Buster Keaton "Francis". His father was Joseph Hallie "Joe" Keaton, who owned a traveling show with Harry Houdini called the Mohawk Indian Medicine Company, which performed on stage and sold patent medicine on the side. According to a frequently repeated story, which may be apocryphal, Keaton acquired the nickname "Buster" at about 18 months of age. Keaton told interviewer Fletcher Markle that Houdini was present one day when the young Keaton took a tumble down a long flight of stairs without injury. After the infant sat up and shook off his experience, Houdini remarked, "That was a real buster!" According to Keaton,
Diane Keaton again centered on her character's unimportance in the film. "The Washington Post" wrote: "Even though she is authoritative in the role, Keaton suffers tremendously from having no real function except to nag Michael for his past sins." In 1993, Keaton starred in "Manhattan Murder Mystery", her first major film role in a Woody Allen film since 1979, having made a cameo in 1987's "Radio Days". Her part was originally intended for Mia Farrow, but Farrow dropped out of the project after her split with Allen. Todd McCarthy of "Variety" commended her performance, writing that she "nicely handles her sometimes buffoonish