Three Ages and Our Hospitality, 1923.
Directed by Buster Keaton.
Starring Buster Keaton, Joe Roberts, Natalie Talmadge, Margaret Leahy, Wallace Beery, and Lillian Lawrence.
SYNOPSIS:
Kino Lorber has reissued a pair of early Buster Keaton classics, Three Ages and Our Hospitality, with new restorations, thanks to Cohen Media Group, that have the century-old movies looking as good as they ever will. They’re worth a revisit for anyone who wants to take a trip to the early days of Hollywood, which were just as interesting as the modern era.
Watching silent films probably feels like having to eat a salad rather than a cheeseburger for a lot of movie fans, but hear me out: That era was just as interesting as any other in Hollywood history.
Case in point: Buster Keaton’s 1923 film Three Ages, a 64-minute parody of D.W. Griffith’s three-hour Intolerance (1916), which was a follow-up to the director’s controversial The Birth of a Nation and meant to be his rebuttal to his critics.
Given Griffith’s standing at the time, he was ripe for parody, and Keaton, also known as “The Great Stone Face” for his ability to keep a straight face even during ridiculous situations, was the perfect person to take him on.
Unlike Intolerance, Three Ages presents three simple stories — set during prehistoric times, ancient Rome, and what was then the modern age — in which Keaton is the unassuming hero vying for the attention of a woman (Margaret Leahy) while a larger bully (Wallace Beery) tries to bully his way into a relationship with her.
Despite Three Ages’ short running time, it was considered a feature-length film in that era, making it the first one that Keaton wrote, directed, produced, and starred in. (Admittedly, he had a co-director, Edward F. Cline, and three others are also credited with the screenplay.)
That movie’s success kicked off a prolific period for Keaton. It was followed later in 1923 by Our Hospitality, a satire that poked fun at the infamous “Hatfields vs McCoys” feud; in this case, it was the Canfields against the McKays.
Keaton plays the role of Willie McKay, son of John McKay, who died when he and rival James Canfield slew each other. This happened when Willie was a baby, and he’s sent by his mother to New York to live with her sister; the feud is an off-limits topic.
However, an adult Willie, who is now an over-the-top dandy city boy, receives word that he has inherited his father’s estate, due to his mother’s death, and he heads home to stake his claim. Along the way, he becomes smitten with a young lady named Virginia who turns out to be a Canfield, setting the stage for not only a renewal of the Canfield-McKay feud but also a humorous take on Romeo and Juliet.
The title Our Hospitality refers to how Virginia’s father treats Willie when he arrives at their mansion and the woman’s brothers want to shoot him: such an action isn’t allowed as a gesture of “our hospitality” toward their guest. Of course, that doesn’t apply outside the house, leading to a series of humorous chases when Willie tries to make a run for it the next morning.
Kino Lorber has issued both of these movies on Blu-ray before, but this disc serves both of them up after new restorations that have them looking about as good as they’ll ever look a century after their release. Each movie includes a text introduction that explains the lengths to which Cohen Media Group went to restore the films.
Unfortunately, the lone extra is a re-release trailer for Our Hospitality. It’s a bummer that commentary tracks weren’t commissioned, but I’m sure this is a release that will have slim profit margins in the long run. I’m glad that these treasures have been preserved on a format that’s not as susceptible to deterioration as celluloid.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Brad Cook
Originally published December 3, 2023. Updated April 22, 2024.
