An American short comedy film from 1922 starring Buster Keaton.
This film was created in wake of the 1921 scandal involving Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, who had been controversially accused and later acquitted of the rape and manslaughter of a party guest. While Arbuckle's friends mostly refrained from making public statements about the case, actor William S. Hart — who reportedly had never met Arbuckle — made public statements presuming his guilt, damaging Arbuckle's public image. Although Arbuckle was eventually acquitted, the scandal ended his once promising career. Buster Keaton, a friend of Roscoe Arbuckle, appears in The Frozen North in a blatant parody of William S. Hart's appearance in early silent Western films. This resulted in a feud between the two, and Hart reportedly refused to speak to Keaton for years afterward.
This film contains examples of:
- All Just a Dream: The ending reveals that the entire film was Keaton's dream.
- Artistic License – Geography: Hilariously, Keaton and his friend find themselves three miles north of the North Pole.
- Frigid Water Is Harmless: Keaton falls through a hole in the ice over a frozen lake. He climbs out and is clearly soaked, but after shaking himself off a bit he calmly sits and begins fishing.
- Improvised Weapon: When the fisherman throws snowballs at Keaton, he retaliates by using one of his snowshoes as a tennis racket to return the projectiles.
- Liquid Courage: Parodied. Instead of sipping whisky to steel his courage, Keaton produces a cola bottle from his pocket and takes a swig.
- Sled Dogs Through the Snow: Keaton's neighbor and his wife ride away on a sled pulled by a team of large dogs. Keaton attempts to follow in a sled that looks like an automobile, but his dogs are comically small and weak.
- Villain Protagonist: The first thing Keaton does when arriving in the remote Northern town is to rob the patrons of a saloon. He then murders two people, attempts to woo a married woman and later attempts to murder her husband, and evades the police (including dunking one policeman into a river).
- Woman Scorned: Keaton's loyal and devoted wife is ignored by him. Later, when she finds her husband attacking their neighbor, she shoots Keaton in the back through the window.
