The Balloonatic (1923)

“The Balloonatic” is a 1923 American comedy short film, co-directed and featuring Buster Keaton. This film marks one of Keaton’s later short works.

The story revolves around an unfortunate amusement park employee who finds himself in a peculiar situation after his balloon ride goes haywire. Some scenes from “The Balloonatic” were also featured in the promotional short film “Seeing Stars (1922).”

Cast

• The Young Man: Buster Keaton
• The Young Woman: Phyllis Haver
• Fat Girl at The House of Trouble (uncredited): Babe London

Rather than focusing on a “crazy” balloon rider as the title would suggest, The Balloonatic presents a sweeter romantic comedy storyline featuring Buster Keaton’s familiar persona as a hapless young man who endures a series of adventurous mishaps on his journey to finding love. You can watch the full movie here:

The Balloonatic (1923) – Storyline

The Balloonatic opens at an amusement park similar to New York’s Coney Island, where Buster Keaton stars as a hapless young man working as an attendant at the park. In the first humorous visual gag, Buster keeps getting knocked down rows of seats by the ride he’s working on.

Buster then wanders to a different area of the amusement park where preparations are underway to launch a large hot air balloon. Climbing up to affix a pennant to the top of the balloon, Buster inadvertently ends up stranded atop it when the balloon breaks free of its tethers and floats off with Buster as the solo unintentional passenger.

As the balloon soars high into the air with the panicking Buster clinging to its side, fantastic visual stunt work emphasizes the incredible heights and Buster’s precarious predicament. After the wind-blown balloon begins its descent, it ends up crashing down in a remote wilderness area far from the amusement park, depositing a dazed but unharmed Buster Keaton onto the forest floor.

It is in this wilderness setting where Buster encounters the film’s leading lady, played by actress Phyllis Haver, who is introduced out fishing alone in the woods in her full outdoorsy camping gear.

Mistaking each other at first for dangerous strangers, a series of classic Keatonesque physical mishaps and gags ensue as Phyllis tries attacking Buster with her fishing rod, and mutual accidental falls into the lake and so forth eventually bond the pair into a charming couple.

More visual humor follows Buster’s failed attempts at wood chopping, unsuccessful efforts to put up a camping tent, and other basic survivalist ineptitude out in the wilds. But despite all the unfolding chaos and comedic misadventures, the Balloonatic ends on a romantic note with boy-gets-girl thanks to Buster’s serendipitous hot air balloon ride to her secluded forest retreat.