The Play House

... and there is stiff competition.

This two reeler is set in a vaudeville house, the kind of place Keaton grew up in and where he grew into a comic as part of The Three Keatons, along with his parents, so he is familiar with this environment.

Keaton mainly plays a stagehand. Many descriptions say he is a goof up employee, but I'd say he is pretty innovative considering the strange messes into which he is thrown by the plot. He does some things here that you don't see much of in his other shorts - he pantomimes other types of people than he is or has had much contact with entirely. In the audience he plays an upper crust couple commenting on the low brow humor, he plays a grandma and her grandson, and he play s a middle class couple. He is also "the whole show" towards the beginning as there are all Busters in the orchestra, in a minstrel show, and he manages to dance with himself onstage, showing his knowledge of the camera and what it can do.

He also falls in love with one of two identical twins, played by Virginia Fox. Since he can't tell them apart without drawing an X on the one he wants, you have to wonder how he knows he really wants that one in the first place. Virginia Fox was the future wife of Darryl F. Zanuck, head of 20th Century Fox for decades.

If you are not familiar with Buster Keaton's work, this is a great place to start. But then when it comes to Buster I can't think of a bad place to start save for his sound films at MGM, and even they have their charms.