The Electric House
1922 · 22m · USA
Directed by Buster Keaton, Edward F. Cline
A botany graduate accidentally picks up an electrical engineering diploma and is hired to wire a dean's house with elaborate automated gadgets. When the real engineering graduate discovers the mix-up, he rewires everything to cause hilarious chaos.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Keaton rewiring a house into a Rube Goldberg deathtrap — pure engineering anarchy, no sentiment, just escalating mechanical malice. Yes please.
Keaton's domestic-mechanical comedy at its purest, a Rube Goldberg house deployed with engineering rigor. The Internet Archive print is readily available; the formal pleasures endure.
Keaton's Rube Goldberg house with a working escalator-stair was genuinely engineered, not faked — he broke his ankle on the first take, which tells you what the practical effects involved. Comedy fused with real mechanical ingenuity is rare in any era.
Reviews
Keaton's Rube Goldbergian innovations reach their peak in The Electric House — the technical gadgets, built by Fred Gabourie, are almost too brilliant because the laughs don't really play as well when Keaton lets the film get bogged down in watching the gadgets at work.
A disappointing Keaton comedy with a few bright spots, but curiously lacklustre — though what makes it a must-see is the technical prowess on display.