Neighbors

The IMDb (and I wonder how I ever survived without it) tells me that the set for this Romeo and Juliet in the Irish slums was made precisely to Keaton’s dimensions, with hand and footholds places perfectly for him to do his trademark scrambling like a human fly. There are several jokes that today we would probably consider racist, involving Buster inadvertently ending up in blackface (from mud, or tar) and being mistaken for a Negro. I wasn’t bothered by them, but another scene was offensive. He is hiding in a pile of laundry, and when he rises, covered by a sheet, the eyes of a black family nearby bug out, and it’s “Feets, do yo’ stuff!” time, as the stereotyped superstitious darkies think they’re seeing a ghost. Ugh.