There are some artists whose work is singularly impossible to describe since even attempting to condense the impact they made on their medium into a single coherent sentence is a challenge, primarily because understanding their brilliance requires us to address several different elements that went into the creation of their work. There is a reason why the name Buster Keaton is bound to evoke jokes the moment it is mentioned since few individuals in the history of cinema have made quite as much of an impression as him, particularly considering the time in which he was most active and the incredible legacy he left behind. A filmmaker and actor who more than earns the title of being a revolutionary, Keaton was a prolific and ingenious creative mind whose boundless imagination and penchant for innovation has been the source of the fawning admiration he’s inspired for over a century, and it seems impossible to find a film he made that doesn’t feel like it is essentially reinventing the cinematic form, even those that veer towards smaller, more intimate stories rather than the bigger productions for which he is most fondly remembered. Seven Chances is not spoken about as widely as some of the other films from this era despite it being one of his fascinating offerings. The general perception is that it is an absolute delight, albeit one that is slightly smaller in both scope and style. Keaton adapts the play by Roi Cooper Megrue, which was a minor sensation on stage about a decade before, and tells the story of a mild-mannered banker who is told that he stands to inherit a huge sum of money from a deceased relative – the only caveat being that he needs to marry by the evening of his 27th birthday, which gives him only a matter of hours to find a wife, leading to a series of misadventures as he scrambles through his small town, courting every woman he encounters. As hilarious and daring in practice as it sounds in theory, Seven Chances is an absolute delight and one of Keaton’s greatest achievements for several reasons.

Considering he had his professional roots in the silent era, which was also where the lion’s share of his career was spent, it is clear that Keaton’s approach to comedy did not have the benefit of the stage, where witty wordplay and dialogue were the primary means of delivering comedy. Instead, his humour was based on physical movement and visual stimuli, which became his priority. Rather than restricting himself simply to the most surface-level slapstick, Keaton chose to be more adventurous, pushing himself as an artist in such a way that he became almost entirely defined by his innovation when it came to delivering humour, as he was certainly not a director or performer that was willing to put in anything less than the most amount of effort possible. Seven Chances is not a spectacle on the same level as The General or Steamboat Bill (or any of the other notable slapstick comedies he made), but this doesn’t restrict it from taking advantage of his exceptional imagination. Certain moments in this film contain some genuinely exciting cinematic techniques – whether it his iconic avalanche sequence (one of the most thrilling chase scenes in the history of the medium) or in smaller but not any less impressive moments, such as the wedding scene in which hundreds of prospective brides pour in from every corner of the screen until it feels on the verge of collapsing, there is such genuine innovation and brilliance behind every shot of this film. Considering this was adapted from a play, it is truly incredible that he managed to make it feel like it has such a broad, epic scope. Most of this was necessitated by the fact that the medium didn’t yet offer the option to record sound, meaning that he would need to find a different way to keep the audience entertained while telling this simple story, so each scene is filled to the brim with the director’s efforts to experiment with the form, leading to a film that is genuinely quite cutting-edge in a way we may not have expected.

However, there is much more to Seven Chances than just the visual splendour, and Keaton seemed to be attracted to this material since it offered an opportunity to develop his skills as not only a visually inventive filmmaker but also a terrific storyteller and a bold satirist, both of which are quite heavily present in this film, which serves to be a wickedly entertaining and bold satire filled with unforgettable moments relating to social decorum. The original play was written as a comedy of errors, and the silent era didn’t facilitate the same kind of humour, which often relied on dialogue as a means to deliver these hilarious misadventures and cases of mistaken identity. Yet, Keaton overcomes these challenges through not only the sight gags that populate the film but also in how he chooses to tell the story. Except for a couple of broader setpieces that are essentially the cornerstones of the film, Seven Chances is remarkably simple and coherent and focuses on exploring common perceptions of class and social mores at this particular time. The film revolves around the exploits of a man whose desire to meet the conditions of this inheritance evolves into a rabid, almost maniacal search for a solution, which leads him down many unexpected paths, some of which are made more complicated than necessary based on the fact that the foolish but lovable protagonist (in one of Keaton’s most heartfelt and charming performances, although he does rely on his trademark stone-faced, deadpan stoicism that became synonymous with his entire persona) constantly gets himself into scrapes that could be avoided with the right amount of attention. The charm of this film, as well as the entire reason it exists and isn’t only a few minutes long, is because the character is constantly making hilarious errors that only complicate his quest and make the resolution even more distant than he expected. Yet, this is all part of the incredible affection this film has for its characters and what they represent, feeling like a sharp but never unnecessarily pointed satire – after all, Keaton was the kind of filmmaker who wanted to earn the happy ending, rather than just expecting the audience to believe the resolution was inevitable.

