References to other movies


I'm a big Buster Keaton fan, and this may be why I spotted some references to Keaton's earlier works; did anyone else notice, for instance, how Cantinflas's going up into the balloon lines is similar to (but less extreme than) Keaton's work in "The Balloonatic"? Or how the train going over the bridge, which collapses, is very reminiscent of Keaton's 'The General' locomotive crossing a bridge over a creek, only the bridge is higher (similar to a bridge seen earlier in "The General") and the engine and train successfully make it across in "...Eighty Days"? (I'm not sure that Cantinflas's position on the mast when he's sawing it towards the end of the movie is a direct reference to Keaton's doing the same thing on a board in the house he's building in "One Week," since Cantinflas doesn't fall as Keaton did, and that was the 'punch line.')

Of note, in both "The General" and "...Eighty Days" we can see the explosions that actually cause the bridge to collapse; they're more obvious in this movie because the shot is darker.

Anyway, Cantinflas's humor was very close to slapstick sometimes, and I believe he said that he had been influenced by Keaton and some of the other comedians/directors during those times in Hollywood. In this movie, Keaton and Cantinflas (and others) are actually out on the tracks just before that scene, and Keaton apparently trips and Cantinflas reaches out an arm and pulls him up; besides being perhaps an homage from the younger comedian to the older, it's certainly a sly bit of humor, since Buster Keaton, even in old age, never tripped accidentally. It's my favorite part of the movie.

It also looked like Cantinflas was referencing Yakima Canutt's famous move in "Stagecoach" when he climbed down onto the team of horses during the chase, though again, nowhere near as extreme and with a different result.

Any other references spotted?

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In Stagecoach (1939) John Carradine is hit by an arrow just as he is about to shoot someone and in 'eighty Days' he is also hit by an arrow just as he is about to shoot someone.

It has been a while since I saw it but I think that in the Buster Keaton silent film 'The Paleface' Buster is captured and tied to a stake to be burnt and the tribe dance around him, but I may be thinking of some other film!

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Yes, adezilla, that is in "The Paleface" that Buster fails to burn because of his "asbestos BVDs." I noticed a few of the Keaton references here but you guys caught more. I hardly see how they can all be a coincidence with Keaton actually appearing in the film!

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