MTFCA Forum

How'd they do that?? I'd say cables and pins maybe???
As a kid these gags always fascinated me. And they still do!

Buster Keaton

Best comedy there is. That and the three stooges anytime a perfectly good tool was destroyed on Curlys tremendously hard head.

U got that right!

No engine or coil box in that first 1.
The 1 with the front wheels going sideways,I can't help but notice a piece of tin blocking the mechanism I guess they were afraid someone would copy their idea?

They ruined many Model T's but there are still thousands running 100 years later! I thought they were great movies!
Norm

And yet another.....
Keaton vs. Tree....

Those are great gags! Since you asked, I will speculate. They disassemble the car then reassemble using wire clips only where necassary to barely hold it together. Then all it takes is a bump, or yank the wheels off and it collapses like a house of cards.

Obviously spinning freely... what's the junk on the cowl that falls? Tools!!!!

Yes! That is from Harold Lloyd's "Get Out and Get Under". Lot's of good Model T action.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1-kR7o34cA

It looks like there is a roller low on the front of Keaton’s car below the bumper to deflect the impact of the tree downward as the car makes contact and climbs the angle tree trunk. That would prevent a jarring stop that would have sent Keaton face into the steering wheel. Jim Patrick

What was the car they wrecked?

You can stop the video in various frames by double tapping the video. If you stop it just before the car reaches the tree, you will see that there is an angled rod against the tree for the car roller to ride up. If you stop it just after it reaches the tree, you will see that the car does not hit the tree and causes little damage. Jim Patrick

Used File Viewer Plus 4 to see each of the individual frames. The Laurel&Hardy look very continuous as you can actually see motion of them men falling. The First Buster Keaton seems to show a frozen figure and most movement when the car is almost all apart - in this frame it looks like he is standing behind the car The Buster & Tree has these frames one by one to provide what looks like continuous motion of a crash. The could be 4 still shots notice the ramp against the tree.

From the same era.

https://youtu.be/oBSpuZDKaKI

This was long before the days of fiberglass.