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One Week

1920·US
Director: Buster Keaton, Edward F. Cline
Comedy
American ComedyPioneers: Buster Keaton

Buster Keaton's first independent two-reeler — and a perfect introduction to his genius. A pair of newlyweds receive a build-it-yourself house as a wedding gift, but a jealous rival has scrambled the numbered crates, and the results are spectacularly, hilariously wrong: doors open onto walls, the second floor protrudes at impossible angles, and the whole structure spins on its foundation. Keaton plays the escalating architectural catastrophe with his trademark stoic determination, and the film builds to one of his greatest sight gags — a falling house front that misses him by inches through an open window. Shot in just a few days for almost nothing, it's a masterclass in how to generate enormous laughs from simple premises, perfect timing, and a willingness to risk life and limb for a joke.

Buster Keaton's first independent two-reeler — and a perfect introduction to his genius. A pair of newlyweds receive a build-it-yourself house as a wedding gift, but a jealous rival has scrambled the numbered crates, and the results are spectacularly, hilariously wrong: doors open onto walls, the second floor protrudes at impossible angles, and the whole structure spins on its foundation. Keaton plays the escalating architectural catastrophe with his trademark stoic determination, and the film builds to one of his greatest sight gags — a falling house front that misses him by inches through an open window. Shot in just a few days for almost nothing, it's a masterclass in how to generate enormous laughs from simple premises, perfect timing, and a willingness to risk life and limb for a joke.

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Explore Further

film essay for 'One Week' — Library of Congress

Library of Congress preservation essay analyzing Keaton's innovative visual gags and kit house comedy.

Article

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Cast

Buster Keaton

Buster Keaton

The Groom

Sybil Seely

Sybil Seely

The Bride

Joe Roberts

Joe Roberts

Piano Mover (uncredited)

Crew

Edward F. Cline

writer

Elgin Lessley

cinematographer

Buster Keaton

writer

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