Rent Buster Keaton: Three Ages (1923)

Silent Comedy. - Buster Keaton: Three Ages review by Steve

This is Buster Keaton’s debut feature as director/star, though as he’d been heading comedy shorts going back to the war years, he was already an experienced film maker. And this is really a collection of shorts but intercut and on a common theme: the hazards of courtship through the ages.

There are three comic love triangles set in prehistoric, Roman and contemporary times. Wallace Beery is a stolid heavy who eternally challenges Buster for the hand of Margaret Leahy. And for fans of the great auteur, it’s a little disappointing.

Heaven knows, there is rarely much for female leads in silent comedies, but still, Leahy makes zero impact. And neither does Beery. It’s all about about the star and- at least now- most of the gags are very familiar. And we don’t get any spectacular action stunts.

Buster throws in a few gimmicky ideas, including stop-motion animation. He may even have invented the Flintstones! And it’s startling how much this influenced early Woody Allen. It’s fun but lacks ambition and is not obviously the work of a cinematic legend.