Three Ages (1923)

The misadventures of Buster in three separate historical periods.

Directors:

Edward F. Cline, Buster Keaton

Writers:

Clyde Bruckman (story), Joseph A. Mitchell (story),

Stars:

Buster Keaton, Margaret Leahy, Wallace Beery

1 nomination.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Buster Keaton	...	The Boy
Margaret Leahy	...	The Girl
Wallace Beery	...	The Villain
Joe Roberts	...	The Girl's Father
Lillian Lawrence	...	The Girl's Mother
Kewpie Morgan	...	The Emperor / Cave Man / Roman Thug (as Horace Morgan)

Storyline

In his first independently produced feature film Buster tells of love and romance through three historical ages: the Stone Age, the Roman Age, and the Modern Age.

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Plot Keywords:

stone age | dog sled | lion | snow | police | 

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Taglines:

A Metro Picture in 6 Parts

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Genres:

Comedy

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Details

Country:

USA

Release Date:

24 September 1923 (USA)

Also Known As:

Die drei Zeitalter

Filming Locations:

Hill Street, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Buster Keaton Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

63 min

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

A widely-circulated error credits Oliver Hardy for this film. He was not in it. It was the similar-looking rotund comic Kewpie Morgan.

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Goofs

In the modern section, the newspaper announcement of the wedding varies. The first time it is seen it has five lines of text, but the next time it only has four.

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Connections

Featured in Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow (1987)

User Reviews

Mildly amusing but lacking the ingenuity and amazing derring-do of Keaton's one-reelers

Buster Keaton's first forray into feature-length territory was reluctact. THREE AGES, a story about a young man competing with a macho big guy for the heart of his beloved one through the ages, was specifically constructed as a three-part feature that if need be could be broken down into three segments and played as three short one-reelers like previous Keaton efforts.

Truth be told, perhaps because of the financial bet Keaton's first feature was for producer Joe Shenck, longtime collaborator and the man who would eventually sell Keaton's contract to MGM and thus seal his fate in Hollywood, Three Ages plays it safe. Most of the jokes are lame and they were lame and predictable even by 1923 standards, after all Keaton himself had done better work and devised more spectacular and amazing physical stunts and gags in his previous work, and try as it might, Three Ages simply can't compete for entertainment factor with something like The High Sign, Cops or The Electric House.

The three segments, each taking place in the Stone Age, ancient Rome and modern times, overlap one after the other, which means we go back and forth from one age to the other instead of each playing in its entirety. But unavoidably, as the story calls for Keaton to rehash the same plot in each story to prove the flimsy premise that the only constant in human history is love, the three segments are predictable and not even their juxtaposition and anachronisms are good for a laugh. When Keaton ups the ante in the final reel, Three Ages comes closer to hitting the mark, but whereas the buildup in one-reelers was ten minutes, here it's more than half an hour.