One Week (1920) User Reviews

the house that Buster built

[didi-5 · 8/10 · 14 December 2006]

An early Buster Keaton short which still has an enormous amount of charm all these years later, and which has plenty of laughs throughout its running time.

First there's a wedding, and the newlyweds almost don't make it to their wedding night; and then there is the portable house they have to start from scratch! Of course this means the house looks wrong, it falls down, lots of stunts and scenes are set up to make the audience gasp and chuckle, and so on.

'One Week' is a really fun film and one which is timeless. Keaton would make many more shorts and his great feature-length movies were yet to come, but this is charming snapshot of what was to come.

You Have To See This House To Believe It!

[ccthemovieman-1 · 9/10 · 10 January 2007]

Man, this 19-minute Buster Keaton short is almost too exhausting to watch as one crazy scene after another is shown. This is a wild and always-entertaining short, considered one of Buster's best. It's total lunacy.

Newlywed Buster and his bride (the pretty Sybil Sealey) get a "portable house" as a wedding present. When they get to the site, they find out they have to build the house themselves.

A poor loser who lost the girl, "Handy Hank," sabotages the house-building process by fouling up the numbered directions. When finished, the house is a little strange, to say the least! One look and you are guaranteed to laugh out loud. Anyway, there's work to be done decorating and adding a few more little things like th chimney or trying to fit a piano through a front window.

A calendar is shown throughout the movie and we see the daily "progress." Obstacles are many but the couple persists and kisses their way through all the problems.

Most of the film turns out to be sight gags and slapstick, especially when they have their "housewarming" at the end of the week and a big windstorm literally turns the house into a "merry-go-round."

If that isn't enough, you should see the ending when the train.......

"The wedding bells have such a sweet sound but such a sour echo"

[ackstasis · 8/10 · 8 January 2009]

'One Week (1920)' was the first of Buster Keaton's independent two-reelers, though 'The High Sign (1921)' was filmed first and shelved until the following year. The story starts out where most romantic comedies end: with a picturesque wedding ceremony, during which adoring friends and relatives toss confetti and, oddly, second-hand footwear. The lucky groom (Keaton) and his bride (Sybil Seely) strike out for their new home, purchased by a well-meaning uncle. Of course, only in a Keaton short must the husband and wife be forced to construct their own house, utilising a do-it-yourself kit that goes awry when the bride's former lover switches the numbers around. The resultant dwelling would not have looked out of place in 'The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920),' though Keaton is evidently proud of his handiwork, and is thus prepared to overlook the most minor of blunders (such as having the front door on the second-floor). This short served as a trial-run of sorts for the feature 'Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928),' for here we see an early version of Keaton's famous "saved-by-the-window" falling wall stunt.

'One Week' is one of Keaton's finest shorts, with no shortage of imagination, and a continuous string of episodic gags. In one scene, our hero rather coarsely knocks out a traffic policeman, and it's probably no coincidence that the victim is a Charles Chaplin-lookalike. Many of the Keaton's films utilise aspects of engineering, such as 'The Electric House (1922),' in which the actor is commissioned to update a client's home with state-of-the-art technology. In 'One Week,' the product of Keaton's labours doesn't appear quite so impressive, though the house does misbehave is equally hilarious ways. In a vigorous windstorm, the entire building is transformed into a deliriously-spinning carousel, the inhabitants thrown across the room with almost brutal centrifugal force. Leading lady Sybil Seely impressively keeps up with Keaton's comedic antics, even contributing a few laughs of her own, rather than serving only as a beautiful romantic interest. Not that Seely didn't have the "beautiful" aspect covered, the film's show-stopping moment seeing the actress drop her bar of soap while bathing in the tub. A modest cameraman's hand spares us the details, however.

