El herrero

This film bears a strong resemblance to the Keaton/Arbuckle collaboration "The Garage". Here Keaton is the somewhat inept assistant to a bully (Big Joe Roberts) in a garage where he works as a combination blacksmith and auto mechanic. Ordinary props and tools of the trade become instruments of mischief and mayhem, along with some not-so-ordinary devices of Buster's own design.

During this short film he completely wrecks a new Rolls Royce, a car that retailed for ten thousand dollars back in the early 20's. Did the Keaton Studios have the budget for the destruction of such a vehicle? Some have conjectured that this might have been the Rolls Royce that Keaton received as a wedding present from his brother-in-law and benefactor, Joe Schenck. Also conjectured is that the scene where he is shoeing a horse and equating it with trying to sell shoes to a finicky female customer could have been a dig at his new wife's excessive clothes shopping. This film was made about a year after his marriage to Natalie Talmadge - a marriage that even started out on very rocky ground, and these would have been the kind of passive-aggressive stunts that Keaton was well known for.

I'd recommend it.

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.

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.

Buster Keaton was nothing short of a genius, in comedy or for anything for that matter. Not just because of his humour hilarious, his charm endearing and his physical comedy enough to make many envious, but also because of how he was never afraid to take risks (his most daring work making the jaw drop) and because he was an unparallelled master when it came to deadpan, a lot of people struggle to do it well but Keaton was brilliant at it.

He did do a lot better than 'The Blacksmith', whether short films or feature films. When it comes to his short films, there is a preference for the likes of 'The Scarecrow', 'The Goat' and 'The Boat', which like a lot of other Keaton outings were much funnier, more imaginative, more daring and played to Keaton's strengths more. His physical comedy has been better served elsewhere as well, to me at least. That sounds like 'The Blacksmith' is bad. Actually, it is definitely worth watching and is well done, just a little underwhelming by inevitably high Keaton standards.

'The Blacksmith' is very thinly plotted and even as a short film it feels a little over-stretched. The romantic subplot is (for a Keaton short and feature film) uncharacteristically bland and feels padded.

For Keaton, 'The Blacksmith' is pretty tame. The pace is not as breakneck compared to most of Keaton's work and the physical comedy not near as daring or inventive. The gags are definitely well constructed and bring a smile to the face but they don't rise above pleasantly amusing.

As said though, this does not mean that 'The Blacksmith' is bad. It is a good looking short film, not among the most technically advanced of Keaton's but it's not primitive either. As said, the gags are pleasant and amusing and are timed well. It is not dull generally, not breakneck but there is energy, and there is an easy-going charm and natural likeability.

Keaton has great comic timing and is easy to endear to, his deadpan "Great Stone Face" acting style, expressive and nuanced as always, having not lost its appeal.

Overall, nice enough but not exceptional. For Keaton, this could have been better. 7/10

A young blacksmith's apprentice, through the usual in luck and malfunctioning gadgetry, ends up with control of the works for a while. There he tries to make do with all he's learned and what he has, including clever little jokes like horse's shoes in shoeboxes, a watch that needs to be fixed by fire, and a horse-back shock absorber. However, despite his genuine attempts at making everyone happy, eventually all of the customers grow irate, putting the young blacksmith-to-be in danger.

Typical Keaton in its inventiveness, this one has not much to make it stand out from any of his other works except for the delightful destruction of a high-class care, a neat little subversive poke towards conspicuous consumption sentiments. Otherwise, pick a plot line from any other Keaton short, make it revolve around a blacksmith's shop, and you got this neat little fun-fest.

--PolarisDiB