The Electric House (1922)

I've not seen many Buster Keaton movies, but "The Electric House" is one of the few I have seen. It's one of his short features, at about 23 minutes, and the gags here are similar to what you'd see in his "The Haunted House". Basically, the story here is that Keaton is hired to wire a house (but his engineering degree was awarded to him by mistake, so he really doesn't know much in the way of engineering). Still, Keaton manages to come up with all manner of inventions for the profit of his employers. The first 10 minutes of this movie are less slapsticky and are more demonstrations of the inventions than anything else. The gags come in later when the man who was meant to receive the degree comes back for revenge and creates chaos.I definitely agree with that other reviewer who said this wasn't Keaton's funniest. Since I've barely seen any of his work I can't really say that, but the slapstick here is again repetitive like always although it did have its moments such as when Keaton's head gets caught in the door. None of it was that funny but the thing is relatively enjoyable and a nice watch for Keaton fans. I really must see more of his work.(Note: One thing interesting to note here is that the film was originally shot in 1920 but couldn't be completed when Keaton broke his leg on the electric staircase. Because of this, completing the film was delayed two years).

The Electric House (1922) is often not considered one of Buster Keaton's better short format efforts, and the most you'll ever hear about it is how he broke his ankle during shooting. It's a shame, because I think there's a lot more to it. We may not see much in the way of Buster's physicality and grace, but we do get to see his imagination at play with the multiple contraption his character concocts for the wealthy man who hires him to modernize his mansion.The escalator stairs, dining room train set, and book shelf of doom are all charming, and its fun to see Buster's creative methods go so fabulously wrong. I'm sure you could write a paper on potential social commentary on man's over-reliance on technology, but even without all that, this is great fun and worth more praise than it receives.

Amsterdam has this tradition of theatres that invite prominent musicians of the city to play orchestra during an old classic silent movie. I got an invitation from my office friend – Lucy Wilson to watch one of such shows. As never in my life I have seen such a thing, I immediately accepted the invitation. It was a show of three short silent movies (20-25 minutes) of the great Buster Keaton – The Electric House, The Frozen North and One Week.Buster Keaton started his career as playing Laurel's part in "Laurel and Hardy" series, but soon captured the silent era imagination with great classic silent movies - obviously with reminiscence of Charlie Chaplin style.The first movie The Electric House – was about a person who by mistake is given a job of an electrician in a house. Buster Keaton innovates and imagines all possible electrical appliances possible in 1920s – more or less we see a lot of them today. Hats off to this genius for his visionary power! The second movie The Frozen North – is about a person who dreams himself as a bad guy of Wild West with a gun on a frozen snow clad landscape. It is a wonderful comic take on what a man can think of doing if given some heroic movie image.The third movie One Week – is about a newly married couple who get a portable house as a gift and their attempt to assemble it together. The laugh starts when they mix the number of boxes and end up in creating a house that has everything fitted in the most inappropriate way. It was amusing.I loved all the three movies. This was also my first viewing of Buster Keaton movies and I enjoyed it a lot. Added experience was this live orchestra on organ / piano being played that was in synch with the movie scenes.Highly recommended movies! (Stars 7.5 out of 10)

This silent comedy short reminds me a lot of the Daffy Duck and Porky Pig cartoon where Daffy installs 101 buttons to make Porky's life easier--but they don't. The big difference is that Buster's bizarre push button contraptions generally work, though there are some notable exceptions.The film begins with Buster at a college graduation ceremony. He's receiving a doctorate in science, so he's obviously a bright guy. However, his diploma gets switched with a guy getting an Electrical Engineering degree and the Dean asks Buster to wire his home due to his engineering background. Instead of telling him he had no idea how to do this, he gets a book and makes some incredible changes. The family returns from vacation to find an escalator (one of the few additions that DOESN'T work too well), an electrically controlled billiard table, a self-filling and draining pool that can do either in only seconds, a train layout that brings food from the kitchen and several other cool but strange contraptions. The family is pleased and invite guests over the next day to show off their home.Unfortunately, the guy with the real Electrical Engineering degree is ticked because he wasn't asked to wire the home, so he sneaks in and makes the contraptions go haywire. It's a lot of fun seeing all the gadgets go mad, and in the end, he gets his,...but unfortunately, so does Buster. Fade out.This is a pretty "inventive" piece, though there did seem to be a few other silent comedies about inventors and contraptions (such as those done by Snub Pollard and Billy Bevan). While far from Buster's funniest film, it's very good and deserves a look.