The Frozen North
About The Frozen North
Buster Keaton gets off at the last stop on the subway, in the frozen north, dressed as a bad man in the manner of William S. Hart: a small campaign hat and a six-shooter on each thigh. Guns and a mistaken identity follow. He shoots a neighbor and her husband, then cries thick glycerin tears, the kind Hart used.
Cast & crew
More about The Frozen North
Buster Keaton and Edward F. Cline wrote and directed it. Joseph M. Schenck produced it. Elgin Lessley photographed it. It was released on August 28, 1922. Wikipedia gives 17 minutes. Keaton plays the bad man. Joe Roberts plays the driver. Marion Harlan plays the wife. Bonnie Hill plays the pretty neighbor. Freeman Wood plays her husband. Cline plays a janitor. It was made after Roscoe Arbuckle's arrest in the Virginia Rappe case. A copy is on the Internet Archive as TheFrozenNorth.
Themes
Background
Made after Arbuckle's arrest in the Virginia Rappe case, with Keaton producing and starring.
Making
Keaton put on Hart's hat, two guns, and the glycerin tears, and played the western as a joke.
Look
Elgin Lessley shot the snow town and the subway gag that opens it.
Preservation
A copy is on the Internet Archive.
Notes
- The hat is a small version of Hart's Spanish-American War campaign hat.
- The tears after the shooting are glycerin, a Hart mannerism.
- Sybil Seely is on some cast lists. Marion Harlan and Bonnie Hill are the women named on Wikipedia.
- The opening joke is that this snow town is a subway stop.
Scenes
- Keaton steps off the subway into the snow.
- He shoots the neighbor and her husband, then cries glycerin tears.
Influenced by
- William S. Hart westerns
Also available
- Internet Archive (TheFrozenNorth)
