One Week (1920 film)
| One Week | |
|---|---|
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| Directed by |
Edward F. Cline Buster Keaton |
| Produced by | Joseph M. Schenck |
| Written by | Edward F. Cline Buster Keaton |
| Starring | Buster Keaton Sybil Seely Joe Roberts |
| Cinematography | Elgin Lessley |
| Edited by | Buster Keaton |
| Distributed by | Metro Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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19 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language |
Silent film English intertitles |
One Week is a 1920 American short comedy film starring comedian Buster Keaton, the first film to be released made by Keaton on his own; Keaton had worked with Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle for a number of years. The film was written and directed by Keaton and Edward F. Cline, and runs for 19 minutes. Sybil Seely co-stars. The High Sign had been filmed prior to One Week, but Keaton considered it an inferior effort to debut with, and released it the following year when he was convalescing from an injury.
Guitarist Bill Frisell released a soundtrack to the movie in 1995 on his album The High Sign/One Week.
In 2008, One Week was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
The story involves two newlyweds, Keaton and Seely, who receive a build-it-yourself house as a wedding gift. The house can be built, supposedly, in "one week". A rejected suitor secretly re-numbers packing crates. The movie recounts Keaton's struggle to assemble the house according to this new "arrangement". The end result is depicted in the picture. As if this were not enough, Keaton finds he has built his house on the wrong site and has to move it. The movie reaches its tense climax when the house becomes stuck on railroad tracks. Keaton and Seely try to move it out the way of an oncoming train, which eventually passes on the neighboring track. As the couple look relieved, the house is immediately struck and demolished by another train coming the other way. Keaton stares at the scene, places a 'For Sale' sign with the heap (attaching the building instructions) and walks off with Seely.
The New York Times movie review said, "One Week, a Buster Keaton work, has more fun in it than most slap-stick, trick-property comedies."
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