IMDb RATING
6.8/10
3.3K
YOUR RATING
Buster Keaton shoes horses and repairs cars, with mixed results.Buster Keaton shoes horses and repairs cars, with mixed results.Buster Keaton shoes horses and repairs cars, with mixed results.
- Directors
- Writers
- Stars
- Awards
- 1 nomination total
Buster Keaton
- Blacksmith's Assistant
- (as 'Buster' Keaton)
Edward F. Cline
- Engineer
- (uncredited)
Virginia Fox
- Horsewoman
- (uncredited)
Billy Franey
- Sheriff
- (uncredited)
Joe Roberts
- Blacksmith
- (uncredited)
Malcolm St. Clair
- Engineer
- (uncredited)
- Directors
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Featured reviews
This is a very pleasant and amusing Buster Keaton short. Never heard of this one. Here he plays a blacksmith that, well, since this IS a Buster Keaton film, gets into a lot of various shenanigans. EG, new ideas for saddles for horses, a spotless white horse gets some new stripes, and so on. Actually, when viewing this, you get a very interesting view of a blacksmith's shop circa the 1920's. Apparently they were also doing auto mechanics as well? Keaton also has some gags with what looks to be an S.U.V. for that time period. And of course, he gets in trouble with the boss (with the boss getting his just desserts (which happens in nearly every Buster Keaton movie ever made) ) and Buster gets the girl (ditto). A very funny and light little short.
A simple story. A great effect. A lovely comedy, in which not exactly the story is significant but the amazing inventivity. A nice short film, proposing an apprentice and his hilarious mistakes and a love story among horses and cars.
I would rate this below-par for a Buster Keaton short. It's not bad, just not quite up to Buster's wild and craziness he usually exhibits in these short 20-minute films. He set high standards.
Instead of amazing physical feats or a bunch of chase scenes, most of the jokes are either Buster getting a horse dirty or breaking something or someone else doing it, or a nutty invention for a "shock absorber" for riding a horse. They are all mildly amusing, but that's it.
Perhaps part of the problem is that most of the movie takes place in a blacksmith shop/automobile garage. Keaton, with his athletic prowess, needs room to maneuver, and he doesn't have it here.
Instead of amazing physical feats or a bunch of chase scenes, most of the jokes are either Buster getting a horse dirty or breaking something or someone else doing it, or a nutty invention for a "shock absorber" for riding a horse. They are all mildly amusing, but that's it.
Perhaps part of the problem is that most of the movie takes place in a blacksmith shop/automobile garage. Keaton, with his athletic prowess, needs room to maneuver, and he doesn't have it here.
This 1922 short subject for First National Pictures finds Buster Keaton as the assistant to blacksmith Joe Roberts. Although by 1922 the horseless carriage had taken over the big city, you could still find a shop like this one in the hinterlands.
In fact Keaton does seek to keep up with the times and also tries to repair a car with hilarious results though not for the car owner.
Best gag in the film was the giant horseshoe over the shop which acts as a magnet grabbing everything metallic near it.
If blacksmith's like Buster were the future of the trade good thing the automobile was invented when it was.
In fact Keaton does seek to keep up with the times and also tries to repair a car with hilarious results though not for the car owner.
Best gag in the film was the giant horseshoe over the shop which acts as a magnet grabbing everything metallic near it.
If blacksmith's like Buster were the future of the trade good thing the automobile was invented when it was.
And films like this one is why. Its just one laugh after another. This is absolutely one of Keaton's better works. One gag after another, all pulled off as only Keaton could. All things work well. The photography is well done, the continuity is much better than in most films of that day, the sets, the props, the other players, all done well. And I loved the last minute or two of the film. Its just cool. And there is, of course, the destruction of the Rolls Royce. The beautiful new car had been a gift to Keaton from his in-laws. I wonder how funny THEY thought THAT was? I suppose it was cost efficient in the making of the film. But as far as cost efficiency and laughs go this flick is extravagant.
Did you know
- TriviaThe gleaming Rolls-Royce destroyed in the film was reportedly a wedding present given to Buster Keaton by his in-laws. By the time this film was made, relations with them had soured considerably.
- Alternate versionsIn June 2013, Argentine film collector, curator and historian Fernando Martín Peña (who had previously unearthed the complete version of Metropolis) discovered an alternate version of this film, a sort of remake whose last reel differs completely from the previously known version. Film historians have since found evidence that the version of The Blacksmith Peña uncovered was a substantial reshoot undertaken months after completion of principal photography and a preview screening in New York. They now believe the rediscovered version was Keaton's final cut intended for wide distribution. Following Peña's discovery, a third version of the film, featuring at least one scene which doesn't occur in either of the other two, was found in the collection of former film distributor Blackhawk Films.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Biography: Darryl F. Zanuck: 20th Century Filmmaker (1995)
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Languages
- Also known as
- The Blacksmith
- Filming locations
- Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA(shock absorbers horse ride)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime
- 21m
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
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