The Iron Mule

This is an Al St. John silent comedy short. Although he is completely unknown today, he starred in a few movies with Buster Keaton--and it was from Buster he obtained the very, very old fashioned train for this film. In the Keaton film, OUR HOSPITALITY (by the way, it's one of the greatest films he ever did), the train was also featured just a few months earlier. Here in this short, the train is pulled out of mothballs and is featured.

This movie is a very leisurely paced film about one of the earliest railway lines in America. It shows the train slowly departing and follows it through the journey. The scenes are cute and interesting, but no real belly laughs or excitement either.

FYI--late in the film a group of Indians attack the train. Supposedly one of them is Buster Keaton in a cameo. I watched for this but couldn't clearly tell if this is true--the only adequate quality of the print didn't help.