Filibustering Keaton: The High Sign

The beginning shot in The High Sign is an intertitle card establishing Keaton as “our hero” and providing contextual information, which is expressive. The Newspaper gag is expressionist but the setting is a realist depiction of a seaside town of the time period. Also shot in a long take to make the joke clearer. Keaton is kept centre frame during the cop banana gun joke to keep our attention on him. The man flipping bottles on the beach is centre frame, while Keaton is on the right side of the shot, a realist technique through long shot but only done for comedy so that the audience can see reactions of both men. Long take of Keaton shooting bottles used to let the audience focus on what they want but cuts to close up of man mocking him with exaggerated reactions and makes us focus on him, but this situation is expressionist also as Keaton makes impossible misses/shots

The film uses a realist technique as the man is shot in his back, which is not centre frame either. The man behind the counter is kept out of frame for a comedic jump at Keaton to scare him, which is expressive since it is hiding information from the audience as it is from the protagonist for comedic effect. The shooting range scene is a long shot to show Keatons lack of aim for comedy, an expressive joke shot in a realist technique. The Blinking Buzzards are a comedic/comic representation of gangs in the 1920’s America. An Inter title card gives information on the gang, telling the audience how bad they are instead of letting them see for themselves or come to own conclusions, so this is expressive. The shot of Keaton worrying cuts to dog with meat to tell us directly what he is focusing on, and force our attention onto it. An iris shot on the gang leaders message makes us look at it to understand the message.

An iris shot on calendar also makes us understand more contextual information when it was already visible in the background of the long shot of the basement. Another intertitle card gives contextual information on August Nickelnurser, explaining his character before the audience even sees him, and he is first shown in a vignette shot to make us focus on him and understand that this man in frame is him. A close up on the letter from the gang to August has the sides of the frame blacked out to make us reads the text and understand the circumstances August is in. Another iris shot on August’s daughter is done to show her reaction and pondering, showing her to be an important plot element. A long shot of the gang’s basement lets us focus on anything in frame which is a realist technique, but the cartoon depiction of real gangs through exaggerated performances also makes it expressive. The iris shot of the gang leader shows that he’s impressed by Keaton’s shooting skills and makes sure that the audience notices it so that the plot can progress. An iris shot keeps our focus on the cash in the register to make us see it, therefore setting up the robbery joke. Parallel editing between the dog and Keaton shows the relation between them, but does not a show where Keaton is shooting, just how he is faking it. Expressive as the audience’s attention has to be on whatever is important in that moment, and is not allowed to wander on anything in frame assuming its all visible and in focus. A close up on the cat shows that it is afraid of the dog, which is expressive as it makes the audience understand the correlation and that events are about to escalate because of it. The film then cuts between Keaton and the dog to show that things will escalate via parallel editing, making certain that the audience understands why the bell wont stop ringing and Keaton has to improvise.

An iris shot of the woman brings attention to how she is persuading Keaton. The iris shot of Nickelnurser’s business card does the same. A close up of Keaton stood with gang member behind holding a skull shows us what scares Keaton for the joke. A close up of Keatons shocked face looking at the letter, him looking at camera to show shock, and an intertitle card telling him to kill Nickelnurser tells us directly the bizarre scenario. Intertitle card literally tells us what Keaton has to do and the bizarre nature of it. It’s an expressionist gag as Keaton paints coat hanger on wall and it magically works. Iris shot of banana gun makes us pay attention to it and make the connection to the earlier gag, representing social distrust again of police at the time. There is a fourth wall break as Keaton looks at camera and does the high sign for comedic effect, which is expressionist. A long shot is used when the cop catches up to Keaton, and we can see them fighting and Keaton trying to use the high sign but also the man approaching in the background with a baton. This is a realist technique as the audience is allowed to look at what they want to in frame. Another Inter title card tells us that there are booby traps in home for Nickelnurser’s safety even though we can see that, so the filmmakers are making sure the audience understands the set up for the climax, an expressionist technique.

It’s another expressionist gag as Keaton looks into his tea cup and sees a horse kicking, which is symbolic and conveys meaning to the audience. Not objective reality. There is a realist long shot showing August pretending to be dead on floor and his daughter mourning him while the gang member can be seen in the background congratulating Keaton before leaving. But then the film cuts to a close up on August and his daughter to show him revealing that he is still alive, and she shocked as she looks at the camera, breaking the fourth wall and directly communicating her emotions to the audience, all expressionist techniques. Parallel editing of gang outside and Keaton inside shows that they know he has faked August’s death. The chase sequence begins with close ups to direct our attention to where the action is happening, such as the window shot of Keaton falling back down onto the gang member poking his head out, but eventually cuts to a long shot to let us look where we want. The house here is similar to the one in One Week, constructed in an expressionist way for comedic effect, but shot in a realist way to let us see the whole joke. However The High Sign does cut to close up shots occasionally to break up the long shot to make us focus on important moments, e.g when Keaton finds August and his daughter again, guiding behind the curtains. The gang leader is shown in a long shot as he aims his gun at August’s daughter, centre frame despite the fact that Keaton is in frame, to the right. This is a realist technique as our attention can wander to Keaton pulling the trap door lever, the gang leader holding the gun up, or August’s daughter’s distressed reaction. However, just before this it cuts to a close up of the gang leader and the woman, getting the audience to focus on this dramatic development. The final shot iris zooms in on Keatons hand to show high sign gag, focusing the audiences attention on this one last joke.