Happy Birthday Buster Keaton-Cinema Spot Light on 1921's The Haunted House

Today marks the 130th anniversary of silent film star Buster Keaton

Keaton shaped the film industry like the few other stars have and his early films are cinematic landmarks filled with clever ideas and innovations.  Keaton wrote most of his own films and directed many of them.  
















Unsurprisingly many of the first films ever made where horror films, but Keaton's  The Haunted House is not a typical spook story, Keaton was too clever for anything typical.

Instead Keaton plays a hapless bank teller

 who get's tangled up with bank robbers, winds up on the wrong side of his crooked boss, 

and seeks refuge in a spooky old house

 where a theatre troupe is rehearsing a production of Faust.  

The film was directed by frequent Keaton collaborator Joseph M. Schenck  and costarred Virgina Fox, who appeared in several Keaton films.

The entire film runs only 21 minutes and is a delightful example of early horror comedy.  You can view it in its entirety in the you tube link below.