Well, hello. Thanks for coming back for another Letterboxd List review! This week we revisit the Letterboxd Top 250 Highest Rated Short Films of All-Time. I continue my exploration into Buster Keaton films with…One Week (1920).
I couldn’t resist.
There isn’t an “official trailer”, but here is a clip from One Week (1920).
Title: One Week
Directors: Buster Keaton and Edward F. Cline
Released: August 29, 1920 (United States)
Runtime: 25 minutes
Available to stream on: Kanopy and if you don’t have Kanopy, it is available on Youtube as well.
A Bride (Sybil Seely) and Groom (Buster Keaton) are newlyweds who are gifted a house by the Groom’s uncle. This isn’t just any house though, this is a portable house that instead of paint-by-number, is build-by-number. As long as you construct it in order, the house should be complete within a week.
Seems simple enough, right?
Well, it probably would have been if it weren’t for Handy Hank. You see, Hank also fancied the Bride and, as you can imagine, isn’t exactly thrilled at the idea of her being married to someone else. So what does he do? Using paint, Hank alters the numbers on the portable house’s boxes.
As the Groom finishes building the last box of his house, he notices that things don’t seem quite right. But without knowing which boxes were mislabeled, how will he ever get his house in order?
If I watched One Week (1920) in the year 2025 and was impressed, I can only imagine what people thought seeing this in 1920. It must have blown their minds.
Yes, it is an incredibly simple and straightforward story. But when you have the likes of Buster Keaton, normal gets elevated to extraordinary. Keaton manages to take everything to another level, from the emotions he is able to portray through expressions, the physical comedy, and even the stunt work.
While probably best known for the infamous window-frame scene, One Week (1920) is entertaining all throughout its brisk 25-minute runtime.
If you haven’t seen it yet, change that. If you have already seen it, well, there’s no better time for a rewatch than right now.
So, if you have seen One Week (1920), what did you think of it?
Leave a comment below or reach out to me on Bluesky and let me know your thoughts!
As always, you can follow me over on Letterboxd to see what else I’ve been watching lately.
Finally, before I go, we are just one week away from Livestream for the Cure.
May 16th and 17th some of the best in indie podcasting will be live-streaming on Twitch to raise money for a world immune to cancer.
If you’d like and are able to, you can donate early here.