The Worst Film Ever

Sadly Over-hyped

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

I've not seen many Buster Keaton movies, but "The Electric House" is one of the few I have seen. It's one of his short features, at about 23 minutes, and the gags here are similar to what you'd see in his "The Haunted House". Basically, the story here is that Keaton is hired to wire a house (but his engineering degree was awarded to him by mistake, so he really doesn't know much in the way of engineering). Still, Keaton manages to come up with all manner of inventions for the profit of his employers. The first 10 minutes of this movie are less slapsticky and are more demonstrations of the inventions than anything else. The gags come in later when the man who was meant to receive the degree comes back for revenge and creates chaos.I definitely agree with that other reviewer who said this wasn't Keaton's funniest. Since I've barely seen any of his work I can't really say that, but the slapstick here is again repetitive like always although it did have its moments such as when Keaton's head gets caught in the door. None of it was that funny but the thing is relatively enjoyable and a nice watch for Keaton fans. I really must see more of his work.(Note: One thing interesting to note here is that the film was originally shot in 1920 but couldn't be completed when Keaton broke his leg on the electric staircase. Because of this, completing the film was delayed two years).

Electric House, The (1922) ** (out of 4) One of the least entertaining Buster Keaton shorts has him turning his Dean's house into a house of the future will all sorts of wild, electrical gadgets. The best joke in the film is near the start of the film when the electric stairwell goes out of control and sends Buster and the Dean out the window and into the pool. The rest of the film looks good but none of the jokes really work.Available in Kino's The Art of Buster Keaton set, which is one of the greatest collections of films out there.

It's funny; the other day I watched Buster Keaton's "College," which starts off with a high school graduation. My next Keaton movie, this one, begins with a college ceremony. Yes, once again, the graduates look more like their fathers than 22- year-old people.The degrees get mixed up somehow and the Dean thinks Buster has graduated with an Electrical Engineering degree and hires him to wire his house while he and the family go on vacation. Buster knows nothing about that sort of thing but reads a quick how-to-do-it book. The next thing we know, we see the house with all the gadgets.This was pretty amazing stuff. I didn't think they even had the technology in the early '20s to do this sort of thing. Shows you what I know. Anyway, we see all kinds of James Bond-type tricks from swimming pools that drain and refill within seconds to mechanical billiard tables to train tracks feeding the family. There too many of these crazy things (a bathroom on tracks going right to the bed was one of my favorites!) to list them all.Suffice to say they are fun to watch. Unfortunately, the real engineer gets wind of what happened, sneaks into the house and sabotages the gadgets while the family is showing them off to guests. Unfortunately (again), justice is not served in this film....or is it? There's a strange ending to this film, too, and makes me wonder if Buster wasn't a bit suicidal. I guess not, since he lived a fairly long time.There is no real plot in here; just gags....which is fine for a short film, except I found this was so fast-paced in the first half that by the 15-minute mark it seemed almost too long, if that's possible. It seemed like a long 22 minutes.

A lot of Keaton's comedies feature a scene or two filled with creative and wacky gadgets that make you laugh and make you marvel at his inventiveness, all at the same time. This short comedy is entirely devoted to this kind of eccentric gadgetry, and while that means there isn't much of a plot, it's fun to watch. There's a subtle, funny mix-up at the beginning that results in Buster being entrusted with filling up a man's house with whatever electronic devices he can think of, and he really goes to it. "The Electric House" is a funny place to visit.