Charles Chaplin was more famous, especially in later years, but Buster Keaton was the master of the physical stunts and expressive gestures that were the stuff of silent film comedy. Steamboat Bill Jr. is one of Keaton's most frequently shown works, though not his best. The plot is about a student who returns to small-town Mississippi to take over his father's steamboat. Predictably, he falls for the daughter of his chief business rival. There are some flat stretches in the story, which tries to stretch out a plot around Keaton's antics, and not enough of the antics. The climax, in which Keaton battles a tornado, is the film's most memorable section, featuring some real physical danger for Keaton, who did all his own stunts. Released in 1928, and co-directed by Keaton with Charles Riesner, the film marked the beginning of the end of Keaton's dominance of silent film comedies.