The Buster Keaton Independent Shorts Part 1 Quiz

Answer: One Week

It follows their misadventures as they try to build a house from a kit, with disastrous results thanks to a meddling ex-suitor of Sybil's, who mixes up the numbers on the boxes. Other memorable moments from "One Week" include Buster's motorcycle mishap while trying to pass from one moving car to another, and the demolition of the house by a passing train.

Though "One Week" was the first film Keaton released independently, it was the second one he'd filmed. His first work got shelved and released later. Keaton's co-writer and co-director, Eddie Cline, worked with Keaton on most of his independent short films. The two men resumed working together in 1951, on Keaton's television series, "Life With Buster Keaton".

Answer: The High Sign

"The High Sign" was actually Keaton's first independent short, filmed in 1920, but he wasn't pleased with it so he shelved it. He released it in 1921, when a broken ankle left him unable to churn out movies at his usual pace.

Many gags center around the booby-traps the girl's father has set up to thwart assassins. It opens with a title telling us, "Our Hero came from Nowhere -- he wasn't going Anywhere -- and he got kicked off Somewhere." We see a train speeding by in the foreground, and Buster makes his entrance in an ungraceful landing on his backside, evidently thrown off the train.

Other famous gags include Buster hanging his hat on a hook he'd just painted on the wall, and Buster shooting at a bottle only to bag a passing duck.

Answer: The Boat

Released in 1921, "The Boat" features some of Keaton's most famous gags, including the doomed boat launch in which Captain Buster stands triumphantly aboard his ship as it sails straight to the bottom. Other gags include Sybil's inedible pancakes and Buster having to choose whether to rescue his child or his car.

Keaton's friend Eddie Cline co-wrote and co-directed.

Answer: Cops

"Cops" features escalating chases and a stunning, "How did he do that!?" moment -- Buster pauses as he contemplates the hoard of angry cops bearing down on him, then he grabs a passing car trailing behind the car like a pennant. After foiling his pursuers, Buster presents himself to his girl, only to be snubbed. He surrenders.

Eddie Cline co-wrote and co-directed, and played one of the pursuing cops.

Answer: The Playhouse

Frequent Keaton leading lady Virginia Fox is uncredited as one of the twins. Film historians still debate who played the other twin. Buster deals with the problem of frequent mistaken identity by painting an X on the back of his preferred twin.

"The Playhouse" was released in 1921, and was co-written and co-directed by Keaton's friend Eddie Cline.

Keaton built a special shuttered box for cameraman Elgin Lessley to produce the multiple Busters -- effects all produced inside the camera.

Answer: Convict 13

In "Convict 13", released in 1920, Buster reprises a gag he had used with his father in vaudeville -- swinging a weight at the end of a rope while standing on a table, causing mayhem around him.

Answer: My Wife's Relations

The film is a thinly disguised jab at Keaton's Talmadge in-laws, who move in with him and have no qualms about living off his money while disparaging his supposedly low-brow livelihood.

Answer: Daydreams

He fails miserably at everything he tries -- including shooting himself in the end. Released in 1922, "Daydreams" was co-written and co-directed by Keaton's friend Eddie Cline. The recently (and unjustly) disgraced Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle also contributed gags.

Renee Adoree makes her only Keaton appearance as Buster's love interest. Keaton's father, Joe Keaton, plays the girl's father and continues the family tradition of kicking his son in the posterior.

Answer: The Goat

Gags include using Joe Roberts as a springboard to launch himself through a transom, pretending a phone booth is an elevator, and getting stuck in line behind two mannequins. Buster is mistaken for Dead Shot Dan, a "kindly faced" murderer played by co-director and co-writer Malcolm "Mal" St. Clair.

Released in 1921, "The Goat" features the memorable image of a speeding train rushing toward the camera, and stopping to reveal Keaton riding on the cowcatcher.

Answer: The Balloonatic

Released in 1923, "The Balloonatic" features Phyllis Haver as Buster's outdoorsy love interest. A Mack Sennett Bathing Beauty, Haver spends some screen time posing in a bathing suit before diving into a river and landing on Keaton. Gags include Buster's inventive but hopeless attempts to provide himself with a fish dinner.

"The Balloonatic" was co-written and co-directed by Eddie Cline.

"The Balloonatic" features one of the few gags Keaton did with miniatures -- when his canoe is born aloft by the balloon when it was about to go over a waterfall.