Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928) on Netflix
Steamboat captain William Canfield is losing passengers on his aging paddle steamer to a rich rival's new boat. His son Bill Jr., fresh from college in Boston, arrives in River Junction.
- Netflix3.7/5
- IMDb7.8/1017,776 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes100%
Trailer
Plot summary
William Canfield Jr., known as Bill, finishes his studies in Boston and travels to River Junction to keep a promise to his mother and meet the father he last saw as a child. The elder Canfield, captain of the aging paddle steamer Stonewall Jackson, is let down by his son's slight frame, beret, pencil mustache and ukulele, and orders a shave at the barbershop. There Bill bumps into Kitty King, a college acquaintance. Canfield's customers are drifting to J.J. King, who owns the local hotel and bank and has brought in a new paddle wheeler. Bill and Kitty begin to keep company, and both fathers want it stopped.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- For the film's most famous stunt, Buster Keaton used a genuine two-ton building facade with no trickery, and the mark on the ground showing exactly where he had to stand was a nail. Standing just inches off that spot would have seriously injured or killed him.
- The film's original ending was to be a flood sequence, but producer Joseph Schenck forced Buster Keaton to cut it because of the devastating 1927 Mississippi River Flood.
- Steamboat Bill, Jr. likely inspired the title of Walt Disney's Steamboat Willie, released six months later and considered the debut of Mickey Mouse, who whistles a melody from Keaton's opening title.
- Buster Keaton spent an extra $25,000 on the cyclone climax, which used breakaway street sets and six Liberty-motor wind machines, and the sequence came to one-third of the film's whole budget, put at $300,000 to $404,282.
- Shooting began on July 15, 1927, in Sacramento, and production was delayed when Buster Keaton broke his nose in a baseball game.
- Steamboat Bill, Jr. was the last picture Buster Keaton made for United Artists; he moved to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and made The Cameraman and Spite Marriage before the studio took away his creative control.
