recommended

Boring, over-political, tech fuzed mess

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

The High Sign" was Buster Keaton's first two-reeler after he went solo after leaving his partnership with Roscoe Arbuckle in 1920, but it was not the first film he released. Here he plays a drifter who gets hired by a member of the gang "The Blinking Blizzards" to run a shooting gallery. In a turn of events that can happen only in a Keaton film, Buster winds up being hired to both kill the father of the girl he loves and also to protect him. The film ends with a funny chase sequence through a house that has a series of trick doors, false walls, and traps that could only be designed by the mind of Keaton. Keaton disliked "The High Sign" and delayed its release. Instead, his premiere release was "One Week". Both films show a genius in bloom.

Some people -- to paraphrase Mel Brooks -- call Buster Keaton a genius. But that's both too little and too much to give him credit; Einstein was a genius, Keaton... is incredible.In the Fatty Arbuckle films he's amusing in what we tend to put down as a 'silent-comedy' way, a {by and large} straight-faced clown in a world of food fights, cross-dressing, clumsy cops and general anarchy. After exposure to a few hours of these I was, frankly, ready to write Keaton off as simply another sub-Laurel-and-Hardy slapstick act -- in the Arbuckle shorts he's reasonably funny but nothing to rave over. And then, suddenly, in the middle of the programme, came "The High Sign"... and it knocked me for six here, there, and into the middle of next week.As a solo debut it's nothing short of astounding. It's the spectacle of a great talent emerging fully-formed and all at once into unique existence, like Athena from the head of Zeus. From the opening scene, the style, the humour, the devices, the sheer *intelligence* are instantly, blazingly original: this isn't just 'silent comedy' to be laughed at and over by the modern public with an air of faint condescension, it's surreal and hilarious and utterly gifted to side-splitting effect by anyone's standard. It was like nothing I'd ever seen before. And the audience reaction -- from the former good-natured 'look-he's-dipped-the-bouquet-in-the-dirty-oil' laughter to the sudden roar of genuine surprise and delight -- was instant and electric. Suddenly, it was we who were eighty years behind the times, belated recipients of a moment of magic. Director, acrobat, actor, gag-writer, cinematographer, stuntman... for the first time Buster Keaton was set free into the universe of his own imagination, with confidence, grace and meticulous inventive brilliance, and before our eyes -- how could we not know it? -- a star was born.Even more incredible to learn, and yet true, is the fact that Keaton himself rejected and suppressed this first film as insufficiently original, holding up release for a year: no-one ever saw it at the time. He knew he could do better and, unbelievably, he was right. But that's another story...

The High Sign---Buster: Our Hero…10/10.This film along with 'One Week' can be found as extras on the Buster Keaton DVD, "The Saphead". Although defined as 'short films' by virtue of their length, each movie running at about 20 minutes, both 'The High Sign' and 'One Week' are superior comedies to the feature film, 'The Saphead' which clocks in at 77 minutes. It is on the strength of these two short films that make the purchase of this DVD entirely worthwhile.There's really no need to explain in detail the unbelievable plot line. It's a comedy that plays out as logically as a dream. It works best if you accept the many predicaments Buster finds himself in. Whether he's hired with no reference to work the shooting gallery in an amusement park run by the gang The Flying Buzzards, or hired as a bounty hunter by The Flying Buzzards to kill a wealthy businessman, or, and this is the real stretch, hired as a body guard by the same wealthy businessman he was originally hired to kill.Just go with it. What works best in all Buster Keaton films are the many sight gags and the unbelievable physical comedy. In this film some of the best moments include Buster jerry rigging the shooting gallery with a bell, a rope, a dog and a bone. Or watching Buster snag a newspaper from someone riding on the Merry Go Round, it happens so fast you can't believe he actually did it. And of course, the amazing ending that takes place inside the customized house of the wealthy businessman he is trying to protect. Because the businessman is aware that his life is in danger, he has made his house a labyrinth of hidden walls, trap doors and removable paintings. The last 5 minutes of the film show Buster knocking off each of The Flying Buzzards inside the house. This physical comedy is the closest you'll ever come to seeing human beings act in real time to what would become the clear domain of animators some years later, such as those of the 'Tom and Jerry' cartoons. You won't believe your eyes.Highly recommended. This film is a lot of fun. 10/10.Clark Richards

This little gem of a movie is chock full of inventive gags that will keep you laughing. There are the usual physical ones, such as the house and its many entrances/exits. What had me intrigued were some of the sight gags as well. The dog and the bell was amazing to watch. Each and every corner in Keaton's world has something wondrous around it. The man was an amazing athlete, and it shows here. Watch for the weird guns throughout the film. They don't make sense but then again they don't have to.