A Wonderful Short Feature

[Snow Leopard · 31 July 2001]

What a wonderful short feature this is - it's very funny, filled with creative gags and exciting stunts, and also quite charming. The plot follows newlywed Buster and his wife in their first week together, as they attempt to build, furnish, and settle into their new 'do-it-yourself' home. There are lots of very wacky moments, with a great variety of inventive comic material. It's also quite endearing to watch the young couple having to contend with all the difficulties they face in setting out together. Keaton is really good at making his character sympathetic without getting bogged down in pity that would detract from the great humor.

"One Week" deserves its reputation as one of Keaton's finest achievements. It's a must-see for anyone who has even a passing interest in silent comedies.

Edifice Wrecks---10/10.

[highclark · 10/10 · 16 March 2005]

How is it possible that 19 minutes of film can hold so much clever, fast paced comedy? I was blown away by not only the overpowering visual effects that set off the whirlwind ending inside the house, but also by some of the little touches that can be found throughout the film. There's one scene in particular that stuck with me as one of those fantastic little touches, it's when the bride (Sybil Seely, what a great name) is in the bathtub taking a bath and she accidentally drops the soap. As she innocently reaches over to pick the soap up from the bathroom floor, the cameraman sticks his hand over the lens to insure her privacy from those watching the movie. In a movie where there's a lot of wall building, it is a scene like this one where Buster successfully knocks down the proverbial fourth wall of film-making.

There's really no point in trying to describe the amazing sight gags, the breath taking gymnastics and pratfalls that are all staples of a Buster Keaton comedy, you should just watch it for yourself. And as far as early Buster Keaton films are concerned, this one is a MUST SEE.

10/10. Clark Richards

The House that Buster Built

[Ben_Cheshire · 10/10 · 25 April 2004]

Buster gets married, and as a wedding present his uncle gives him and his new bride some land and a house to go with it, but only when they get to the lot do they realised that the house is not yet assembled!

The framing device of the week both gives Keaton the opportunity to devise seven comic episodes, and also gives the whole piece a wonderful unity. I rank this alongside The Boat (1921) as one of Keaton's best shorts, alongside The Electric House (1922) for the best use of gadgets (in case you didn't know, Keaton trained as an engineer, and so his films are filled with marvellously clever gadgets), and alongside The Scarecrow (1920) for general fun and enjoyment.

For me, this was THE perfect Keaton comedy.

The comedic silent masterpiece

[SilntFan · 10/10 · 21 May 1999]

One Week and The Scarecrow are the only two silent films that I can watch over and over and over and laugh like a maniac each time I see them. I have seen hundreds of silent films and seen hundreds of performances, but there is no performer, past or present, who was as versatile, good-looking, and out and out funny as Buster Keaton. He is the king to which all comedians should aspire and he leaves Chaplin thousands of miles behind in terms of comedy. Personally, I can't watch Chaplin without being all too aware that I'm supposed to be in a music hall. Keaton, however, isn't hindered by his vaudeville roots and can make a laugh-out-loud domestic comedy using vaudeville tricks without making it seem like a recreation of a vaudeville routine.

The genius of Keaton

[Damfino1895 · 10/10 · 8 January 2002]

The first Keaton 2 reeler to be released (he had already made 'the High Sign' but, considered it to weak to be his debut solo effort). 'One Week' is a gem of a movie. Newly weds, Buster and Sybil are given a house and plot of land by an Aunt and Uncle, however, Handy Hank, who lost out to Buster for Sybil's hand in marriage, sabotages the pre fab house by changing the numbers on the boxes, the result is the oddest looking house, however to the newly weds it's home. Various mishaps occur, especially when they have relations over for a house warming. The film climaxes with one of the best double crosses in movies, I hate to spoil films by telling people the ending, just watch it for yourself and enjoy. Just to clear something up, Keaton did not break both arms doing a stunt in this movie, as written by an earlier reviewer, although he did get injured doing a stunt causing swelling to his back and arms. However he did suffer a broken ankle filming 'The Electric House' and broke his neck, which went undiagnosed for 13 years, this was always blamed on a stunt in 'Sherlock jr' Keaton is the king of the silent comedies, his movies from his golden period of film making stand the test of time, the humour is fresh and innovated, his stunts, which everyone knows he did himself are breathtaking and he shows an aptitude for the art of film making that places him among the greatest ever. His decline after losing his independence is tragic, both for him and movie fans as we are left to wonder what he could have achieved if he's been allowed by MGM to make the movies he was capable of, our only consolation is the treasures he did leave behind.

