Neighbors Trivia Quiz

Answer: Two tenement back yards separated by a high fence

Laundry hangs on the multiple lines strung across the yards from house to house. Buster and Virginia stand separated by the high board fence, but mere wooden planks can't stand in the way of true love.

Virginia Fox plays Buster's beloved in this film. She was a frequent Keaton leading lady, playing the Mayor's Daughter in "Cops" (1922), an Indian Maiden in "The Paleface" (1922), one of the confusing twins in "The Play House" (1921), the Police Chief's Daughter in "The Goat" (1921), Virginia in "Hard Luck" (1921), and the Bank President's Daughter in "The Haunted House" (1921).

Answer: Passing a love note back and forth.

The two sets of parents end up involved, passing the love note back and forth so that it ends up looking like Buster's mother and Virginia's father are the love birds. Neither one's spouse is pleased with this situation.

Buster's father is played by his real life father, Joe Keaton; Virginia's father is played by Big Joe Roberts, who Buster had known since childhood, when Roberts was a summer neighbor in Muskegon, Wisconsin. Buster frequently used the huge Roberts as his comic foil, from his first independently released short in 1920, to Roberts' last film before his death in 1923 -- 18 of the 21 films Keaton released in that time. (In that same span of time, Buster's father was only in 7 of Buster's films, and usually played bit parts rather than the supporting roles Buster gave to Roberts.)

Answer: Buster climbs the side of Virginia's house and goes in through a window.

Virginia calls to him from her third-floor window, and Buster scampers up the wall to the stairwell landing where she awaits. But their embrace is cut short by Virginia's father. If he disapproved of Buster across the fence, he doubly objects to Buster in the house.

Answer: His trajectory ends up carrying him back, straight into Big Joe.

Buster uses the clothesline for a zip line -- but ends up with his momentum carrying him down the banister, onto the next clothesline, and right into Big Joe. Big Joe hangs Buster by his feet from the clothesline and runs him across to where Joe is beating a rug. Joe isn't paying attention to what he'd doing, smacks Buster, and sends him spinning over the line.

Answer: Break Buster's neck

"I know a better way than that to break his neck," Big Joe calls. Joe Keaton calls back, "He's my son and I'll break his neck any way I please." This line is an echo of a comment Joe made to Roscoe Arbuckle during the filming of "A Country Hero" (1917).

The movie was stage veteran Joe Keaton's first film, and he didn't take kindly to direction from Arbuckle on the best way to kick Buster's backside for the shot. "I've been kicking that boy's [bottom] ever since he was born," Joe snapped at Roscoe, "and now you tell me how." So instead of just kicking Buster, like the scene called for, Joe kicked Roscoe -- and Alice Lake as well.

Answer: He hides under the laundry in a woman's wagon.

The whole set of gags in this set of shots are very racist to modern eyes. First we see Buster's dirty face being mistaken for the face of a Black man. Then when the woman gets home with her wagon full of clean sheets, we get treated to a scene based on the stereotype of the superstitious Black folks, as Buster, sheet-covered, rises from the wagon, and the woman and her family flee what they take as a ghost.

It's a common type of gag in films of this era. What sets "Neighbors" apart from other white-produced films of the era is that Keaton used Black actors instead of the more typical white actors in blackface.

Answer: His shadow

Buster has climbed a utility pole. His shadow as he swings his legs clues the cop in to where the troublemaking young man has gotten to. Buster makes a temporary escape by using his tie and the electrical wire as a zip line, but he strolls right into a waiting paddy wagon while looking over his shoulder for the cop he'd just given the slip.

In this movie Buster has no dog, doesn't sneeze, and rarely dons the trademark porkpie hat.

Answer: Virginia blows him a kiss.

"Her father's abused her long enough; Now I want to marry her and take her home to my father," Buster tells the judge, from his perch atop the judge's bench. When the youngsters announce their intention to wed, the fathers try to yank them apart, but the judge warns them not to fight any more and sends them on their way. Buster gets a congratulatory handshake from the judge, and Virginia blows her knockout kiss.

Answer: A friend gives him a padlock.

The wedding scene has Joe Keaton with his arm in a cast for some reason. When Big Joe asks, "What happened to you?" Joe replies, "I bought a Ford." The male relatives on both sides hold various weapons behind their backs, for all their pleasantries to each other's faces.

Answer: Yes

Buster, from his third-floor window, sees Virginia at her third-floor window. He gets his friends to help him cross the yard to fetch her -- standing on each other's shoulders. It's a good thing Buster had The Flying Escalantes to help him. Their three-man tower makes it across the yard and back with Virginia's trunk, but get stuck between Joe Keaton in one yard and Joe Roberts in the other. They take off. Buster loses one Escalante to a clothes line, and another to an open trap door. He and Virginia slide down a cute to the basement where the preacher is firing up the furnace. He turns, finishes the ceremony, and goes back to his task. The end.

The Flying Escalanets would later play with Buster Keaton in "Allez Oop" in 1934.