One Week (1920)

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Not to be confused with the similar sounding title as Charlie Chaplin's ONE A.M. (Mutual, 1916) , ONE WEEK (Metro, 1920), written and directed by Buster Keaton and Edward Cline, stars the legendary "stone face" of Buster Keaton in one of his true gems of silent comedy (20 minutes) produced during the early 1920s. Next to COPS (1922), ONE WEEK is one of the prime examples of Keaton's comic genius. After two years supporting Fatty Arbuckle in his series of comedy shorts (1917-1919), Keaton gets to star in what's classified as his first solo effort. The plot, supposedly taking place in a span of one week involving two nameless newlyweds, consists of individual sketches opening and closing through the tearing off of a calendar day sheet followed by the introduction to the next day's activity. Opening title: "The wedding bells have such a sweet sound but such a sour echo." Calendar fade in: "To-Day is Monday the 9th" (no month, no year given): It's Buster's wedding day, with he and his bride (Sybil Seely) exiting from the church surrounded by rice-throwing guests with the exception of one, Handy Hank, a rejected suitor. Before the day's end, the couple arrive on Apple Street where their home, Lot 99, turns out not to be a house with parts assembled in a huge box the from Portable House Company with Buster having to assemble himself. "TUESDAY the 10th" As Sybil prepares breakfast, Buster assembles his new home by the numbers. Not far away is the Hank, who, without Buster's awareness, changes the numbers on the boxes. There's a now classic moment recaptured much later in Buster's feature-length comedy, STEAMBOAT BILL JR. (1928) involving a house fall. Watch for it; "WEDNESDAY the 10th," With the home nearly completed, appearing as if it had gone through a typhoon, a delivery man (Joe Roberts) arrives with a piano, followed by one of the helpers (possibly Al St. John, though there's no clarification to rectify this character nor the rejected Handy Hank) dangling from his head caught on the rooftop; "THURSDAY the 11th," Buster continues assembling his house while Sybil washes up on the bath-tub. Classic moment: A mysterious hand covering the camera lens as she tries to retrieve the soap dropped on the floor; "FRIDAY the 13th," Housewarming party with friends and relatives resulting to a heavy rain storm and house going around in circles in merry-go-round fashion; "SATURDAY the 14th," Buster discovers his home has been built on the wrong lot and must have it moved to its rightful place. "SUNDAY the 15th," Buster and Sybil attempt moving their home to the right location, resulting to a series of unforeseen circumstances in the classic Buster Keaton tradition.Contrary to its title, the story doesn't take place entirely for one week/seven days, which really doesn't matter. One question comes to mind - shouldn't the opening wedding scene been more appropriate on church day Sunday rather than a work-day Monday, and having his Monday the start of his work week assembling his home? Overlooking these minor flaws, ONE WEEK is a near-perfect Keaton comedy of frustration by which, Buster, unlike other comedians as Edgar Kennedy or Oliver Hardy, showing no moments of having a nervous breakdown. He simply takes it in stride and moves on to more frustrating episodes. That's our Buster.Like the masterful work in COPS, ONE WEEK was a familiar item of silent comedy shown frequently on public television in the 1970s, notably WNET, Channel 13, in New York City, with prints from the piano scoring Killian collection. In fact, ONE WEEK preceded the 60 minute feature presentation of Keaton's COLLEGE (1927) as part of the 13-week series of THE SILENT YEARS (1975) hosted by Lillian Gish.Aside from various prints on video cassette and DVD formats with organ or jazzy underscoring, ONE WEEK has appeared on cable television, most recently on Turner Classic Movies with orchestral score not quite suitable for this style of comedy. Regardless of its age, ONE WEEK holds up remarkable well, especially for Keaton devotees. First time viewers certainly will remember this within an hour, a day, or even one week after watching it. ONE WEEK sure has that certain something with lasting appeal, that certain something being the one and only Buster. (***)

"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.

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.

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.