The Paleface

1922

Comedy / Western

5
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 61% · 2 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 61% · 250 ratings
IMDb Rating 6.8/10 10 3476 3.5K

native american silent film short film short

Plot summary

A butterfly collector unwittingly wanders into an Indian encampment while chasing a butterfly, but the tribe has resolved to kill the first white man who enters their encampment because white oil tycoons are trying to force them from their land.

Director

Buster Keaton Photo
Buster Keaton

Top cast

Buster Keaton Photo
Buster Keaton as Little Chief Paleface
Joe Roberts Photo
Joe Roberts as The Indian Chief
Virginia Fox Photo
Virginia Fox as Indian Maiden
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
230.92 MB
1280*960
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
24 fps
12 hr 25 min
Seeds 2
428.77 MB
1440*1080
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
24 fps
12 hr 25 min
Seeds 7

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by JoeytheBrit 6 / 10

Not one of Buster's Best

Buster Keaton plays a butterfly collector who is unlucky enough to stumble into an Indian reservation moments after it's chief has issued an order that the first white man they see is to be scalped after the tribe is duped out of their land. Of course, Keaton is initially blissfully unaware of the danger he's in. His sudden sprint for the reservation gates isn't because of a sudden realisation of the peril he's in but because he's just spotted a butterfly for his collection. The first half of this film, in which Keaton tries to elude the Indians, is the funniest, although the scene near the end in which he evades capture from another tribe of Indians by crossing a bridge that only has a dozen or so slats is pretty good. The film features some typical Keaton stunts and some good solid laughs but, in my opinion, this isn't quite one of his best.
Reviewed by bkoganbing 7 / 10

Kicking Off The Indians, not on Buster's watch

In the early days of silent films Indians were inevitably the all purpose villains. For those who think that it was not until such post World War II films as Devil's Doorway, Broken Arrow, and Fort Apache that the Indian point of view was filmed, The Paleface, a comic short subject by Buster Keaton was the granddaddy of those other classics.In fact the villains are really modern ones, would you believe oil company executives interested in the almighty profit at the expense of everything else. But oil was shortly to be cast in infamy with the American public in the form of the Teapot Dome Scandal which would break a couple of years later. Even then there was a stench emanating from Wyoming and people were asking questions.The oil company has discovered oil on Indian land and has summarily ordered them off. The Indians are naturally upset and the chief Joe Roberts promises to kill the next white man who sets foot on the reservation. Who should it be, but poor innocent butterfly collector Buster Keaton, as innocent here as his comic rivals Harry Langdon or Stan Laurel. The great stone face leads the Indians on quite the merry chase and with a little help from asbestos, survives a burning at the stake. With what we know now, one also shudders at the mesothelioma Buster acquired from that experience. Knowing this man is something special, The Paleface becomes a leader of the tribe and they successfully battle oil company encroachment. By the way one of the vignettes in the James Stewart film The FBI Story deals with just this question, Indians being cheated out of their land by oil company speculators. Of course it was dealt with a bit more seriously than in The Paleface.Not too much similarity between this and the Bob Hope-Jane Russell feature film classic, The Paleface. Hope also nearly got burned at the stake, but his escape was different, one classically different method from another great comedian.The Paleface is a real good introduction to the comic art of Buster Keaton.
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