peefyn This movie is chock full of visual gags. It starts of establishing a plot that seems a bit interesting (the guy getting two jobs at once), but you soon realize that this is only to facilitate a lot of different stunts and sight gags. The secret symbol of the evil gang here is also used well, and Keaton's inability to use in the correct situations. As the plot slowly progresses, the movie ends up in a situation where Keaton is in a man's house for two different reasons (that oppose each other), and the house is full of traps. When Keaton ends up getting chased around in this house, there's just minutes of fun, jumping from one room to the other, often with big sets consisting of several rooms at once. It's great how much Keaton manages to squeeze into this movie's 20 minute run time.

Horst in Translation ([email protected]) In this 20-minute black-and-white short film from soon 100 years ago, Buster Keaton has quite challenge coming up. A man pays him to be his bodyguard and protect him, while a gang of crooks want him to kill that man. Of course, the two do not know about each other. I personally wondered how Keaton got involved with these criminals as he seems to be a quite harmonious man in this movie. Of course, the protagonist also wrote and directed this work here, together with his longtime collaborator Edward F. Cline. Surprisingly, Ingram B. Pickett who plays (not so) Tiny Tim does not have a most prolific movie career. He looks to me like a perfect choice for villain roles in these very early films. Al St. john is in this one as well.I personally thought this wasn't a bad short film at all. I just wished there could have been more focus on this main plot with on whose side Buster is on. The first 10 minutes of the film feel like an overlong prologue to the actual story unfortunately. And even when he got his two assignments, there is still a lack of focus as the story drifts completely away at one point when Buster is robbed in his own store after handing the robber even one of his own guns. And there is a love story included with the daughter of the man Buster has to protect. But this one is also slightly underwhelming compared to other love stories in the early days of cinema. The funniest thing about it may have been the intertitles, for example the one early on with all these b-words. However, all in all, I hoped for more. Not recommended.

captnemo This little gem of a movie is chock full of inventive gags that will keep you laughing. There are the usual physical ones, such as the house and its many entrances/exits. What had me intrigued were some of the sight gags as well. The dog and the bell was amazing to watch. Each and every corner in Keaton's world has something wondrous around it. The man was an amazing athlete, and it shows here. Watch for the weird guns throughout the film. They don't make sense but then again they don't have to.

Snow Leopard This is the kind of pleasantly silly and very funny film that typifies the very best of these old silent short slapstick comedies. It's fast-paced and filled with clever gags, and a couple of especially hilarious scenes. It starts when Buster tricks everyone into thinking that he is a crack shot, and thus finds himself hired by a rich miser to be his bodyguard, while also being recruited by a gang of criminals (the 'Blinking Buzzards', who go around saluting each other with the 'High Sign') to assassinate the same man. There's not much else to the plot, which is mostly a setup for a lot of zany antics. It's funny all the way through, and there is some especially good use of props and settings in this one. It's just slapstick fun, nothing to take seriously, but slapstick doesn't come much better. This is highly recommended for fans of silent short comedies.