Go West Trivia Quiz

Answer: He's hauling his stuff out of the house, piling it on the bed, and dragging it down the street.

It's not clear if Buster was evicted or foreclosed on, or if he had just decided to leave town. But he leaves his tiny shack and drags his belongings into the general store to sell them, lamenting that he's looked every place in town for a job. The proprietor gives him $1.65 for all his worldly goods -- then insists that if Buster wants his bandana, handkerchief, shaving kit, toothbrush, and picture of his mother, he has to buy them back. Poor Buster is so forlorn and forsaken, even the dog he pets turns its back on him and leaves.

A hand double is used for the close-up as Buster ponders his last nickel; you can tell because Keaton's hand was missing the right index fingertip due to an accident when he was a small child.

Answer: He gets knocked over by a car.

Poor Buster, his porkpie hat much the worse for wear, sits in the rail yard and ponders his prospects. He spots a small discarded purse and goes through the contents, keeping for himself a tiny pearl-handled revolver. Keaton doesn't use a hand double for this scene.

Answer: Barrels of potatoes

We see a statue of Horace Greeley superimposed over Buster -- a special effect that Elgin Lessley did inside the camera by back-cranking and double-exposing.

Buster rides along fine as we see his bundle of food fade to a little heel of bread. Then Buster gets it into his head to sit on a barrel as he looks out the door -- and starts the barrels rolling. We then get a comedy of mishaps with Buster and the barrels, ending when Buster takes refuge inside a barrel which falls out of the boxcar and rolls down a hill, finally disintegrating and depositing Buster at the bottom of a slope in the middle of nowhere.

Answer: Milking a cow

The countryside is pretty inhospitable, and Buster encounters a horse, a cactus, and a huge rattlesnake before finally being spooked by a bunch of jackrabbits.

When he puts on the other cowboy's cast-offs, he rejects the big hat and keeps his porkpie. And he tucks the tiny pearl-handled revolver into the huge holster. On his way to milk the cow, Buster meets the ranch owner's daughter. "I'm working here," he tells her. "You don't seem to be," she counters, since he is, after all, flirting with her and not working.

Buster, city slicker that he is, puts the bucket under the cow's udder and waits for her to fill it of her own accord.

Answer: She intercepts a charging steer.

Poor Buster, who had just stepped in a gopher hole, was a sitting duck for the raging steer. Brown Eyes intercepts the steer and runs him off. Buster pats her appreciatively and tips his hat to her. She follows him and licks his hand. They are bonded together in love, a boy and his cow.

Keaton trained Brown Eyes for the part himself, leading her around by a rope, then a string, then a thread, and feeding her treats.

Answer: He insists on bringing the cow in with him.

Brown Eyes saunters into the bunkhouse with Buster and licks a cowboy's hand. The other cowboys try to shoo Brown Eyes out, but Buster stands up for her. So a big cowboy gives Buster a blanket and chases him out along with his cow.

Answer: She is about to be branded.

The ranch owner insists that Brown Eyes needs to be branded. Buster takes her aside, gets out his shaving kit, and shaves the brand onto her haunch. In a typical Keatonian twist, Buster uses milk from the cow's udder to wet the shaving soap. The shaved brand satisfies the ranch owner.

Answer: A rival rancher's men waylay the train.

The rival rancher swears he'll stop Buster's boss from selling his cattle; he wants all the ranchers to wait for the price to go up. But Buster's boss needs the money. If he doesn't sell his cattle, he'll lose the ranch. Buster overheard all this -- though he loses sight of his boss's concerns in his desperation to save Brown Eyes from the slaughterhouse.

When the rival rancher's men stop the train, Buster joins the other cowboys in a gunfight that keeps everybody occupied while a few men make the engineer set the train in motion and get off. Buster, seeing the train pull away, leaps aboard -- and is now one man on a runaway train full of cattle.

Answer: He puts on a devil costume so the cattle will chase him.

The other cowboys had taught Buster that cattle would follow anything red. After shooing the cattle out of various stores along the street, Buster spots a costume shop and fits himself up in a red devil suit. Thus the audience is treated to the surrealistic sight of Buster Keaton in a devil suit riding a cow through downtown Los Angeles.

Keaton had intended to have the cattle stampede through the city, but they were too docile. He had to settle for occasional brisk trotting.

Answer: Buster and Brown Eyes ride back to the ranch in the rancher's car.

When the rancher tells Buster he can have anything he wants as his reward for saving the ranch, Buster points behind himself. "I want her." The rancher and his daughter look shocked. Can this upstart boy really think he can ask for the rancher's daughter for his reward? Is this a fairy tale? But Buster steps off camera and comes back leading his beloved.

The rancher laughs. The daughter? She looks like she can't decide if she's relieved or insulted.