Reviews of silent film releases on home video. Copyright © 1999-2026 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

The Play House (1921)

This comedy short, directed by Buster Keaton and Eddie Cline, stars Buster Keaton and Buster Keaton (etcetera), with Virginia Fox and Joe Roberts.

The films are accompanied by music scores composed, compiled and performed by Frank Bockius, Neil Brand, Timothy Brock, Günter Buchwald, Antonio Coppola, Stephen Horne, Robert Israel, The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, Rodney Sauer, Dennis Scott, Donald Sosin, and Sandra Wong. Some films feature two optional music soundtracks.

Supplemental material includes a collection introduction by Serge Bromberg (6 minutes); an alternate ending for My Wife’s Relations (1922) from the Lobster Films collection (2 minutes); “Life with Buster Keaton,” an excerpt of one of three 1951 remakes of Buster’s 1950 television episodes (3 minutes); and a 28-page insert booklet with an essay by Jeffrey Vance; an introduction, notes on the versions of the films utilized for this collection, and notes on two versions of The Blacksmith by Serge Bromberg; and analytical notes on the films.

For information about other films in this collection, see our Buster Keaton: The Shorts Collection 1917-1923 on home video page.

Currently, this is our recommended home video edition of the film for North American collectors.

This Region A Blu-ray Disc edition is available directly from . . .

Supplemental material includes an introduction by preservationist Serge Bromberg; audio commentary on six films by Joseph McBride; a recently-discovered version of The Blacksmith containing four minutes of previously unseen footage; alternate endings for Coney Island and My Wife’s Relations; a video essay by critic David Cairns; a discussion of Keaton’s style by actor Pierre Étaix; an audio recording of Keaton at a 1962 party; and a 184-page booklet with a roundtable discussion with critics Brad Stevens, Jean-Pierre Coursodon and Dan Sallitt, an essay and with detailed notes on each film by Jeffrey Vance; an essay by Serge Bromberg on the two versions of The Blacksmith and other discoveries; an excerpt from Life with Buster Keaton (1951) in cluding a reenactment by Keaton of Roscoe Arbuckle’s “Salomé dance,” first performed in The Cook and the words of Buster Keaton.

Sight unseen, this is our recommended home video edition of the film for European collectors. North American collectors will need a region-free Blu-ray Disc player to view this edition.

This Region B Blu-ray Disc edition is available directly from . . .

This remastered Blu-ray Disc collection has been mastered from the best 35mm print materials available. Not all of the source prints are of 35mm quality, however. Some prints are of only good quality as the surviving material is either contrasty and blurred from multiple print duplications or preserved from 16mm reduction prints.

For material that is quite scuffed or otherwise of distracting state, Kino offers viewer-selectable versions that have been digitally cleaned by computer processing.

Supplemental material includes 15 visual essays featuring contributions from Jack Dragga, Ken Gordon, David Kalat, Bruce Lawton, Steve Massa, Ben Model, David B. Pearson, R. Emmet Sweeney and Patricia Eliot Tobias, a series of alternate and deleted shots from Keaton shorts, a presentation of exerpts from comedy films influenced by Keaton, and Keaton cameos in short films of the late 1920s.

This Region 0 Blu-ray Disc edition has been discontinued and is . . .

The film is accompanied by a custom music score.

For information about other films in this collection, see our Buster Keaton Collection boxset on home video page.

This is a great way to affordably acquire Buster’s films on Blu-ray Discs.

This Region 0 Blu-ray Disc edition has been discontinued and is . . .

The films are accompanied by music scores composed, compiled and performed by Frank Bockius, Neil Brand, Timothy Brock, Günter Buchwald, Antonio Coppola, Stephen Horne, Robert Israel, The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, Rodney Sauer, Dennis Scott, Donald Sosin, and Sandra Wong. Some films feature two optional music soundtracks.

Supplemental material includes a collection introduction by Serge Bromberg (6 minutes); an alternate ending for My Wife’s Relations (1922) from the Lobster Films collection (2 minutes); “Life with Buster Keaton,” an excerpt of one of three 1951 remakes of Buster’s 1950 television episodes (3 minutes); and a 28-page insert booklet with an essay by Jeffrey Vance; an introduction, notes on the versions of the films utilized for this collection, and notes on two versions of The Blacksmith by Serge Bromberg; and analytical notes on the films.

For information about other films in this collection, see our Buster Keaton: The Shorts Collection 1917-1923 on home video page.

Sight unseen, this is our recommended DVD home video edition of the film.

This Region 1 NTSC DVD edition is available directly from . . .

This DVD edition has been mastered from the best 35mm print materials available. Not all of the source prints are of 35mm quality, however. Some prints are of only good quality as the surviving material is either contrasty and blurred from multiple print duplications or preserved from 16mm reduction prints.

For material that is quite scuffed or otherwise of distracting state, Kino offers viewer-selectable versions that have been digitally cleaned by computer processing.

Supplemental material includes 15 visual essays featuring contributions from Jack Dragga, Ken Gordon, David Kalat, Bruce Lawton, Steve Massa, Ben Model, David B. Pearson, R. Emmet Sweeney and Patricia Eliot Tobias, a series of alternate and deleted shots from Keaton shorts, a presentation of exerpts from comedy films influenced by Keaton, and Keaton cameos in short films of the late 1920s.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

The film is accompanied by a music score composed and performed by The Alloy Orchestra.

This edition should be of similar quality to the Flicker Alley disc noted below.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available from FLICKER ALLEY through . . .

This DVD edition has been transferred full-frame from a very-good 35mm print. Dust, speckling, small emulsion scrapes and chips, frame jitters, and other print flaws are present.

The film is accompanied by a music score composed and performed by The Alloy Orchestra.

Supplemental material includes the featurette Alloy Orchestra Plays Filmstudie (2011) presented in 16:9 anamorphic video (10 minutes).

For information about other films in this collection, see our The Alloy Orchestra Plays Wild and Weird on home video page.

This review was updated in 2026.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

This early DVD edition of The Play House has been transferred from a very-good to excellent 35mm source print for the natural-speed, full-frame video transfer.

The film is accompanied by a piano and violin music score arranged and composed by Robert Israel.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

This DVD edition has been mastered from a 16mm reduction print, with dust, speckling, schmutz, frame jitters, emulsion chipping, and other print flaws present. The picture is not as sharp as can be found in the other editions noted above.

The film is accompanied by a fun music score performed by The Paragon Ragtime Orchestra, with sound effects by Ray Faiola.

Supplemental material includes audio commentaries for the silent films and selected sound films by Andy Coryell, Paul E. Gierucki, Bruce Lawton, Steve Massa, Ben Model and Richard M. Roberts; a photo gallery of Keaton’s Beverly Hills Italian style villa (16 images); an audio interview with commercial director Bob Olds (7 minutes); an image gallery of the preesbook for An Old Spanish Custom (1935) (7 images); an image gallery of a promotional pamphlet for “The Devil to Pay” (1960) (5 images); and a 20-page booklet featuring essays by Paul E. Gierucki, Ken Gordon, Bruce Lawton, Steve Massa, David B. Pearson, Richard M. Roberts, and Patricia Eliot Tobias.

For information about other films in this collection, see our Industrial Strength Keaton on home video page.

This review was updated in 2026.

This Region 1 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

The film is likely accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting music recordings.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available from ALPHA VIDEO through . . .