“This body is not supple for the sake of suppleness, a mere demonstration of flexibility. It is a responsive body which works with economy and precision to a purposeful end. It strikes up a tense relationship with matter – a kind of precarious dominance – which, because it is meaningful, is also in a real sense beautiful. Keaton, poised in the rigging of a ship, a spyglass to his eye, tells his whole story: that foot is going to slip, the telescope is going to show him nothing; but in the present balance there is such grace, courage and ingenuity that you know the man to be indomitable.”
—-Walter Kerr, Harpers Bazaar, May 1952