Buster Keaton has big dreams of running a show at the theatre he's
working at, running inasmuch as he's the whole band, the conductor, the
comic, everyone in the minstrel show and even the audience. In reality
though, he's nothing but a stagehand, a stagehand who even has to double
as monkey in an animal act when the real monkey escapes. However, as
monkey, and later as extra in a war-themed sketch, he messes things up
pretty good, and when he tries to save his fiancée - whom he cannot tell
from her twin sister - from a watertank, he floods the whole theatre and
has to escape with his girl - provided of course that he doesn't pick her
twin sister. The first 5 minutes or so of this short are among
the most elaborate sequences that slapstick genius Buster Keaton ever
brought to film, as his running the whole show is achieved by
multiple exposure of himself (up to nine Busters onscreen simultanously,
sometimes even interacting with each other) on the film
material that is so perfectly timed and as seamlessly filmed it looks as if it was filmed in one
shot - which is especially remarkable considering the limited technical
resources available back in the early 1920's. Unfortunately, once the plot
sets in, The Play House does quickly lose its brilliance in favour
of a straightforward slapstick plot that's not without its highlights or
funny spots, but it simply lacks the ingenuity of the opening segment ...
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