Seven Chances Review- By Michael J. Carlisle

Title: Seven Chances
Year: 1925
Director: Buster Keaton
Country: US

Unlike most silent movie- stars, Buster Keaton was eager to go into sound considering he had a fine baritone voice with no speech impediments and years of stage experience. In 1928 he left United Artists, which frequently interfered in his artistic endeavors, and signed with MGM (Metro-Golwyn-Mayer); the biggest movie studio in the world at the time. Unfortunately mounting personal problems and his loss of independence as a filmmaker really harmed his early-sound era career. Until he was fired from the company during the production 1933's What! No Beer? he would only find solace in reminiscing about his earlier works like Seven Chances.

Financial broker Jimmie Shannon (Buster Keaton) is nearly bankrupt when an attorney presents grandfather's will leaving him seven million dollars. In order to inherit the money Jimmie must marry before 7 pm on his 27th birthday - today!

Buster Keaton had this project burdened upon him by producer Joseph M. Schenck, who had bought the rights to the hit Broadway show. Much later in his life, the stoic comedian would consider Seven Chances to be his least favorite feature. He even went so far as to attempt to prevent film historian Raymond Rohauer from restoring the only known copy of the movie. The original Broadway production of Seven Chances by Roi Cooper Megrue opened at George M. Cohan's Theater on August 8, 1916 and ran for 151 performances. It was obviously a very popular attraction and would prove to be financially successful considering the star of the film was at the peak of his career.

In retrospect, some scenes and instances in Seven Chances seem slightly racist. For instance, he passes over every black girl he sees, yet will consider somebody who is Caucasian. I'll defend Keaton here as there were miscegenation laws, specifically against whites and blacks marrying, all throughout the individual states until 1967- when the supreme court finally ruled them unconstitutional. Keaton's character needed to get married, and when he saw that she was black, he knew that he could not enter into a legal marriage with her, which he needed to get the money. He never looks in disgust, but rather astonishment, though it is unfortunate that these black characters are obviously white actresses in black-face. As a director, he did hire more black actors than anybody else at the time, and he paid them as much as white actors- which was unheard of. Even Chaplin, a man who frequently made movies about the poor and desperate, did not have many non-white folk in his cast. 

Like in most of his pictures, the man's sheer physicality is astounding. Each stunt is done to perfection. Keaton is absolutely fantastic here, in a film that, for all intents and purposes, is far smaller in scope than many Keaton comedies before or after. Visually the film is most notable for its opening use of Technicolor and has remarkable set pieces. Seven Chances is laugh educing and genuinely moving. Charming as it is intelligent, Seven Chances is one of the greatest comedies of the silent era. Praise it! 4/5