One Week was Buster Keaton’s first solo short film, and it showed at once what his comedy would be: a man, a machine and a house that would not stand still.
One Week was released in 1920 as a short film, and it was the first film Keaton made on his own after working with Roscoe Arbuckle. He played a newly married man who received a build-it-yourself house as a wedding present. The house arrived in numbered boxes, but a rival mixed up the numbers, so Keaton built it in the wrong order, with doors and windows in impossible places.
The comedy came from the house itself. It spun in a storm, it was dragged by a passing car, and it finally ended up on a railway track. Keaton’s face stayed calm through every disaster, and his timing turned each collapse into a gag. The film’s famous ending, in which the house was split by a train, was achieved with real effects, not trick photography.
One Week remains a perfect introduction to Keaton. In less than half an hour it established his character, his love of engineering and his willingness to risk himself for a joke. It was the start of a run of short films that would lead, within three years, to his great features.