Directed by Buster Keaton and Edward F. Cline • 1923 • United States
Starring Buster Keaton, Margaret Leahy, Wallace Beery
A brilliant historical satire teeming with inventive flourishes, Buster Keaton’s THREE AGES is a silent comedy of truly epic proportions. Keaton’s first feature is a clever parody of D. W. Griffith’s INTOLERANCE that follows Buster’s hard-luck romantic adventures throughout world history: from the dawn of man in the Stone Age, through the gladiatorial arenas of ancient Rome, to the city streets of Jazz Age America. By flavoring the ancient stories with bits of modern comedy (e.g. the “spare tire” with which Buster repairs his chariot and the “home run” that he scores against an angry caveman), Keaton not only won raucous laughter from the audience but forged an original approach to history, humor, and cinema that clearly foreshadowed the Mel Brooks and Monty Python films that followed half a century later.
Up Next in Classic Hollywood
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The Love Nest
Directed by Buster Keaton and Edward F. Cline • 1923 • United States
Starring Buster Keaton, Joe Roberts, Virginia FoxSpurned by his fiancée, Buster Keaton sets sail for the high seas, where he squares off against a tyrannical whaling-vessel captain.
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She Done Him Wrong
Directed by Lowell Sherman • 1933 • United States
Starring Mae West, Cary Grant, Gilbert Roland“Why don’t you come up sometime and see me?” purrs a seductive Mae West to a fetching young Cary Grant in this star-making smash hit based on West’s successful play, “Diamond Lil.” She is at her absol...
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Cleopatra
Directed by Cecil B. DeMille • 1934 • United States
Starring Claudette Colbert, Warren William, Henry WilcoxonMaster of the epic screen spectacle Cecil B. DeMille outdid himself with this lavish account of the Egyptian queen (a vampish Claudette Colbert) whose powers of seduction first charm Ju...
