Our Hospitality

Directed by: Buster Keaton and Jack C. Blystone

Release Date: November 3, 1923

Length: 7 Reels (6220 feet)

Starring
Buster Keaton: Willie McKay
Kitty Bradbury: Aunt Mary
Joe Keaton: Lem Doolittle, The Engineer
Jack Duffy: Sam Gardner, the Train Guard
Natalie Talmadge: Virginia Canfield
Francis X. Bushman Jr.: Clayton Canfield
Craig Ward: Lee Canfield
Erwin Connelly: Husband Quarreling with Wife
Monte Collins: Rev. Benjamin Dorsey

Prologue
Edward Coxen: John McKay
Jean Dumas: Mrs. McKay
Buster Keaton Jr.: Willie McKay (Age 1)
Tom London: James Canfield
Joe Roberts: Joseph Canfield

Copyright
11/20/1923: Joseph M. Schenck Productions
11/19/51: Loews (Transferred to Rohauer, then to Cohen Media)
2019: Public Domain

Credits courtesy of Jack Dragga

Trivia

OUR HOSPITALITY is the only film to feature three generations of Keatons: Buster, his father Joe (who played the train engineer) and Buster’s 14-month old son James (who played the younger version of Buster’s character in a prologue).

When Buster was being carried away in the rapids, the alarm you see in his eyes was for real; his protective guide-wires had snapped, and he was nearly drowned while being swept downriver. But his cameramen were instructed to never stop cranking until Buster called “cut”; thankfully the scene is preserved nearly 100 years later.

OUR HOSPITALITY was the 18th and final Keaton film appearance for Big Joe Roberts; he suffered a stroke during filming, but returned to work few weeks later, insisting on finishing his role. Big Joe died a month after his final scene, just six days before the film’s premiere.