girlfriend swaps in an elastic rope, so the drop bounces him. In a guard's uniform he ties up a rioting prisoner with the same rope and swings a punching bag on it to flatten the yard. He then wakes on the grass: the prison was a dream.
Cast & crew
More about Convict 13
Keaton and Edward F. Cline wrote, directed, and, in Cline's case, played the hangman. Joseph M. Schenck produced. Elgin Lessley photographed the two reels. Metro Pictures released the short on October 27, 1920. Keaton also edited.
Themes
Making
The elastic noose is the short's main mechanical gag: it saves Keaton on the trap, ties the prisoner, and then drives the punching bag around the yard.
Look
Elgin Lessley photographed the golf-course opening and the prison-yard riot.
Preservation
The short survives and is on the Internet Archive.
Notes
- Sybil Seely plays the girlfriend, who is also the warden's daughter in the dream.
- Joe Roberts is the prisoner who starts the riot. Joe Keaton, Buster's father, is another prisoner.
- A dog steals the golf ball, which has already been swallowed once by a fish.
- The number on the stolen uniform is what schedules him for the morning hanging.
Scenes
- The escaped man changes clothes with the unconscious golfer.
- The elastic rope turns the hanging into a bounce.
- Keaton spins a punching bag on that rope and clears the yard.
- He wakes beside the shed where he first knocked himself out.
Also available
- Internet Archive (Convict13)
