Seven Chances with Short Films

One Week (1920). Buster and his new bride have one week to build a house from an assemble-it-yourself prefab kit. But even the best-laid plans have to be read right-side-up. This is an exercise in deconstruction. And an amazingly clever little film that, among other things, tries on for size Steamboat Bill's famous house a'falling stunt. Buster straddles two runaway motorcycles years before John Wayne did it with horses. With Keaton, Sybil Seely, Joe Roberts. (20 mins) The High Sign (1920/21). This fellow who "came from nowhere, is not going anywhere, and was kicked out of somewhere" is more crafty than the typical Buster. But then he's keeping rather mean company in The High Sign: a mini-Mafia whose secret-signing members seem to be everywhere. With Buster Keaton, Al St. John. (20 mins) The Electric House (1922). Keaton, wrongly diplomaed as an electrical engineer, demonstrates the miracles of an all-electric house in a film that looks forward equally to Jacques Tati and Woody Allen. With Buster Keaton, Virginia Fox, Joe Keaton. (25 mins)

This page may by only partially complete.