The Great Stone-Faced Victor

As you may have noticed, I've been having a lot of fun with the poll function on my blog lately. I recently conducted one pitting the three giants of American silent comedy - Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, and Harold Lloyd - against each other. It was just for fun, of course, because the real winners are movie lovers for having had all three of them touch and revolutionize cinema in their special, unique ways.

That being said, I was just curious who the favorite would be. I pretty much assumed Charlie Chaplin would tramp-walk away with it. To my surprise and pleasure, it was an insanely tight race between Chaplin and Buster Keaton, with a photo finish ending. Harold Lloyd even got one vote, which made me really happy.

Alas, the winner, 6-5, is...

BUSTER KEATON!!!!

The Great (Beautiful) Stone Face himself!

Applause, applause!

I'll tell you a secret: I voted for him. I love them all so much, and Chaplin's The Great Dictator is the best film any of them made, so it was a really difficult decision for me. Ultimately, there's just something about Keaton. I feel a deep emotional connection, a kinship, with him.

In honor of his victory, here are two clips from my favorite Keaton film, Our Hospitality (his version of the Hatfield/McCoy feud). The first is a brief, hilarious snippet with no sound at all, and the second is a sequence (one of the funniest, most brilliant, and best choreographed in history) from the film set to Daft Punk's "Da Funk" that I really dig for some reason.

Thank you, America. Good night, and keep laughing.