The Playhouse (film)

The Playhouse is a 1921 silent short film written, directed by, and starring Buster Keaton. The movie runs forminutes, and is most famous for an opening sequence in which Keaton plays every role.

The second half of the film features Keatons character falling for a girl who happens to be a twin. He has difficulty telling the twin who likes him from the one who does not. An uncredited Virginia Fox plays one of the twins. Edward F. Cline cowrote the production and appears, uncredited, as a monkey trainer, whose monkey Keaton impersonates onstage after accidentally letting the animal escape.Keatons portrayal of nine members of a minstrel show required the use of a special matte box in front of the camera lens. It had nine exactinglymachined strips of metal which could be moved up and down independently of each other. Elgin Lessley, Keatons cameraman, shot the farleft Keaton with the first shutter up, and the others down. He then rewound the film, opened the second segment, and refilmed the next Keaton in sequence. This procedure was repeated seven more times. The camera was handwound, so Lessleys hand had to be absolutely steady to avoid any variation in speed. Keaton relied on a metronome to guide him, not a problem in a silent film. It was decades before Keaton, who masterminded this, revealed his technique to other filmmakers. ........

Source: Wikipedia