Seven Chances is celebrating its 100th anniversary, which is astonishing and makes us wonder exactly what quality it is about this film that has allowed it to age so well since very rarely do we find comedies that can be so enthralling and entertaining despite having been made longer than most of us have been alive. It’s bewildering to imagine that something made a century ago can still feel oddly current and resonant, but we can easily explain it by simply looking at the elements that went into its creation. It may not be entirely obvious based on the style of his films and the kinds of stories they told, but Keaton was a director who always had a firm grasp on the culture that surrounded him, infusing his films with details that spoke to contemporary issues and felt very present at a time when the medium was going in multiple different directors and the industry was still not entirely aware of the behemoth of an artform with which they were working, at least in terms of how it can be used as much more than just a tool for instant gratification and immediate entertainment. This is not a hollow film, and we find that through Keaton’s laborious work and steadfast dedication to telling this story to the best of his abilities, each frame is filled with meaning and leaves an impression. Even in the case of films made at the very dawn of the medium, we find that we are predisposed to overlook sometimes faded and unrefined visual elements and stories that are steeped heavily in an entirely different period since we naturally respond more to innovation and efforts to present something we’ve never seen before. This is precisely why we can watch a film like Seven Chances, which bears virtually no significance in terms of the society that it is depicting, and be enamoured with its perspective, much more than a similarly-themed film made merely ten years ago, since comedy has devolved to a point where its simply following a predetermined pattern, rather than genuinely trying to reinvent the medium, which Keaton (and a few of his contemporaries) made their primary endeavour every time they stepped onto a studio lot, intent on challenging the conventions of a relatively young medium.

A delightful and irreverent comedy that is as entertaining as it is bold, Seven Chances knows how to hold our attention, flourishing into a truly terrific experiment that represents the very best that Keaton had to offer as an artist on both sides of the camera. It’s a daring, bold and wickedly exciting comedy that knows how to command our attention and keep us engaged, even when it is slightly simplistic when it comes to the narrative. It occupies a unique position in the director’s career since it’s not only adored by his devotees, but it sometimes tends to be obscured by the more notable films, which are understandably iconic considering their scope and how many of Keaton’s most famous cinematic experiments are contained in those films – but yet, it is still quite beloved, and has earned a strong reputation as one of his smartest and most inventive works, particularly for its ability to take a dialogue-laden stageplay, and through the director’s mastery of his craft and willingness to challenge every corner of the medium, he was able to turn it into a delightful, enthralling comedy that contains an abundance of memorable moments, each one handcrafted by the director as he ventures deep into the heart of the narrative, exploring social conventions in a way that is genuinely quite profound, while never losing that spark of maniacal genius that informed so much of his work. Keaton’s reputation continues to grow as more generations encounter his work, and despite being made over a hundred years ago, it’s not surprising that many of his films have stood the test of time. Entertaining and evocative, and driven by a unique rhythm that no one has yet managed to match, Seven Chances is simply one of the iconic performer’s most integral and exciting works and one that remains as awe-inspiring and wholeheartedly entertaining today as it did when it was first released, perhaps even having grown more captivating as it has aged, presenting us with a charming glimpse into the past.