The Cameraman was Keaton’s first film for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and it showed his hero trying to become a newsreel cameraman to impress a girl.
The Cameraman was released in 1928. Keaton played Buster, a tintype photographer in New York who fell in love with Sally, played by Marceline Day, who worked for a newsreel company. To be near her, he bought a movie camera and tried to become a newsreel cameraman, despite knowing nothing about the job.
The film’s comedy came from Buster’s attempts to film the news: a gang war in Chinatown, a boat race and a swimming pool rescue, in which he saved Sally from drowning without realising that his camera had captured the moment. The monkey that accompanied him through much of the film became a popular part of the story.
The Cameraman was a success, and it was the last film in which Keaton had a large measure of creative control before his time at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer restricted him. It remains a fine example of his late silent work, and a fitting end to the run of features that began with Our Hospitality in 1923.