The Scarecrow

The Scarecrow belongs among Buster Keaton's best two-reelers with others like The Boat and One Week. Buster gets chased through half the picture by a very clever dog. The rest is with Sybil Seely, Keaton's cutest girl co-star. The dog runs Buster through the ruins of an old adobe house, up a ladder and into a mountain of hay. Seely dances amid the bales then coyly misinterprets Buster's bended knee as a proposal. In the scarecrow scene he quickly kisses her, she runs into the middle of the river astonished, and delivers a double-take in close-up that's priceless! They somehow end up on a speeding motorcycle with a minister who marries them just before they plunge into a river. The dog is wonderful, Buster's rival is suitably oafish and there's even a great part for 'Big Joe'. The Scarecrow has less of the impossible stunts Keaton was known for but it flies along at break-neck speed from beginning to end and has enough material in two reels for six or seven