See Canada Now!

November 28, 2020 7:51 PM

Directed by Gerald Potterton - better known, perhaps, for the 1981 film Heavy Metal, whose soundtrack included Don Felder and Sammy Hagar, and Yellow Submarine, whose soundtrack included... well, you've heard of them - Buster Keaton stars in one of the last films of his long career, crossing Canada on a railway track speeder in a short film called "The Railrodder".

Produced by the National Film Board of Canada with principal photography in 1964, The Railrodder was Keaton's last silent film; its longer companion piece, Buster Keaton Rides Again, documents the making of The Railrodder, containing the only known behind-the-scenes footage of Keaton working on a movie.

posted by mhoye (12 comments total)

As a Gen-X kid in Canada I must've seen The Railrodder a thousand times; I'm sure we rented it (on film) from the library for my birthday parties, it was repeatedly shown in school, etc. That's all I knew of Buster Keaton for a very long time.

Excerpts from both the short and the making of appear in the excellent The Great Buster (which I was able to watch for free here in the SF Bay Area via Kanopy)
posted by stevil at 8:38 PM on November 28, 2020 [4 favorites]

I've seen and enjoyed The Railrodder and am looking forward to digging into the other links - yay and thank you!
posted by brainwane at 10:40 PM on November 28, 2020

I legit LOL'ed at the duck blind. Thanks for this!
posted by notsnot at 8:10 AM on November 29, 2020 [1 favorite]

And if you're interested in seeing more of the great Buster Keaton, there's
this great link from Open Culture, and this excellent documentary originally from Thames Television, the work of the great Kevin Brownlow and David Gill.
posted by ivanthenotsoterrible at 10:16 AM on November 29, 2020

After the last Buster Keaton post we watched this at one of our Syncplay Movie nights, it was a lto of fun. I personally think it went on a little long, and would have liked if it was clearer which city was which, with some longer shots of the places he was passing through, but it was a nice end to his career. I would love to know who thought up this idea and why, it isn't exactly...obvious.

I'm also wondering what the modern version of this would be?
posted by Canageek at 3:34 PM on November 29, 2020

Wonderful! I had never heard of this film before; agree that it was a nice way to round out an amazing career. Although I think the very first ocean scene was camera trickery rather than Buster doing his own special effects.
posted by TedW at 4:03 PM on November 29, 2020

How is it possible that I have watched a million NFB shorts but have no recollection of this at all? I must have been a few years too young for the required attention span.
posted by benzenedream at 6:33 PM on November 29, 2020

this was charming! thank you.
posted by tamarack at 9:46 PM on November 29, 2020

I didn't sit down to watch this until today -- and a couple of minutes in, yep...we totally watched this in elementary school. At 25 minutes, I think it was one of those films that came on two or three big reels which was always cause for excitement. "Oooh! It's going to be a long film!"

But until this post, had no inkling that it was directed by Gerald Potterton. Thanks for the trip down memory lane and the kind of mind-blowing revelation that the same guy who did Heavy Metal did this.

I didn't remember the restaurant window scene, but it's pretty brilliant (at around 9:25).
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 12:21 PM on November 30, 2020

I got curious about the score. Apparently The Railrodder was scored by Eldon Rathburn:

In 1947, he joined the National Film Board as a staff composer and went on to score over 300 documentaries and feature films. He is responsible for the music heard in classic NFB films like City of Gold and the IMAX feature Momentum, as well as the scores for lesser-known “classics” like Hog Family Supreme and Fish Spoilage Control.

Here is Fish Spoilage Control. The soundtrack contains lots of louche brass. It's fantastic.

Sadly, Hog Family Supreme doesn't seem to be available for free viewing via the NFB's site or their YouTube channel. It would make a fantastic band name.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 12:33 PM on November 30, 2020

My kid (3.5 yo) and I just watched The Railrodder for the first time and it was great! We are both big fans now thanks.
posted by SaltySalticid at 5:49 PM on November 30, 2020

I realize it's only the first, but "Louche Brass" is a strong candidate for this month's Best Still-Available Sockpuppet Name award.
posted by mhoye at 2:31 PM on December 1, 2020 [1 favorite]