Buster Keaton plays the long-suffering assistant to a monumental
blacksmith (Joe Roberts) in this two-reel silent comedy co-directed
with Malcolm St. Clair. In twenty minutes Keaton wrecks a Rolls-Royce,
mis-shoes a horse, turns the shop's anvil into a weapon, and woos the
local girl (Virginia Fox) through escalating disaster. The film is
packed with signature Keaton engineering gags — the hinged car body,
the horse that lifts a customer skyward — and a nude-statue routine
that got the short censored in some territories. Made at the peak of
Keaton's shorts period for producer Joseph M. Schenck, a year before
he moved into features. Published in 1922, it is in the public domain
in the United States.
Comedy · Silent
