The High Sign: Nicklenurser house.

• Mis en scene of the Nicklenurser home is realist in the sense that it reflects the middle class homes of the 1920s, contrasting the gangs hangout below the shooting galley.

  Keaton reveals the corruption of the middle class's involvement with gang's
• In a MCU, Keaton applies expressionistic vignette, iris as the Butler removes his moustache (expressionistic in its manipulation of reality), exposing himself as a member of the BB to Keaton.
• Following this, Keaton breaks the fourth wall in a medium two shot, creative a collective dramatic irony in Ms Nicklenurser joyful ukulele
• Realist trap door gag in LS reinstates Keaton's failures (since the butler does not fall, but K does) in modern society, the central theme of the short two reeler.
• The butler is used to show the audience the power of the rich, through his obedient performance simultaneously satirising the rich since they are being conned by him, and their modern technology (telephone) allows him to do this with ease.
• Dramatic irony is employed again in MS as the butler pours an unknown substance into his drink, tightening the frame to a MCU ('comedy is a long shot, tragedy is a cu') creating this tragic sense of comedy as he breaks the fourth wall once again.
• Iris on superimposed image of a horse kicking inside his drink relates to surrealist artists (began in 1924, he came first) and the work of the 'montagists', a categories of expressionist coined by Andrew Bazin in his critique.

  A soviet montage form of editing communicating the spiking (a kick in it) of his drink to the audience.
• Expressionistic ELS reveals a dollhouse like shot of all four rooms of the home, splitting the frame into 4 quarters as they chase Keaton through one quarter to another through the moving walls + trap doors.

  This unusual technique is being used to emphasise the gag of the house’s traps and also the repetitive routine the characters take from one room to another - cyclicality of the chase of capitalism / modernism.
• The traps in the house cannot be deemed expressionistic as they are a part of the set, instead they show Keaton's architectural skill and acrobatic comedy.
• Makeup worn by the gang emphasises their villain status: seen in wide MS of a member's head shut in the door, a real stunt (not made in editing), but expressionistic in Keaton's use of set to manipulate reality: it appears like his head is chopped off in the door - a brutal sight for 1920s cinema.
• Keaton finally succeeds in ending as he saves Miss NN, the damsel in distress.
• The dollhouse ELS could be read as meta in it's representation of actors + film sets being like playing with dolls