“The Cameraman was Keaton's first film for MGM, after ten features produced independently. Later Keaton was to write that signing with MGM was the worst mistake of his career.... On The Cameraman Buster finally threw away the script MGM imposed on him (along with 22 office staff writers and a number of amateur gagmen), and improvised the scenes that add up to one of his greatest films. All the elements of Keaton's art and metaphysic are fused in a story that permits Buster no end of Pirandelloesque pyrotechnics. He plays a New York City newsreel cameraman whose love life is as jumbled as the mixed-up footage he shoots of doormen mistaken for generals and Tong Wars in Chinatown. In an astonishing if inadvertent testament to the principles of cinéma-vérité, he proves himself in the end - to girl and boss. Unfortunately, the only prints of The Cameraman now in circulation are incomplete (missing two or three scenes in obvious places).... Needless to say, Keaton's genius survives even this handicap.” --Treasures from the Eastman House (PFA Publication)