David Jeffers for Tablet SIFFbolg

[rdjeffers · 10/10 · 26 September 2005]

Monday September 26, 2005 7:00pm The Seattle Paramount Theater

"Here's your house!"

"One Week" begins with church bells and happy guests throwing shoes and rice. The Groom (Buster Keaton) picks up a pair he thinks might fit then tries to kiss his Bride (Sybil Seely) in the back seat of their car. They are always kissing. If his rival, "Handy Hank" wasn't stuck to them like glue everything would be hunky dory. The newlyweds are given a vacant lot with a kit house for a wedding gift and Hank changes the numbers on the boxes. The result is a do-it-yourself disaster that spins like a top in a storm as house guests fly out the doors. "I've had a lovely afternoon on your merry-go-round. It'll be better when you put in your hobby horses." Don't forget the motion sickness pills. Seely is adorable, spinning on a piano stool in the storm, painting a valentine on the house and taking a bath. When she reaches for the dropped bar of soap a hand comes from behind the camera to cover the lens!

Buster and his new wife get a new house, but it comes in box, comic chaos follows

[curiousgeorg2360 · 9/10 · 2 February 2005]

Keaton was now out on his own, no longer working with Fatty Arbuckel. 'One Week'was his first independent film. Joseph Schneck produced the film, having done work on the Fatty and Keaton shorts. The team of Buster Keaton and Eddi Cline directed and did script work as would follow in most of Keaton's other shorts. 'One Week' is definitive of Buster Keaton's style. It is purely gag over narrative. Keaton's performance is more important than the story, and that was pretty much how all his later movies worked. Keaton also enjoyed capturing the world around him as it happened. His stunts in this movie did not rely on editing. The house really did turn, the train sequence was real. This was a good beginning to what followed.

The house that Buster built

[Prismark10 · 7/10 · 11 July 2017]

In this 20 minutes Buster Keaton short, you actually wonder how did he get away with some of those stunts which look life threatening. At one point a side of the house falls on him but the open space for the window goes through him as Keaton just stands on the spot.

Newlywed Buster and his bride are given 'portable house' as a wedding present which they build over the course of a week. Love rival Handy Hank who lost out to the bride sabotages the directions which results in the house being built wonky.

The film is full of physical comedy and sight gags. There are little touches as the newly married Buster picks up a pair of old shoes that are thrown at him and takes them with him. When his wife is having a bath and she goes to pick up the soap, the cameraman sticks his hand out to preserve her modesty.

This film established Keaton as the master of the comedy shorts.

The blossoming of a comedy titan

[AlsExGal · 9/10 · 28 June 2023]

Buster Keaton had been making films for three years, minus some time he was in the army, but this was his second film independent of his old friend and partner Roscoe Arbuckle. And it has a touch of something unseen in film up to that point - engineering as comedy. In 1920 comedy is just emerging from the pie throwing and pants kicking phase, and Buster is already on a completely different level from his colleagues.

Buster, still a bachelor himself, is shown emerging from a church with his new bride (Sybil Seely). They don't have credited names, for this is not a personal journey for the main characters. The trouble starts immediately with Handy Hank, resentful that the bride turned him down and then chose Buster. Oddly enough this guy is driving them to their destination from the church, and that turns out to be a lot with a portable house deposited on it, both being a wedding gift from Buster's uncle. There they find the house in boxes which they need to assemble themselves in the order of the numbers on the boxes. Handy Hank sees his chance for revenge by changing the numbers on the boxes so that the house will be assembled out of order.

