The Railrodder
| The Railrodder | |
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| Directed by |
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| Produced by | Julian Biggs |
| Written by |
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| Starring | Buster Keaton |
| Music by | Eldon Rathburn |
| Cinematography | Robert Humble |
| Edited by |
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| Distributed by | National Film Board of Canada (NFB) |
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Release date
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Running time
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24 min. |
| Country | Canada |
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The Railrodder is a 1965 short comedy film starring Buster Keaton in one of his final film roles, directed by Gerald Potterton and produced by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). A 25-minute comedic travelogue of Canada, The Railrodder was also Keaton's final silent film, as the film contains no dialogue and all sound effects are overdubbed.
The backdrop to all of this, is the Canadian countryside, as The Railrodder provides scenic views of Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario, the Prairies, the Rockies and the West Coast, c. 1964-65. Cities visited by Buster include Montreal, Ottawa and Vancouver.
The Railrodder (Buster Keaton) reads a newspaper in London, England. A full-page ad proclaiming "SEE CANADA NOW!" catches his attention. He promptly throws the newspaper away and jumps into the Thames. He subsequently reemerges on the east coast of Canada at Lawrencetown, Nova Scotia, having apparently swum across the Atlantic, where he is greeted by a sign indicating the direction to the other side of Canada, 3,982½ miles away.
The Railrodder starts his long hike, but soon finds a one-man, open-top rail maintenance vehicle, commonly known as a "speeder", parked on a rail track. He sits in the driver's seat intending to take a nap, but he accidentally puts the vehicle in gear, and it speeds off down the track.
In a series of mini-adventures shared by the Railrodder and the motor car, the vehicle (with an apparently inexhaustible fuel supply) follows the Canadian National Railway line across Canada. En route, the Railrodder is shown making breakfast, acting as a maid, and even doing laundry, never once intentionally stopping the vehicle (though he later does stop in order to obtain camouflage so he can do some bird-hunting). A running gag involves a storage compartment in the vehicle which seems to be infinite on the inside, as he pulls out everything from pillows and a bison fur coat to a full tea service. Along the way he also has some close calls with locomotives and even other speeders coming the other direction, but emerges harm-free each time.
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Wikipedia