Production Budget Analysis

The production budget for The Cameraman (1928) has not been publicly disclosed.

CAST: Buster Keaton, Marceline Day, Harold Goodwin, Sidney Bracey, Harry Gribbon, Ray Cooke DIRECTOR: Edward Sedgwick, Buster Keaton CINEMATOGRAPHY: Reggie Lanning, Elgin Lessley MUSIC: Arthur Barrow PRODUCTION: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Box Office Performance

Theatrical box office data is not publicly available for The Cameraman (1928). This may indicate a limited release, direct-to-streaming, or a release predating modern box office tracking.

Profitability Assessment

Insufficient publicly available data to assess profitability.

INDUSTRY IMPACT

PRODUCTION NOTES

▸ Production

On January 26, 1928, Keaton signed a two-year deal with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The deal required 2 films per year from Keaton and paid him $3,000 a week, making him the third highest-paid actor at the studio. Keaton brought most of his own crew with him from his own independent production company. He immediately pitched the idea for The Cameraman to MGM, who paid him $1,250 for it. Keaton later said that the MGM deal was "the worst mistake of my life."

The film was overseen by producer Lawrence Weingarten. Weingarten and Keaton fought on set and Weingarten called Keaton a child. Keaton was accustomed to complete control over his own productions and was unaccustomed to interference from producers. However, MGM's head of production Irving Thalberg loved the finished film and laughed during screenings of its rushes (a rare display of emotion from Thalberg). 22 writers were assigned to work on it, but Keaton convinced Thalberg to throw out the script and allow him to film it his own way.

The Cameraman would later serve as inspiration for part of the 1950 comedy Watch the Birdie, starring Red Skelton, with Keaton working as a gagman for MGM and serving as an advisor to Skelton. The dressing-room scene in which Buster and another bather attempt to change while being pressed up against each other and getting entangled in one another's clothes was the inspiration for the stateroom scene in the Marx Brothers 1935 film A Night at the Opera.

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

Summary: 1 win

CRITICAL RECEPTION

The film was a box office hit, grossing $797,000, and was well received by film critics. MGM writing department used the film to train new writers as a "perfectly constructed comedy" for decades, even wearing out their print.

Critic Mordaunt Hall, writing for The New York Times, liked the film and the work of Buster Keaton. He said, "Mr. Keaton's latest effort is The Cameraman, which is filled with guffaws and grins, the sort of thing with many original and adroitly worked-out gags. But whether they belong to the story is immaterial...There are other sections that are wild and watery, but nonetheless humorous."

David Robinson wrote that the film "betrays nothing of the struggle and strain that went into its preparation. It is a lucid, beautifully formed dramatic comedy."

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 100%, based on 20 reviews.