You got 22 minutes? If not, come back here when you do and watch One Week, a wonderful comedy made in 1920 by that grinning fool, Buster Keaton.
It was his first solo comedy to be released. For several years, he made films in support of Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, turning down offers to go off on his own. When he finally did, he first made a movie called The High Sign. As the story is told, when The High Sign was completed, Keaton decided it wasn't good enough and that it should be shelved. But once that decision was made, Keaton — being a compulsive perfectionist — went back and did rewrites, reshoots and re-editing on The High Sign and then, once he was convinced he'd made it as good as it could be, then he shelved it. The film would be released a few years later when Keaton injured himself and had to take some time off to recover. Only then did he agree to its distribution so that audiences, eager for the next Buster Keaton comedy, would not be disappointed.
In any case, after The High Sign was squirreled away, Keaton made One Week…a remarkable comedy and one that was recently selected for preservation by the National Film Registry. When you watch, you might keep in mind that no miniatures or camera tricks were used to make things happen. Obviously, Keaton's crew knew how to rig things up with wires and breakaway materials…but the big clunky mobile house was actually the size it appears to be, and they made it do all the things it does in the film. That credibility was one of the things that made Keaton's silent films wonderful. Even better was the fact that they were just plain funny.
