''The Playhouse'' is a 1921 American two-reel silent comedy film written by, directed by, and starring "Buster" Keaton. It runs for 22 minutes, and is most famous for an opening sequence where Keaton plays every role.

Plot

The film is set up as a series of humorous tricks on the audience, with constant doubling, and in which things are rarely what they at first seem to be. It opens with Keaton attending a variety show. Keaton plays the conductor and every member of the orchestra, the actors, dancers, stagehands, minstrels, and every member of the audience, male and female. As an audience member, Keaton turns to the "woman" sitting beside him and remarks, "This fellow Keaton seems to be the whole show". This was a jibe at one of Keaton's contemporaries,

Thomas Ince Thomas Harper Ince (November 16, 1880 – November 19, 1924) was an American silent film - era filmmaker and media proprietor. Ince was known as the "Father of the Western" and was responsible for making over 800 films. He revolutionized the mot ...

, who credited himself generously in his film productions. In interviews with Kevin Brownlow, Keaton claims he gave the director's credit to Cline mainly because he did not want to appear too Ince-like himself: "Having kidded things like that, I hesitated to put my own name on as a director and writer". This elaborate trick-photography sequence turns out to be only a dream when Joe Roberts rouses Keaton from bed. The bedroom then turns out to be not a bedroom, but a set on a stage. The second half of the film finds Keaton's character falling for a girl who happens to be a twin. He has difficulty telling the twin who likes him from the one who does not. An uncredited

Virginia Fox Virginia Oglesby Zanuck ( Fox; April 19, 1899 or 1902 or 1903 or 1906 – October 14, 1982) was an American actress who starred in many silent films of the 1910s and 1920s. Life and career Fox was born as Virginia Oglesby Fox in Wheeling, West ...

plays one of the twins.

Eddie Cline Edward Francis Cline (November 4, 1891 – May 22, 1961) was an American screenwriter, actor, writer and director best known for his work with comedians W.C. Fields and Buster Keaton. He was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin and died in Hollywood, Cali ...

co-wrote the production and appears, uncredited, as a monkey trainer, whose monkey Keaton impersonates onstage after accidentally letting the animal escape.

Cast

'Buster' Keaton Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton (October 4, 1895 – February 1, 1966) was an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He is best known for his silent film work, in which his trademark was physical comedy accompanied by a stoic, deadpan expression ...

as Audience / Orchestra / Mr. Brown - First Minstrel / Second Minstrel / Interlocutors / Stagehand *

as Orangutan trainer (uncredited) *

as Twin (uncredited) * Joe Roberts as Actor-Stage Manager (uncredited) * Monte Collins as Civil War Veteran (uncredited) * Joe Murphy as One of the Zouaves (uncredited) * Jess Weldon as One of the Zouaves (uncredited) * Ford West as Stage Hand (uncredited)

Production

Development

Keaton had fractured his ankle in the film he worked on before this one, so ''The Playhouse'' relied more on cinematic techniques and sight gags than stunt work. It references gags from Keaton's vaudeville career with The Three Keatons, and also draws themes from the performances of Annette Kellerman, who employed 100 mirrors to create the illusion that there was more than one of her. While Keaton played all the parts in the first scene of the play, he had considered playing all the parts in the entire film. But he refrained from doing so out of the concern that "audiences might tire of the joke or think he made it as a demonstration of his acting virtuosity". He later regretted not having acted all the parts throughout.

Filming

Keaton's portrayal of nine members of a minstrel show required the use of a special matte box in front of the camera lens. It had nine exactingly-machined strips of metal which could be moved up and down independently of each other.

Elgin Lessley Elgin Lessley (also credited as Lesly, Lessly, and Leslie) (June 10, 1883 - January 10, 1944) was an American hand-crank cameraman of the silent film era—a period of filmmaking when virtually all special effects work had to be produced inside t ...

, Keaton's cameraman, shot the far-left Keaton with the first shutter up, and the others down. He then rewound the film, opened the second segment, and re-filmed the next Keaton in sequence. This procedure was repeated seven more times. The camera was hand-wound, so Lessley's hand had to be absolutely steady during filming to avoid any variation in speed. Keaton synchronized his movements for each character's dance to the music of a banjo player who was playing along with a metronome – not a problem in a silent film. It was decades before Keaton, who masterminded this, revealed his technique to other filmmakers.

Release

''The Playhouse'' was released on October 6, 1921 and distributed by

First National Attraction First National Pictures was an American motion picture production and distribution company. It was founded in 1917 as First National Exhibitors' Circuit, Inc., an association of independent theatre owners in the United States, and became the count ...

Legacy

According to ''Wild Man from Borneo: A Cultural History of the Orangutan'' (2014), "The comedy turns on Keaton's extraordinary ability to imitate an ape imitating a man as he dines at a table, smokes a cigar, and then jumps, unscripted, into the auditorium, making a woman faint."

References

External links

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''The Playhouse''
at the International Buster Keaton Society {{DEFAULTSORT:Playhouse, The 1921 comedy films 1921 films American silent short films American black-and-white films Films directed by Buster Keaton Films produced by Joseph M. Schenck Films with screenplays by Buster Keaton Articles containing video clips Silent American comedy films 1920s American films