The Play House
- 1921
- 23m
IMDb RATING
7.5/10
4.6K
YOUR RATING
After waking up from his wacky dream, a theater stage hand inadvertently causes havoc everywhere he works.After waking up from his wacky dream, a theater stage hand inadvertently causes havoc everywhere he works.After waking up from his wacky dream, a theater stage hand inadvertently causes havoc everywhere he works.
- Awards
- 1 nomination
Buster Keaton
- Audience
- (as 'Buster' Keaton)
- …
Edward F. Cline
- Orangutan Trainer
- (uncredited)
Monte Collins
- Civil War Veteran
- (uncredited)
Virginia Fox
- Twin
- (uncredited)
Joe Murphy
- One of the Zouaves
- (uncredited)
Joe Roberts
- Actor-Stage Manager
- (uncredited)
Jess Weldon
- One of the Zouaves
- (uncredited)
Ford West
- Stage Hand
- (uncredited)
- Directors
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe multiple Busters on screen together were created in the camera, using a special lens with shutters to film only a portion of the scene at a time. Buster would perform one part, then the cameraman would crank the film back and open another shutter to film another part. A banjo player with a metronome helped Buster Keaton to perform precisely at the right time for each take.
- GoofsSometimes the background is visible through the elbow of Male Audience Member Buster, revealing the double-exposure technique used to film two Buster Keatons sitting side by side.
- Quotes
Man in Audience: This fellow Keaton seems to be the whole show.
- Alternate versionsThe 35mm print currently (2006) available for theatrical exhibition is slightly different from the DVD version:
- - There is a British Board of Film Censors approval title and an extra title mentioning the Raymond Rohauer collection.
- - The inter-titles are in a different font but contain the same text as the DVD version.
- - The "Written and Directed by" title credits Buster Keaton solely.
- - There is an out-of-sequence edit in the print. The scene where the Zouave guards walk out and Buster replaces them with street workers comes immediately after the sequence where Buster meets the twins. It begins right as the Zouave chief comes under the stage backdrop and confront Joe Roberts. The scene plays to the fadeout and then immediately cuts to the beginning of the monkey scene. At the end of the monkey scene, the backdrop confrontation begins and abruptly cuts right where it left off earlier in the film.
- ConnectionsEdited into The Golden Age of Buster Keaton (1979)
Featured review
The Play House was a quite hilarious Buster Keaton short though the first half where there are multiples of him wasn't the most funny part for me
I just watched The Play House which was the first film that was presented in the "Industrial Strength Keaton" DVD collection of various Buster Keaton films from the silents to the end of his life. The first half where he appears in various incarnations of himself was quite impressive especially when 9 of him appear together in the same frame. Some amusing, if not hilarious, gags occur there. The rest of the short has Buster being an actual stagehand/performer who goes through more hilarious mishaps that has to be seen to be believed. I especially loved the way he put out a man's fiery beard or got a woman out of a water tank. Not to mention how he impersonates a monkey. Or how he tells one twin sister from another. So on that note, I highly recommend The Play House.
helpful•61
- tavm
- Jul 25, 2009
Details
- Runtime23 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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