One Week (film)

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One Week
Buster Keaton admires his build-it-yourself house in One Week (1920)
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
Editing by	Buster Keaton
Distributed by	Metro Pictures
Release date(s)	September 1, 1920
Running time	19 min.
Language	English (original titlecards)
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IMDb profile

One Week is a 1920 short comedy film starring comedian Buster Keaton. It is important because it was the first movie made on his own to be released. Keaton had worked with Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle for a number of years. It was written and directed by Keaton and Edward F. Cline. The runtime is 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.

[edit] Plot

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 weren't enough, Keaton finds he has built his house on the wrong site and has to move it. The movie reaches its climax when the house becomes stuck on railroad tracks on which a train is coming. The house won't budge and the train hits it with a shower of lumber. Keaton stares at the scene, shrugs and walks off with Seely.