The Scarecrow

The opening is the reason people remember it. Two farmhands, Keaton and Joe Roberts, share a one-room shack whose furniture is a single machine: the phonograph is a coin-operated stove, the bookcase is an icebox, the bed folds into a piano. Then the movie becomes a chase. A dog Keaton thinks is rabid — Luke, Fatty Arbuckle's Staffordshire — drives him through a thresher that strips his clothes; he steals a scarecrow's outfit; a kneel to tie his shoe is mistaken for a proposal to Sybil Seely; they elope on a motorcycle, scoop up a minister, and are married in a stream. Written and directed with Eddie Cline, released by Metro on 22 December 1920. The house is the thesis: Keaton's comedy is engineering, and the gags lock together the way the furniture does.