Hard Luck by Ava

Plot

Buster Keaton plays a young man who decides to commit suicide after he loses his job and his dignity. He attempts suicide in a variety of ways, including laying on a train track and hanging himself from a tree, but none of his attempts are successful. Buster stumbles into a meeting of older men who are all setting off to hunt armadillos, so he volunteers to join the hunt. On this humorous expedition, he tries fishing and horseback riding and is ultimately unsuccessful at both.

Keaton attempts to kill himself by laying in front of a train, but it stops inches from his body.

Lizard Lip Luke, a bandit, is also on the hunt. He and his goons shoot up a saloon of some kind and Luke tries to assault a woman inside. Buster saves her from the shootout and the assault and promptly proposes, to which the woman points to her husband, who is sitting two feet away. Buster attempts the high dive but misses the pool completely, resulting in a giant, deep hole in the ground. Years later, Keaton reemerges from the giant hole dressed in traditional Chinese clothing, accompanied by a wife and two children.

Production

The final diving scene was accomplished by covering part of the swimming pool with a thin wax and then covering the wax with paper tiles that matched the area around the swimming pool. When Keaton dove off of the diving board, his hands broke through the paper and the wax and he landed in the water, but it looked as though he had gone straight through the ground. Of the dive, Keaton said, "I was so scared that if I hadn't lost my balance due to a sudden wind, I would never have left that platform."

Cast

• Buster Keaton - Suicidal Boy
• Virginia Fox - Virginia
• Joe Roberts - Lizard Lip Luke

Joe Roberts as Lizard Lip Luke

• Bull Montana - Virginia's Husband (uncredited)

• Bessie Wong - Chinese Wife (uncredited)

See Also

Buster Keaton Wiki Page

External Links

"Hard Luck" IMDb page

References

Buster Keaton: A Filmmaker's Life