Buster Keaton’s 1921 short stars the actor/director as a New
York City bank teller. Keaton being Keaton soon gets into trouble, spilling
glue all over the counter and accidentally stopping a robbery before ending up
in a haunted house.
The film begins with a shot of 1921 Wall Street . I always like to see
exterior shots in silent movies as it’s a rare chance to see the real world as
it was back then. The action then goes inside a small bank. One of the funniest
moments in this sequence is the sight of a customer with glue on his trousers
getting stuck, backside to backside with another bank teller.
The second part of the film takes place in a large house in
which counterfeiters have set up shop. This is the funniest part of the film
and features a recurring gag about some collapsing stairs which doesn’t get
old. The counterfeiters have filled the house with pretend ghosts in order to
scare off police and intruders and Keaton finds himself confronted with scare
after scare, none of which are really scary but in fact quite funny. We’re
talking men with sheets over their heads and others dressed as skeletons. The
best part of the second act is two such skeletons who construct a man who
appears, through cunning editing to come to life. The film ends with a classic
scene which has Keaton receive a blow to the head and climb stairs to heaven.
When he gets to the top, the stairs collapse (again) and he plummets into hell.
All is well in the end though as when he wakes up in the arms of his love
interest.
This isn’t the best Keaton film but I’ve also seen worse. Its
well worth checking out and at only 21 minutes won’t take too much time to do
so. I laughed about nine or ten times in those 21 minutes which is a very good
laugh per minute ratio and much higher than any 21st Century comedy
I’ve seen. The film can be watched free on YouTube.
8/10
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