Buster Keaton’s Quiet Wit : ‘Steamboat Bill, Jr.’ and two other short silent films will be shown Saturday at the Yorba Linda Forum.

“Steamboat Bill, Jr.” (1928) considered one of Buster Keaton’s finest comedies, will be shown Saturday night at the Yorba Linda Forum, accompanied by an original score written and played by noted silent film organist Robert Israel.

The movie, made just two years after Keaton’s recognized masterpiece “The General,” was his last independent feature. Despite critical raves, “Steamboat Bill, Jr.” flunked at the box office, forcing Keaton into a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer that stripped him of creative autonomy. He later described the move to MGM as the worst of his life.

But he’s obviously happy, and in fine form, with “Steamboat Bill, Jr.,” playing the title character, Willy, who returns to River Junction to help his father, Steamboat Bill (Ernest Torrence), in his feud with John King (Tom McGuire), the local rich guy who wants to run him out of the riverboat business.

Steamboat Bill hasn’t seen his son for several years and expects an able man ready for a challenge. Instead, useless college-boy Willy arrives with a bemused look on his face and a ukulele in his hand. To tangle things up even more, Willy soon falls for King’s daughter (Marion Byron).

Malcolm Mealy of Fullerton, the film historian and former television actor who helped arrange Saturday’s program (which also includes two silent shorts, Charlie Chaplin’s “The Adventurer” and Laurel and Hardy’s “You’re Darn Tootin’ ”), noted that “Steamboat Bill, Jr.” is something of a compendium of Keaton’s pet themes, most notably in its transformation of an incompetent youth into a heroic figure. Mealy will present a short talk before the screening.

“Steamboat” also features some of Keaton’s most memorable gags. The most famous has to be the one in which it looks as if Willy will be crushed by a falling wall but is saved by an open window. The dangerous sequence, involving a three-ton facade, was accomplished without camera tricks; Keaton noted years later that it was “the first time I ever saw cameramen look the other way.”

* “Steamboat Bill, Jr.” and other films will be shown Saturday at the Yorba Linda Forum, 4175 Fairmont Blvd., Yorba Linda. Show time: 8 p.m. Tickets: $8.50. Information: (714) 779-8591.