Top Five Gags: The Playhouse

*Spoilers.*

October 6^th, 1921 – the day The Playhouse was released. Normally, when I do one of these write-ups, I jot down potential entries for the Top Five as I’m rewatching the short and then have to narrow down a list of at least eight or nine gags to get my absolute favorites. With The Playhouse, my list was pretty set by the time I finished watching, so I didn’t have to debate as much over which gags to keep. Not that it’s not funny, of course – this is still Buster Keaton we’re talking about – but it’s a film the focuses a lot more on the technical achievements of its opening scene and less on the laughs-per-minute. That said, I was still able to assemble quite a respectable Top Five Gags for this short.

 

The Pit Orchestra

This is from the “Buster plays every character” opening dream sequence. While it’s obviously fun to see Buster in a bunch of different costumes/guises throughout, the section featuring the pit orchestra is peppered with all sorts of fun little bits of business. I especially enjoy the cellist chalking his bow like a pool cue, the conductor trying to scratch his back with his baton between measures, and the trombonist oiling his instrument, which is then so slick that it flies apart in his hands!

 

Breaking Down the Bedroom

A bit of the visual equivalent to a dad joke, but I still like it. Buster is roughly awoken from his dream by big Joe Roberts, glowering over him and making commands. Buster slinks out, and it’s revealed that he wasn’t sleeping in his bedroom at all but a bedroom set backstage. As soon as Buster leaves the “room,” other stagehands pick up the bedroom’s “walls” and haul them away.

 

Buster the Monkey

Again, Buster probably gets more acting credit for the opening scene, where he’s playing all the roles, but he’s also an absolute stitch as the monkey. When the trained monkey runs off backstage, Buster rolls up his sleeves in a “needs must” kind of way and makes himself up to look like the monkey just in time for its act. He has the movements and the facial expressions down pat (while still staying within the bounds of his trademark Stone Face,) and I get a kick out of the ways he subtly undermines his human stage partner but maintains just enough plausible deniability that he’s simply doing what any monkey would do.

 

Fire Backstage

Big Joe Roberts is smoking while he puts on a stage beard, so naturally, it’s only a matter of time before it catches on fire. From the moment Buster, rushing around backstage amid the crisis, notices the fire axe in its glass case, you know it’s about to get good! He charges Big Joe with the axe, smacks him on the head with the flat end to knock him out, and then uses the blade to give him a close shave, cutting the smoldering beard away. A fun sight gag that’s perfectly paced out.

 

The Flood

Buster’s girl (Virginia Fox) is performing an underwater trick and gets stuck in the tank. After Buster (very awesomely) runs over with a teacup to delicately empty the tank cupful by cupful, he gets with the program and smashes the tank with a sledgehammer, at which point buckets of water come pouring out, washing everyone out of the theatre. My favorite part of the sequence is when Buster navigates the flooded pit area by riding in a bass drum like a miniature boat, using a violin as an oar.