The result is hilarious. The roof is on sideways, the porch is lopsided, there is a door to nowhere on the second floor that leads to the outside, and the rectangular windows have somehow installed to be a trapezoid, which is something that would be impossible just from incorrect installation. The kitchen sink has been installed on the outside of the house, but no problem, Buster has installed it such that it swivels like a revolving door and can thus double as a door and a sink that can be, in bad weather, moved inside. What about the foundation? Well, that becomes a problem later.

I'd highly recommend this as an introduction to Keaton even before you go back and watch his shorts done with Arbuckle and before his later independent efforts. It is much more carefully constructed than poor Buster's house. P. S. - Such portable homes were commonly sold by catalogue in the United States during the first half of the 20th century.

The house is a character in itself.

[peefyn · 7/10 · 5 December 2015]

As a viewer with limited experience with Buster Keaton, this was a great place to start. I've seen clips and references to his movies lots of times, but hardly seen any of the movies themselves. This one has it all: good physical gags, warm characters, acrobatics and Keaton's straight face. He shares the scene with Sybil Seely, who also does a great job. Especially the "flipping wall" stunt with both of them is marvelous. In addition to the performances from the actors, the set itself is quite impressive. An almost avant garde-ish house, built on a turntable, is almost as much a character in the story as the two leads.

While the story has a villain, he is only a bit player, setting things into motion. Keaton and Seely are the stars, and I love how the story doesn't resort to playing them up against each other. They are a team all the way through the movie, working together and forgiving each other, only fighting the house.

I figured that the movie was a satire on "construction set"-houses, but it turns out to be a straight up parody of a video about these houses. This explains the format of the flick itself, with the hand pulling of sheets from the calendar, etc.

Also: I find it fascinating that we do not know who played the villain in this flick. I refuse to believe that the answer is lost, and I look forward to the day it is found.

One Week Analysis

[John0711 · 5/10 · 19 September 2019]

"One Week" is a funny silent film. A married couple ready to build their own house seem to construct it wrong because a man that was rejected by the woman sabotages their kit so they do certain steps out of order. Of course nowadays this movie wouldn't come across as too funny because it is a silent film; but I can see how back in 1920 this could come across as amusing. Without sound directors would have to think outside the box. In this short movie the director does a good job at making the actions of the characters funny and easy to understand so the audience can follow along.

In ONE WEEK (1920) the Keaton style emerges, full blown!

[redryan64 · 10/10 · 29 July 2007]

Followinng an approximately 3 year 'apprenticeship' working as a supporting player for Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Buster Keaton got his own deal with Joseph M.Schenck Productions. Arbuckle having moved on to Feature Films, Mr. Schenck needed someone to fill the void (Nature and Hollywood both abhor a vacuum!). Buster was elevated to the Starring role in the 2 reel comedy shorts.

His time as Second Banana was surely well spent. His own starring vehicles proved to be up to those of any other and could only serve as a little glimpse into what future Keaton projects would be like.

His first film(to be released, though not necessarily the earliest to be produced) was ONE WEEK (1920). In it is perhaps the Genisis of the Keaton Film, all of his own, to come. His collaborative effort with Director Edward F. Cline worked very well, as the film moves through the calendar week in brief, episodic installments. The scenes build slowly, deliberately until a peak is reached. Like a finely made jeweled watch, there is no part of the film is out of place.

For this production, a basic formula is followed. The Protagonist, Keaton, is pitted against the insurmountable and unchanging natural laws of physics and our world. And before long, we come to understand that Mr. Keaton's little man hero may well be the first known exponent of Murphy's Law. Remember it? "If anything can go wrong, it will go wrong." Just being lucky enough to be able to view Buster's battles with the Laws of Physics and the complications that are certainly and progressively to be thrown into his path.

