Author Archive: Retro

Botany major Buster mistakenly graduates in electrical engineering and is hired to wire a new home, installing many fanciful gadgets. The one who should’ve received the degree seeks revenge by rewiring the gadgets to wreak havoc.

The opening scene, a dream sequence prior to the vaudeville routines which follow, is what makes this film famous. In it Keaton plays everyone in a theatre simultaneously (through multiple exposures). He is the band leader, all its members, the dancers on the stage and everyone in the audience. A technical triumph.

Buster goes away to the city to prove to his girl’s father he can succeed. He writes her of his various jobs which she glorifies in her imagination. She sees a surgeon, he is a vet’s assistant; she sees him cleaning up on Wall Street, he’s really a janitor.

Buster and Phyllis endure mishaps and adventures in the outdoors trying to prove to each other their survival skills. The balloon which lands Buster in the wilderness proves useful later on as their canoe nears a waterfall.