My favorite Buster Keaton two-reelers are the explicitly self-referential ones, which is this film and "The Playhouse" (in addition to the one or two he made with "Fatty" Arbuckle). They may not be his funniest, per se, but I think they are his cleverest. As with "Sherlock, Jr."--the early masterpiece of cinematic reflexivity--the incongruous imagery in "The Frozen North" is explained as being a dream, but that's not explained until the end, unlike the former, which is framed by "reality". ("The Frozen North" is apparently missing some footage, though, so my comments only apply to what I've seen.) "The Playhouse", as well, is explained more quickly as a dream. Keaton often employed the dream explanation as a means of not allowing narratives to seem too ridiculous or implausible, but with such films as "The Frozen North", they take on a new purpose of exploring the similarities and intersections of the two experiences of dreams and movies.
Keaton begins with a spoof on William S. Hart's Westerns--playing the bad man, without the good man that Hart inevitably always became in his melodramas. Some humorous black comedy follows. And then, Keaton drops his cowboy outfit for a snazzy white suite and goes after another man's wife, a la Erich von Stroheim's incarnations, with a more obvious reference later to "Foolish Wives". Many of the gags in between don't work, but the ones that do, especially because of their reliance upon other movies, or in their intentional incongruities, are hilarious. Those who don't prefer parody as much, or aren't familiar with the concurrent films of Keaton's times might not enjoy them as much, though.
Reportedly, there may also have been more to the unflattering Hart parody. When Arbuckle was accused and eventually tried thrice for murder and rape before being declared not guilty and receiving an apology from the jury, Hart is said to have piled in on the muckraking. Some even say Arbuckle, now persona non grata in Hollywood, wrote this film's premise for his friend Keaton.
Regardless, others have panned Keaton's lack of a consistent character in the short and the loss of Keaton's typical and morally agreeable comedic persona. These aren't actual errors in the film, as they're explained by it being all a dream, and the guy dreaming it very well could be a morally upstanding fellow; they're personal qualms, which are, of course, fine. If, however, one appreciates "The Frozen North" as a parody and the incongruous plot as representing a dreamlike flow then you might, like me, find this film a highly enjoyable experience.
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