Battling Butler

Keaton as Alfred Butler, a mountain-climbing millionaire so sheltered he has never thrown a punch, who pretends to be a prizefighter to impress a mountain girl. The joke is class, then the joke is the body: Keaton trains, Keaton is substituted into a real bout, Keaton wins by being more precisely mechanical than the man trying to hurt him. Directed by Keaton, released by MGM in 1926, adapted from a 1923 play. It is the film where his athleticism is no longer a stunt but a character — the meek man whose competence is a secret even from himself. The last round is as clean as anything he shot before The General.