Next Five Independent Shorts: Buster Keaton

I’ve reviewed my top five classic Buster Keaton shorts, but there are too many to only highlight five.  I don’t know what has more laughs per minute than Buster’s silent shorts, so we’re looking at more today.  They’re not necessarily my next five favorites, but they’re another five I love.

The Haunted House (1921)

A counterfeiting ring disguises their hideout as a haunted house, and it’s up to Buster, a young bank clerk, to figure out their tricks, bring the crooks to justice, and – of course – save the girl.  It’s noteworthy for some great disappearing-stair gags (Buster sure knew how to get his comic money’s worth out of a set piece) and a wonderful sequence in which Buster, working at the teller window, accidentally gets glue on his hands and everything else and is generally hilarious.

The ‘High Sign’ (1921)

Buster gets a job at a shooting gallery and inadvertently joins the notorious Blinking Buzzards.  He’s sent to kill a rich man who, coincidentally, has just hired Buster as his bodyguard.  A house plays a big role here, too – the tycoon Buster protects has rigged his home with trap doors and hidden escapes, which Buster puts to excellent use during the chases.  The real highlight, though, is Buster’s clever way of posing as a crack shot:  imaginative, industrious, and very funny.

The Paleface (1922)

Buster is a hapless lepidopterist who befriends a Native American community.  After a disastrous beginning, he helps them outsmart the white developers trying to take their land.  It gets a little White Savior in places and the use of redface is unfortunate, but it’s ultimately a well-meaning little yarn.  The gags come fast and furious; Buster makes an asbestos suit, conducts a war dance, and “scalps” a man’s toupee.  Also, he literally falls 85 feet – amazing.

The Electric House (1922)

Rounding off the “crazy house” collection, Buster is mistaken for an electrician (I know; if I had a nickel for every time that happened to me) and hired to electrify a family home.  This being Buster, we’re not talking light switches.  No, we get escalators, assembly-line dishwashers, a pool table that sets games by itself, and a bathtub that meets you at your bed.  Things go haywire when the real electrician sabotages Buster’s work, and the creative machine gags are superb. 

The Frozen North (1922)

Since this one parodies a silent melodrama star I’ve never heard of, it took a few viewings to see how funny it is.  Buster is pretty out-of-character here, satirizing William S. Hart’s morally-shifty antihero.  It’s still Buster, though, so we get an inventive bent on the tropes – most memorably, he shoots his wife and her lover in a fit of righteous indignation, only to discover he’s in the wrong house.  He also has fun with the frozen North locale, giving us a nattily-decorated igloo, great ice-fishing gags, and acoustic guitar snowshoes.  Some terrific stuff here.