One Week (film)

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One Week

One Week title card
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 minutes
Country Flag of United States United States
Language Silent film
English intertitles
All Movie Guide profile
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

Keaton admires his build-it-yourself house.
Keaton admires his build-it-yourself house.

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 producing a shower of lumber. Keaton stares at the scene, places a 'For Sale' sign with the heap and walks off with Seely.

[edit] Trivia

Many special effects, such as the house spinning around during a storm and the train collision, were filmed as they occurred and were not model work.

The mischievous rival is an unknown actor. Joe Roberts has a brief bit as a strong-man piano mover.

Sybil Seely was 18 years old when she made this movie. She starred in 18 movies, the last one in 1922. She died in 1984.

[edit] External links


The films of Buster Keaton
Full Lengths
Three Ages - Our Hospitality - Sherlock, Jr. - The Navigator - Seven Chances - Go West - Battling Butler - The General - College - Steamboat Bill Jr. - The Cameraman - Spite Marriage - Hollywood Cavalcade - Easy to Wed - In the Good Old Summertime - Excuse My Dust
Shorts
The Rough House - Convict 13 - One Week - The Scarecrow - Neighbors - The Haunted House - Hard Luck - The High Sign - The Goat - The Playhouse - The Boat - The Paleface - Cops - My Wife's Relations - The Blacksmith - The Frozen North - The Electric House - Daydreams - The Balloonatic - The Love Nest - The Gold Ghost - Allez Oop - One Run Elmer - Tars and Stripes - Grand Slam Opera - Blue Blazes - Mixed Magic - Love Nest on Wheels - Life in Sometown, U.S.A. - Hollywood Handicap - Streamlined Swing - The Railrodder
In other languages