Buster Keaton in The GeneralTurner Classic Movies features one of the greatest filmmakers of all time today: Buster Keaton.

Here’s a link to my Weekly Standard essay on Keaton, which is available to subscribers only, alas.

Here’s a link to my American Culture essay on Keaton’s missed opportunities. 

Among the Keaton films scheduled for broadcast on TCM today and tomorrow, all of the silent ones up through 1928 are very good, great, or classic. I most highly recommend Cops; Sherlock, Jr.; Steamboat Bill, Jr.; The General; and The Navigator.

Here’s the TCM Keaton lineup for today and tomorrow:

12:00 PM Limelight (1952)
  A broken-down comic sacrifices everything to give a young dancer a shot at the big time. Cast: Charles Chaplin, Claire Bloom, Buster Keaton. Dir: Charles Chaplin. BW-132 mins, TV-G, CC
2:30 PM Free And Easy (1930)
  A bumbling manager turns a beauty queen into a Hollywood star. Cast: Buster Keaton, Anita Page, Robert Montgomery. Dir: Edward Sedgwick. BW-93 mins, TV-G, CC
4:15 PM Buster Keaton: So Funny It Hurt! (2004)
  Documentary that focuses on comedian Buster Keaton’s years at MGM. BW-38 mins, , CC
5:00 PM Spite Marriage (1929)
  In this silent film, an actress marries a tailor’s assistant to get back at a faithless suitor. Cast: Buster Keaton, Dorothy Sebastian, Edward Earle. Dir: Edward Sedgwick. BW-76 mins, TV-G
6:30 PM Cameraman, The (1928)
  In this silent film, a photographer takes up newsreel shooting to impress a movie queen. Cast: Buster Keaton, Marceline Day, Harry Gribbon. Dir: Edward Sedgwick. BW-76 mins, TV-G
8:00 PM Steamboat Bill Jr. (1928)
  In this silent film, a student tries to win a rival captain’s daughter after taking over his father’s riverboat. Cast: Buster Keaton, Ernest Torrence, Marion Byron. Dir: Charles Reisner. BW-69 mins, TV-G
9:15 PM General, The (1927)
  In this silent film, a Confederate engineer fights to save his train and his girlfriend from the Union army. Cast: Buster Keaton, Marion Mack, Glen Cavender. Dir: Buster Keaton, Clyde Bruckman. C-75 mins, TV-G
10:45 PM College (1927)
  In this silent film, a high school egghead becomes a football hero in college. Cast: Buster Keaton, Anne Cornwall, Harold Goodwin. Dir: James W. Horne. BW-65 mins, TV-G
12:00 AM Navigator, The (1924)
  In this silent film, two members of the idle rich have to move fast when they’re stranded on an abandoned luxury liner. Cast: Buster Keaton, Frederick Vroom, Kathryn McGuire. Dir: Donald Crisp, Buster Keaton. BW-60 mins,
1:15 AM Sherlock Jr. (1924)
  In this silent film, a movie projectionist dreams himself into a mystery movie. Cast: Buster Keaton, Kathryn McGuire, Ward Crane. Dir: Buster Keaton. BW-44 mins,
2:15 AM Our Hospitality (1923)
  In this silent film, a man returns home to the old South and gets caught between feuding families. Cast: Buster Keaton, Natalie Talmadge, Joe Roberts. Dir: John G. Blystone, Buster Keaton. BW-73 mins,
3:45 AM Balloonatic, The (1923)
  In this silent film, a zany couple endures outdoor hardships trying to prove their survival skills to each other. Cast: Buster Keaton, Phyllis Haver, Babe London. Dir: Edward F. Cline, Buster Keaton. BW-27 mins, TV-G
4:15 AM Blacksmith, The (1922)
  In this silent film, Buster Keaton wreaks havoc in a blacksmith’s shop. Cast: Buster Keaton, Joe Roberts, Virginia Fox. Dir: Buster Keaton, Malcolm St. Clair. BW-21 mins, TV-G
4:45 AM Cops (1922)
  In this silent film, a misunderstanding sends an entire city police force after a young man. Cast: Buster Keaton, Joe Roberts, Virginia
Fox. Dir: Edward F. Cline, Buster Keaton. BW-22 mins, TV-G
5:15 AM Coney Island (1917)
  In this silent short, a vacationing man tries to evade his wife until another man goes after her. Cast: Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Al St. John, Buster Keaton. Dir: Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. BW-26 mins,