The Awakening (1954 film)

The Awakening
Directed by	Michael McCarthy
Screenplay by	Lawrence B. Marcus as Larry Marcus
Based on	original story by Nikolai Gogol
Produced by	Lance Comfort
Starring	Buster Keaton James Hayter
Cinematography	Kenneth Talbot
Music by	Bretton Byrd
Release dates	14 July 1954 (1954-07-14) (US) 29 February 1956 (1956-02-29) (UK)
Running time	26 minutes
Country	UK/US
Language	English

The Awakening is a 1954 short British TV drama film directed by Michal McCarthy and starring Buster Keaton.[1] The screenplay was by Lawrence B. Marcus based on Nikolai Gogol's short story "The Overcoat". It was part of the Douglas Fairbanks Presents anthology series.

The Man is a first dramatic role of Buster Keaton. Fairbanks says, "It struck me as a beautiful idea as a novel idea as to put him in a straight part, because he was such a beautiful actor and a great talent. It worked out very well; he gave a marvelous performance".[2]

The original plot of Gogol's story is significantly changed. There are allusions to George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four dystopia in the film.[3]

Plot summary

Cast

• Buster Keaton as The Man
• James Hayter as The Chief
• Carl Jaffe as The Tailor
• Lynne Cole as The Girl
• Geoffrey Keen as The Supervisor
• Christopher Lee as The Thief
• Douglas Fairbanks Jr. as himself – Host
• Lily Kann as The Landlady (uncredited)

References

1. "The Awakening". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 28 July 2024.
2. Dan Lybarger. "A Beautiful Actor: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. on Working with Buster Keaton". Retrieved October 15, 2017.
3. Imogen Sara Smith (September 2008). Buster Keaton: The Persistence of Comedy. Gambit Publishing. ISBN 978-0967591742. Retrieved October 12, 2017.

External links

• The Awakening at IMDb