Buster Keaton had this project foisted upon him by producer Joseph M. Schenck, who had bought the rights to the hit Broadway show. Keaton later called it his least favorite feature and tried to keep film historian Raymond Rohauer from restoring the only known copy of the movie.
A list of Buster Keaton "Seven Chances" includes the names Eugenia Gilbert, Judy King, Hazel Deane and Bartine Burkett, the real names of several actresses who appear in the film.
In his desperate search for a woman - any woman - to marry, Buster Keaton is passing a variety theater. There is a large picture of a visiting artiste who is playing there, and Keaton bribes someone to let him go in at the stage door. As he goes in, a workman removes a box that was obscuring the bottom of the poster ... and we see the name of the "artiste" ... Julian Eltinge. Eltinge was a famous female impersonator, so famous that no further explanation is needed when Keaton almost immediately emerges, looking disconcerted.
Included among the '1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die', edited by Steven Jay Schneider.
The most famous scene of this film originated by an accident. In the filming of a chase scene down a steep slope, Buster Keaton inadvertantly dislodged some rocks which tumbled down after him as if in pursuit and he had to scramble to dodge them. At a preview showing, Buster saw that that accident got the biggest laughs in the film. Thus inspired, Buster decided to reshoot the scene with over a hundred papier-maiche "rocks" with sizes ranging from pebbles to six foot boulders so his character would have to deal with a massive avalanche in the scene.
The original Broadway production of "Seven Chances" by Roi Cooper Megrue opened at George M. Cohan's Theater on August 8, 1916 and ran for 151 performances.
When Shannon (Keaton) proposes to the switchboard girl (Jean Arthur) she is seen reading the book "Three Weeks" by Elinor Glyn.
Constance Talmadge:
Popular actress and sister of Buster Keaton's wife at the time, Natalie Talmadge, has a small uncredited role.