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Having run out of job opportunities back home and being trampled half
to death in New York, Buster Keaton heads out West to try himself as a
cowboy. Initially though, he doesn't prove any talent for the job at all,
until he makes the acquaintance of Brown Eyes, a cow, and when he removes
a stone stuck between her hooves and she saves him from a raging bull, the
two become almost instant friends, so much so that he prefers to sleep in
the stables to be with her to sleeping in the bunkhouse with the other
cowboys. Then his boss (Howard Truesdale) sends his cattle to a
slaughterhouse in Los Angeles - including Brown Eyes, and despite Buster's
best efforts to make his boss spare his cow, she is put on the train to
the slaughterhouse ... and since Buster doesn't know what else to do, he
goes with her. Then though the cattle train is attacked by rustlers, and
when it comes down to a shootout between the rustlers and the cowboys
guarding the train, the train runs off on his own, with only Buster
aboard. He only just manages to prevent a major accident when the train
rushes into Los Angeles, but then he releases all the cattle in Los
Angeles, and onto the city, which cuases major havoc before Buster dresses
as the devil (because the costume's red is bound to attract the cattle's
attention), rides through the city on Brown Eyes, collects all the
lifestock and finally delivers them to the slaughterhouse. Buster's boss
is so greatful he offers him his daughter (Kathleen Myers) - but Buster
prefers Brown Eyes. One of the lesser films from Buster
Keaton's classic era, mainly because it tries to put too much heart into
its story (a must since Charlie Chaplin's Gold Rush from earlier
1925) and gives Keaton's character way too much character motivation -
which might work in the case of most other characters, but Keaton himself
always worked best when he was just this slightly featureless guy
confronted with a fate much big for him to handle. The slightly
heartwarming story and the whole character motivation business though only
amount to the fact that the story takes quite a while to kick into gear
and lacks real highlights until the finale - but the extended sequence
with the cattle taking Los Angeles is really worth its while, even if
Keaton himself would have preferred an actual cattle stampede - which was
of course just not manageable without endangering both human lives and
lifestock. In all, as mentioned above, not a better film from Keaton's
best era, but totally watchable for at least a few amusing scenes.
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