Mr. Keaton's trials and tribulations on his path to success always seem to involve both the Art and the Science. And they always seem to work counter productively to our Hero.

Sort of like his Life Experiences.

No other word to describe it then Masterpiece!

[MlleSedTortue · 10/10 · 16 August 2020]

I have an affinity for films of the silent era, an age of experimentation and artistry that still rings true to this day. Buster Keaton was one of the finest performers of his day and there's no better film that accentuates his talents such as One Week. Simply put this short is a prime example of the the craft of early silent cinema.

One of Keaton's most visually stunning and fun films

[planktonrules · 9/10 · 14 August 2006]

This film was remade with sound and with different actors in the early 1930s and was entitled A PUT UP JOB--though the results weren't quite as wonderful as this thoroughly enjoyable Keaton short. Oddly, the remake is NOT listed on IMDb, but I just recently saw it on a DVD called "The Paramount Comedy Shorts 1929 - 1933 - Cavalcade of Comedy (1929) ".

The Keaton film is jam-packed with great stunts, cute scenes and the most amazing set you'll ever see! Buster and his girl get married. They are given a plot of land and a house kit as a wedding present. However, the man who wanted to marry Buster's sweetie is mad and wants revenge. So, he changes the numbers on the directions and Buster puts up the house anyway--even though it looks like an absolute joke, he doesn't seem to notice.

You really have to see the house--especially when a storm hits--it's a very funny and incredible scene. Later, it turns out they built the house on the wrong lot--leading to yet another even more spectacular scene. Rarely in a short do you see so much money spent on sets and setting up wonderful jokes. A sweet and hilarious film.

Not at all week

[hte-trasme · 9/10 · 11 September 2010]

"One Week" is a real extravaganza. Proceeding from a wonderfully one- step-too-absurd-for-reality premise that Buster Keaton has been given a build-it-yourself house, it builds constantly and with perfect timing on increasingly mind-boggling an original stunts and visual gags on what must be one of the most elaborate and iconic comedy props in history -- the ramshackle, crooked house that Buster builds and the ends up spinning gloriously as it blows in the wind and ingeniously rolling along on barrels when he and his new bride find themselves on the wrong lot.

It really encapsulates brilliantly within two reels Keaton's incredible and unique comedic and visual imagination. Each gag tops the last perfectly, and visual concepts are played out on the large scale of the house set in constantly surprising ways. Although the action is almost completely mechanically driven, the pace never flags and the film builds as impressively as if there were an intricate plot. And, of course, the closing gag involving a train is among the greatest in history. It's difficult to describe something as finely-tuned as "One Week" except to say that is has to be seen and appreciated; with Laurel and Hardy's "Big Business" it forms a pair of impeccably-orchestrated house- destroying silent comedies for all time.

perfect

[Kirpianuscus · 3 February 2019]

A house. Not assembled. A young couple. And a week. One of the most seductive films of Buster Keaton. For imagination, for the feel to see an animation, for lovely-dramatic story - the storm has a lead role- for the end and for the trait of genius. Something sad - magic defines this short film. One of the lovely ones for its humor and for the beautiful way for explore the force of details.

An Early Smash from Young Buster Keaton

[drqshadow-reviews · 8/10 · 8 September 2020]

Evidently a direct satire of a then well-known Ford Motor Company advertisement (build your own prefab house in just seven days), Buster Keaton's One Week works just as well with no prior knowledge of the source. It follows a hapless bride and groom, newlyweds fresh from the chapel, who are gifted just such a boxed home and proceed to naïvely plow into every roadblock and pitfall imaginable. Not that the couple is free of blame - their approach to every problem is fundamentally backwards - but a few mean-spirited bits of sabotage from a jilted suitor certainly do them no favors.

