Buster Keaton refines his stunts in this film and adds in more storyline as compared to his previous efforts. I love this film for the use of stunts in furthering the story and not the other way around which his earlier films seemed to be showing.
It is really a classic love story, and a vehicle for the stunts too. You can see him developing a bit more of the sympathetic loser protagonist who succeeds against all odds with great skill, maybe a cue he took from Chaplin. But these two kind of exist as influence for later celebrity especially the stunt based celebrity who build a reputation for themselves out of their “shtick” such as Jackie Chan, Jet li, and Bruce Lee. All these guys owe a great deal to Keaton and Chaplin for their pioneering work.