What can be said, another masterpiece. If any of you guys want to do some great reading on silent comedy, I highly suggest Walter Kerr's THE SILENT CLOWNS, which is my favorite book of all time. This was written in the 70's, so imagine what he could have done with access to DVD's and YouTube. Still, he writes highly intelligent thoughts on silent comedy, including NEIGHBORS.
Virginia Fox does make her first appearance here, and her last name has some irony to it. Later on, she would marry none other than Darryl Zanuck, the man who would go on to run Fox Studios.
My favorite things about this short? I love how perfectly geometrical everything is. No doubt those three windows and scaffold had to be measured so those three men could fit perfectly in them doing those amazing acrobatic stunts. No faking it here, those guys were the real deal, and the creative ways they fall one by one before Keaton and Fox fall underground into wedded bliss is highly creative, physical, and funny.
I love the whole old world neighborhood. I love the Keaton gag on the clothesline where he circularly goes around the two houses only to land back to where he started...known as The Keaton Curve, according to Walter Kerr. The fly swatter gag is both mechanically fascinating and funny the way it's milked. The half black/half white gag remind some me of Rowdy Roddy Piper at Wrestlemania 6....strange childhood memories. LOL. R.I.P. Buster and Hot Rod. This short is also the first to really delve into in laws and families fighting, a theme Buster would go into more later on as it mirrored his own life.
10/10