Both are from 1922. First was The Blacksmith and the second was The Electric House:
Even “lesser” Buster Keaton can still be amusing. As I mentioned recently, one of the new collections added to the Criterion Collection was some of his work, whether it be feature length or shorts. Thus, this will be the first of two reviews of Keaton shorts to be posted today. While this was picked at random and wasn’t as grand as a typical Buster short for moi, in no way is this “bad”. In fact, it was just moments ago that I discovered what’s on Criterion’s site is basically a “workprint” version of the film. Let me explain:
From another Letterboxd user, the story goes is that this movie was feared lost but James Mason (yes, that James Mason) purchased Buster’s old house and found a print. Only decades later was another print discovered and after some confusion over differences between the two, people figured out that what went out for wide release was Keaton editing it to make improvements. I’d watch that too to compare… but a simple YouTube search gave me no results. For the record, this workprint version starts off with a sight gag involving a gigantic palm tree. One day I should purchase Kino’s Blu release “Buster Keaton: The Shorts Collection” which has both cuts, along with 31 other shorts from the silent legend. With that explanation out of the way…
Keaton holds the title role; his boss is a large A-hole… large both in physical size and sheer demeanor. Various pratfalls and sight gags happen which include a giant magnet hanging over the shop (?!), Buster attempting to put horseshoes on a member of the equine species, & attempted repairs of automobiles-given how basic cars were at the time, for all I know blacksmiths actually did handle those repairs back then.
As some of Keaton’s work can be best described as “ineffable” and the rest I’ve seen was very good so I can’t get too flummoxed that this had some lulls, moments that didn’t work for me and wasn’t a magical delight as what could have been. After all, there still are laughs present, from the expected abuse to vehicles getting wrecked. The version easily found online isn’t Buster as his best, although if nothing else gave me a chance to explain cinematic history & demonstrate that even a century ago there were reshoots after preview screenings.
In the second of two Buster Keaton shorts I’ve seen on the Criterion Channel in the past 24 hours, the reason why this in particular was selected: the premise of “a botanist accidentally graduates with a degree in electrical engineering and when he attempts to wire a house, it goes awry.” That sounded rather peculiar so my interest was piqued.
Turns out, a mix-up (which wasn’t clear due to missing footage) allowed for Buster to physically pick up an electrician’s degree at the university graduation ceremony and to impress a fetching dame, he accepts the job to install the electricity in her father’s house. It’s a nice dwelling; note that in-house electricity was still far from commonplace at this time. Seeing HOW Keaton installed it was not focused on at all; rather, it was WHAT happened once the family returns from vacation.
This wasn’t what I was expecting; the gags were that Buster made some rather bizarre decisions on how everything should work. The stairs are in fact escalators, the bathtub moves on a track for some reason, the swimming pool water drains and fills up via lever, and in a gag which impressed someone I follow here, food is served via model train. It’s wacky sight gags and even some innovations I wouldn’t mind in an automated home of today. That along with the number of laughs present meant this was pretty good in my eyes. Note that filming originally began in 1920… but Keaton suffered an ankle injury during filming. Filming was scuttled and they started all over a year later.
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