Seven Chances
(1925)
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One of his most-successful comedies, Seven Chances (1925) features Buster Keaton as Jimmie Shannon, a man who must be married in less than a day in order to inherit a large fortune. Unfortunately, his true love (Ruth Dwyer) and several other ‘first choices’ (the seven chances — in reality Hollywood starlets identified in the film by name) turn him down flatly. Seemingly hopeless, Buster’s misfortune gets worse as a newspaper story, placed by his well-meaning business partner (T. Roy Barnes), informs the public of his inheritance situation produces a flood of would-be brides that turn aggressive in their marital competition.
Among the memorable gags is an extended sequence, created by accident, with Buster chased down a hillside by a number of small to enormous boulders. During a preview showing Buster noted that a gag sequence of him running away from the brides downhill was falling flat, until the audience saw him briefly running away from rolling rocks that he had accidently dislodged from the hillside. Director Buster went back into production, shooting an extension to the sequence with myriad prop boulders chasing him, and ultimately the brides, away.
The film’s story was the basis for the limp Renée Zellweger comedy, The Bachelor (1999). — Carl Bennett
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 2000 Kino International edition
Seven Chances (1925), color-toned black & white and color, 56 minutes, not rated,
with Neighbors (1920), black & white, 18 minutes, not rated, and The Balloonatic (1923), black & white, 22 minutes, not rated.
Kino International, K125DVD, UPC 7-38329-01252-6.
Windowboxed 4:3 NTSC, one single-sided, single-layered DVD disc, Region 1, ? Mbps average video bit rate, ? kbps audio bit rate, Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo sound, English language intertitles, no foreign language subtitles, 10 chapter stops, snapper case (reissued in keep case, and in slimline keep case), $29.99 (reduced to $24.95).
DVD release date: 11 January 2000.
Country of origin: USA
Ratings (1-10): video: 9 / audio: 9 / additional content: 7 / overall: 9.
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 This presentation, produced by David Shepard, has been transferred from excellent 35mm material, which appears to be an original nitrate positive, and the older windowboxed video transfer (originally intended for laserdisc and VHS videotape releases) still looks good on a high-definition monitor played from a deck capable of line-doubling up to 1080p. A few textures in the picture show signs of color prisming, creating a rainbow pattern of red, green and/or blue, that are a sure sign of older NTSC video transfer equipment. The broad tonal ranges in the source material is well reproduced in the video content. The film opens with a two-color Technicolor sequence that is a bit faded from its original color balance due to the age of the source material. Still, we savor each moment of surviving Technicolor footage from the silent era and are happy with its inclusion in this edition.
The film is presented with a music score arranged and conducted by Robert Israel, a small ensemble performance of strings, horns, piano and percussion, with an extended pipe organ sequence. As always, the music is excellent and adds immeasurably to the viewing experience, but the organ music gives the impression of having been spliced in from another source.
The disc also contains the Keaton short films Neighbors (1920) and The Balloonatic (1923).
In our reevaluation of this DVD, reviewed from an original pressing of the disc, we still highly recommend this presentation from Kino International as the best available home video edition.
USA: Click the logomark at right to purchase
a Region 1 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.com. |
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Canada: Click the logomark at right to purchase
a Region 1 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.ca. |
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United Kingdom: Click the logomark at right to purchase
a Region 1 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.co.uk. |
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| This Region 1 NTSC DVD is also available directly from Kino International. |
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