The Blacksmith is a 1922 American shortcomedy film co-written, co-directed by and featuring Buster Keaton.[1] Buster plays an assistant blacksmith to the big worker played by Joe Roberts, with predictable results.
Buster Keaton hoists a Model T engine from a wrecked car as Virginia Fox flirts with an unidentified actor in a scene still for the 1922 comedy short The Blacksmith.
In June 2013, Argentine film collector, curator and historian Fernando Martín Peña (who had previously unearthed the complete version of Metropolis) discovered an alternate version of this film, a sort of remake whose last reel differs completely from the previously known version.[2] Film historians have since found evidence that the version of The Blacksmith Peña uncovered was a substantial reshoot undertaken months after completion of principal photography and a preview screening in New York. They now believe the rediscovered version was Keaton's final cut intended for wide distribution.[3]
Following Peña's discovery, a third version of the film, featuring at least one scene which doesn't occur in either of the other two, was found in the collection of former film distributor Blackhawk Films.[3]
