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Movie Detail
Name Occurs Before Title Offscreen Credit Print Viewed By AFI Stub Record
Steamboat Bill, Jr.
Director: Charles F. Reisner (Dir)
Release Date:   12 May 1928
Premiere Information:   New York opening: 12 May 1928
Duration (in mins):   65
Duration (in feet):   6,400
Duration (in reels):   7
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Cast:   Buster Keaton (Steamboat Bill, Jr.)  
    Ernest Torrence (Steamboat Bill)  
    Tom Lewis (Tom Carter, his first mate)  
    Tom McGuire (John James King, his rival)  
    Marion Byron (Mary King, his daughter)  

Summary: William Canfield, known as Steamboat Bill, once River Junction's leading citizen, owns the riverboat Stonewall Jackson. His rival, J. J. King, the town banker, storekeeper, hotelkeeper, and wealthiest citizen, is attempting to cause Bill's financial ruin with his new river packet named King, after himself. Bill happily anticipates the arrival of his son, whom he has not seen since babyhood, and goes to the station to meet him. Anticipating that he will have a husky partner in his struggle with King, Bill and his mate are dismayed to find that Willie is a shrimp who wears college clothes, plays a ukelele, and sports a mustache. He hustles Willie off to the local haberdasher, and there Willie meets a girl with whom he falls in love--King's daughter, naturally. After several quarrels with King, Bill lands in jail, his boat condemned. Willie tries, unsucessfully, to spring his father and ends up in the hospital just as a cyclone hits River Junction. The film concludes with Willie saving the Stonewall Jackson, his sweetheart, his father (floating down the river in the jailhouse), King, and, finally, a preacher. 

Production Company: Buster Keaton Productions  
Distribution Company: United Artists Corp.  
Director: Charles F. Reisner (Dir)
  Sandy Roth (Asst dir)
Producer: Joseph M. Schenck (Pres)
Writer: Carl Harbaugh (Scen)
  Carl Harbaugh (Story)
  Carl Harbaugh (Titles)
Photography: Dev Jennings (Dir of photog)
  Bert Haines (Dir of photog)
Art Direction: Fred Gabourie (Tech dir)
Film Editor: Sherman Kell (Film ed)
Country: United States
Language: English

Music:
Songs:
Source Text:

Copyright Claimant Copyright Date Copyright Number
Joseph M. Schenck 2/6/1928 dd/mm/yyyy LP25362

Physical Properties: Si:
  b&w:

 
Genre: Comedy
 
Subjects (Major): Bankers
  Businessmen
  Cyclones
  Fatherhood
  River boats
  Small town life

Note:  

Bibliographic Sources:   Date   Page
EHW & MPW   7 Jul 1928   p. 52.
Film Daily   20 May 1928   p. 5.
Film Spectator   23 Jun 1928   pp. 14-15.
Life   5 Oct 1928   p. 28.
New York Times   15 May 1928   p. 17.
Variety   16 May 1928   p. 13.

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