Hard Luck
About Hard Luck
Jobless and dropped by his girl, Buster tries to kill himself and fails, down to drinking whiskey he thought was poison. He joins an expedition to catch an armadillo and gets bolder, fishing and fox-hunting along the way. The nerve undoes him: he dives from a high board, misses the pool, and disappears into a hole on the far side. Years later he climbs out beside the dry pool in Asian clothes, followed by a Chinese wife and three children.
Cast & crew
More about Hard Luck
Buster Keaton and Edward F. Cline wrote and directed the two-reeler. Joseph M. Schenck produced it, and Metro Pictures distributed it.
Themes
Look
Elgin Lessley photographed the two reels.
Preservation
It was Keaton's only major lost film for about sixty years. A 1987 reconstruction was still missing the final scene, which was later found in a Russian archive print.
Notes
- Keaton called the last shot the greatest laugh-getting scene of his career.
- Virginia Fox plays Virginia, Joe Roberts plays Lizard Lip Luke, and Bull Montana is uncredited as Virginia's husband.
- On the cast list Keaton's role is the Suicidal Boy.
Scenes
- He swallows a bottle of whiskey labeled as poison and only gets drunk.
- The dive from the high board misses the pool, and he vanishes into the ground.
- He emerges years later with a wife and three children beside the empty pool.
Also available
- Internet Archive (HardLuck)
- Wikimedia Commons (Hard Luck (1921) by Edward F. Cline and Buster Keaton.webm)