It's a natural playground for Keaton, who creatively misuses every step of the construction process: failing to secure load-bearing walls, blindly feeling his way up a ladder with a brick chimney over his head, sprinting through a second-story doorway into thin air, lazily failing to properly install carpeting over the floorboards. The problems persist even after the dwelling is complete, with a harsh windstorm revealing every shortcut to unsuspecting housewarming guests, and yet the stakes rise still higher from there. The climax, a literal runaway house rumbling towards a busy set of train tracks, serves as a prime example of Keaton's gigantic, ludicrously ambitious sense of scale. Go big or go home, the saying says, and Buster really went for it this time, stretching his luck so thin he was laid up in a doctor's office before the end of production. This wouldn't be the last time.

Nightmare house.

[st-shot · 9/10 · 11 January 2012]

One of Buster Keaton's best shorts One Week is filled with enough signature pratfalls and comic predicaments to fill a full length feature. Newlyweds Buster and wife (Sybil Seely) are given a house as a wedding gift by a relative. The only problem is they have to assemble it. This is further complicated by the fact that a spurned suitor jumbles the blueprints. Undeterred bride and groom role up their sleeves and begin to construct their comic disaster.

Keaton as usual takes an incredible pounding in producing one memorable sight gag after another with stoic resolve. Even as the house takes on a more Dada than craftsman look Buster's resolve and energy never wavers as he wrestles with a piano, lays carpet, puts a chimney on the roof and battles both the elements and a locomotive to save the homestead. As his wife Sybil Seely makes a durable partner sharing some of the bruises with the indefatigable Buster in this well paced short of one superlative slapstick scene after another.

Good lead debut for a legend

[russjones-80887 · 6/10 · 17 May 2020]

As a wedding gift two newlyweds receive a pre-fabricated house which can be built in a week. Unfortunately a rejected suitor secretly renumbers the packing crates.

The first major film for Buster Keaton as the husband, with indications of what was to come, with support from Sybil Seely as his wife. Contains the famous bathroom scene.

A sign of beautiful things to come

[MissSimonetta · 10/10 · 9 September 2013]

Buster Keaton's first independent work is simple, sweet, and very funny. Buster and his bride Sybil Seely try to assemble a house from a kit, not realizing Keaton's rival has switched the boxes around. What results from the slip up is a monstrous mess of a house Salvidor Dali himself might have wished he'd dreamed up. The climax is exhilarating, and the ending is one of Keaton's most memorable.

I'd like to applaud Sybil Seely, who was Keaton's finest leading lady. Not merely a pretty face to be fought over, Seely radiates charm and sweetness, and her bubbly nature is a fun contrast with Keaton's stoic character. It's a shame they only appeared together a handful of times before Seely retired at age twenty to become a full-time parent.

keaton still trying to find his way

[mmmuconn · 6/10 · 3 January 2003]

`One Week' is important as an early attempt by Buster Keaton to formulate a signature filmmaking style, but as entertainment it didn't impress me much. The bits with the storm and the train surely required some unprecedented editing ingenuity, but neither sequence is nearly as clever or funny as Chaplin's work from the same period, let alone Keaton's later films. It's nice to see how Keaton started, though (and to see how much nudity filmmakers dared to show back then).

Rating: 6

Should have been more essential

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 4 August 2015]

"One Week" is a 1920 film by Buster Keaton, so not too long anymore until it has its 100th anniversary. This film shows us that building a house was quite a challenge already in the days of silent black-and-white films, especially if you get constantly sabotaged by somebody. Buster and his wife, played by Sybil Seely, are newly-weds and trying to build a house here. Virginia Fox is not in this film, which is unusual for Keaton movies, but he has worked with Seely also on other occasions. Antagonist regular Joe Roberts, however, is in this one too and Edward F. Cline, Keaton's longtime partner behind the camera, also helped out on this one. This is possibly Keaton's most famous short film, maybe also because it is one of very few that managed to make it into the National Film Registry. Still I was not too impressed. I wish they could have kept this at 15 minutes max and only included scenes with the duo, the antagonist and the house and not the partying in-between etc. Not recommended.