The High Sign by Josh

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The High Sign is a 1921 American short comedy film co-directed by, written by, and starring Buster Keaton.

Plot

A man finds an ad in an extremely large newspaper for a position working at a shooting gallery. He does some target practice on the beach, but he clearly is not very skilled at shooting. However, this does not deter him from trying to secure the position at the gallery. In order to trick his potential boss into believing that he is a skilled marksman, he sets up a contraption that will have a dog ring the bell which typically indicates that a shooter hit a target, to mask the fact that he is not an accurate shooter. After he fooled his potential boss, he gets the job, and it is revealed that Tiny Tim, his boss, is the head of the Blind Buzzards, an organization which carries out criminal activity. Their next target for elimination is Mr. August Nickelnurser, who owes the organization extortion money. After seeing how good of a shot the protagonist apparently is, they decide to have him carry out the task of committing the murder.

After receiving a letter from the Blind Buzzards stating their intentions to kill her father, Nickelnurser’s daughter decides that in order to protect her father, she must employ a bodyguard to protect him. She goes to the shooting range where the protagonist works, and she hires him. He then realizes that he has the task of both protecting Mr. Nickelnurser because his daughter hired him, and killing Mr. Nickelnurser for the Blind Buzzards. He later makes his way over to the Nickelnurser home where he realizes that the butler of the family is a member of the Blind Buzzards and is a part of the plan to kill Mr. Nickelnurser. The Blind Buzzards are outside of the home, so the protagonist has the idea to pretend to kill Mr. Nickelnurser, who will pretend to be dead so that way the Blind Buzzards outside see and leave. He gets up too soon though, and they see and they storm into the house and chase the protagonist and Mr. Nickelnurser around the house going between the rooms and the floors using the trapdoors. Eventually Tiny Tim, the protagonists boss, falls into one of the trap doors and the chase ends with Mr. Nickelnurser safe and his murder having been prevented.

Final Chase Scene

Cast

Keaton with the Gigantic Newspaper

Al St. John- Man in target practice

Bartine Burkett- Miss Nickelnurser (Daughter of Nickelnurser)

Buster Keaton- Hero (as himself)

Charles Dorety- Gang Members

Ingram B. Pickett- Tiny Tim (Antagonist, head of the Blind Buzzards)

Production

Much of the film had to be shot on location due to the studio Keaton typically used being used by other companies while filming The High Sign.