The Theater and Cinema of Buster Keaton

"Knopf offers a timely, academic appreciation of the great stoneface, examining why Keaton's films intrigued surrealists and intellectuals... Knopf also does an excellent job of tracing the vaudevillian roots of Keaton's stunts and gags."--Library Journal "The remarkable thing about Buster Keaton is that within the world of film he could do anything. [The book] is a concise synthesis of critical opinions on Keaton which is most useful and insightful in its attention to the tension between vaudeville-based gags and classical narrative structure in Keaton's films."--Marc A. Mamigonian, The Boston Book Review "With apt photographs, complete filmography, and heuristic bibliography, Knopf reanimates the delightfully improvised cinema of a truly great comic film artist."--Choice