Elsewhere in the blogosphere: OUR HOSPITALITY

A Top 100 countdown of the greatest comedy movies, based on lists contributed by a diverse sample of fans, continues at the Wonders in the Dark collaborative blog. Blog-wrangler and generous soul Sam Giuliano invited me to contribute another essay to the countdown -- the previous one covered Laurel & Hardy's Big Business -- to mark the Buster Keaton film Our Hospitality's place at No. 24 on the list. I watched the film for the first time in several years earlier this month and saw thematic elements I hadn't noticed before, particularly how Buster's train journey serves as a coming of age in a symbolically young America, right down to the train severing a symbolic (and dangerous) umbilical cord. Lest that make the film (or my essay) sound pretentious, rest assured that Hospitality is still one of the funniest features of the silent era. To read more, and to see the complete countdown to date, follow this link and find your favorites! If you don't find them, they could be yet to come.