Three Ages
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Three Ages is a 1923 black and white American feature-length silent comedy film starring comedian Buster Keaton and Wallace Beery. The first feature Keaton wrote, directed, produced, and starred in (unlike The Saphead (1920), in which he only acted), Keaton structured the film like three inter-cut short films. The structure also worked as a satire of D. W. Griffith's 1916 film Intolerance. The film was shot in this manner as a kind of insurance for the Studio. While Keaton was a proven success in the short film medium, he had yet to prove himself as a feature-length star. Had the project flopped, the film would have been broken into three short films, each covering one of the 'Ages.'
Plot
Three plots in three different historical periods—prehistoric times, ancient Rome, and modern times (the Roaring Twenties)—are intercut to prove the point that men's love for woman have not significantly changed throughout history. In all three plots, characters played by Buster Keaton and Wallace Beery compete for the attention of the same woman, played by Margaret Leahy.
Cast
- Margaret Leahy as the Girl
- Wallace Beery as the Villain
- Buster Keaton as the Boy
- Lillian Lawrence as the Girl's Mother
- Joe Roberts as the Girl's Father
See also
- Buster Keaton filmography
- Anachronism
- Caveman archetype
- Cinema of the United States
- List of United States comedy films
