AllMovie

Buster Keaton's fifth feature proved once again that, regardless of his virtuosity with trains, boats, and houses, Keaton's greatest comic prop was his own body. Keaton initially thought the 1916 play about a young man who stands to inherit $7 million if he marries by 7 p.m. that day was not right for him, but, when he accidentally dislodged a couple of rocks during the climactic chase, he literally stumbled on one of his funniest and astonishing flights of slapstick. Reshooting the scene with hundreds of fake boulders ranging from one to eight feet in diameter, Keaton slid and somersaulted down a steep hill, forced to dodge the rocks as well as hundreds of wannabe brides. Even with Keaton's reservations, the rest of Seven Chances is replete with comic and surreal Keaton moments, such as a church filling with potential mates while an unaware Keaton sleeps in the front pew, and a turtle that latches onto Keaton's tie during the chase. With the boulder slide added after a disappointing preview, Seven Chances succeeded with audiences; and it was feebly remade with Chris O'Donnell in 1999 as The Bachelor.