Three Ages (1923, Buster Keaton & Eddie Cline) (Patreon)

56/100

One of the two Keaton-directed silent features I still hadn't seen. (Only Spite Marriage remains. Plus The Saphead if you want to count a film that he only starred in.) As almost everybody accurately notes, it plays like three separate two-reelers that've been intercut with one another, though the trio—Stone Age, Roman Age, Modern Age—do share a basic narrative skeleton and boast a common theme, viz. romance is hard for the little guy. I perhaps erred by watching, immediately beforehand, eight actual Keaton two-reelers (all of the self-produced ones I hadn't yet seen, excepting "The Paleface" which I guess Criterion was scared to program, though there's blackface in at least a couple of the ones that they did), including such classics as "One Week" and "Cops." Very little here measures up even to the weakest of those, and Keaton largely eschews the minutely choreographed, purely physical comedy stunts at which he excels; these are broad, conceptual jokes (as opposed to gags), not far removed from what The Flintstones would do with cavemen and what History of the World Part I would do with ancient Rome. Taking dictation via hammer and chisel, the ol' sundial wristwatch, stuff like that—originated here, possibly, but still second-rate. Only the respective climaxes showcase Keaton at his finest, with a combination of suicidal-looking feats (I looked up how he accomplished the failed gangplank leap from one roof to another, discovered that he genuinely fell short and was injured, then chose to just use that take) and zany escalation (falling into a lower-story window and down a firehouse pole, thence onto the back of a firetruck, which takes him straight to the police station from he'd just accidentally escaped, as it's now on fire). Most of Keaton's features serve up such giddy delights throughout, gradually building to the grandest; Three Ages more often seems to be stalling, content to nurse an okay bit like Keaton getting progressively more drunk as he consumes a pitcher of vodka (I assume) that he thinks is water. Plenty of comedians can pull drunk faces. But, hey, I came to this one late, so at least it's not as if I'm now discouraged from exploring further.