Reviews of silent film releases on home video. Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

Three Ages (1923)

Three Ages (1923) was Buster Keaton’s first feature length film for his own production company (he had previously starred in 1920’s The Saphead for Metro Pictures). Buster is supported by Wallace Beery and motion picture contest winner Margaret Leahy.

The film is a loose parody of D.W. Griffith’s historical epic Intolerance (1916), with its multiple era storyline: prehistoric, ancient Rome, and modern day. Three Ages was also planned as a shrewdly careful excursion into feature films. If audiences did not accept Buster in a feature film format, the film could be divided into three two-reel shorts and redistributed. And Buster did not disappoint his fans in this feature film. The prehistoric ‘baseball’ gag is worth seeing.

— Carl Bennett

One of the burning questions we asked on the announcement of this Blu-ray Disc edition produced by Lobster Films, Paris, was, “Since Kino has already released the best-looking edition of Three Ages we know of, why do they need another Blu-ray Disc release?” Perhaps this new edition would be an improvement on their 2009 disc? Well, fortunately, this is the case. The 35mm source print utilized for this release is very-good to excellent but, it needs to be noted, it is a European release print comprised of alternate angles and alternate takes when compared to the American release print utilized for the 2009 Kino Blu-ray Disc noted below. There is some residual print wear but some digital clean-up has been performed to remove speckling with some image flickering still present. The 2K scan is made-up more of black pointilistic dots than of continuous greytones. The results can look sharper than the 2009 Kino BD edition when the picture is in motion but it is evident in still frames as overemphasizing film grain for the sake of image sharpness. Also, each film in this edition is available on its own disc, which means that there is no compressing the video to fit two films on one disc — a definite plus.

The film is accompanied by two optional music scores: a small ensemble performance by members of The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, and an older piano, violin and clarinet music score by Robert Israel from the 1990s Kino releases. Both scores are entertaining and add to the presentation.

Supplementary material includes a presentation of an excerpt from D.W. Griffith’s Man’s Genesis (1912) (9 minutes); a 1958 Alka-Seltzer commercial starring Buster Keaton (1 minute); and a 16mm kinescope print of a repeat performance of Buster’s lunch counter segment on the Candid Camera television series as narrated by Arthur Godfrey (6 minutes). We have seen better-looking footage from this Candid Camera performance elsewhere — still hilarious.

We don’t recommend that collectors replace their 2009 Kino Blu-ray Disc edition with this release but, instead, we recommend this as the best home video release of the European release version of Three Ages.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region A Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region A Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region A Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.

This Blu-ray Disc edition, remastered in high-definition, should be the best available home video edition of Three Ages but is only as good as the very-good 35mm source print. Unfortunately, the source print shows signs of beginning decomposition, flickering, speckling and a number of other flaws, which have not been digitally cleaned. Our best guess is that the source print is a couple of generations away from the negative, which means some contrastiness and softening of image details.

The film is presented with three optional music scores: a piano and violin music score arranged by Robert Israel and presented in uncompressed LPCM 2.0 stereo sound; an electronic organ score performed by Lee Erwin in Dolby Digital 2.0 mono sound; and a 2.0 mono piano score in Dolby Digital 2.0 mono sound.

Supplementary material includes a video tour of Keaton locations for Three Ages conducted by John Bengtson (8 minutes); an HD excerpt from D.W. Griffith’s Man’s Genesis (1912), which was one of the inspirations for the prehistoric section of Three Ages, transferred from a 35mm print and accompanied by Ben Model; the three stories of Three Ages reedited as they may have been if had been released as separate short comedies and accompanied by portions of the Lee Erwin score; and a Three Ages photo gallery (21 images).

As is noted in the previous review, this is the best home video edition of what turns out to be the American release version of Three Ages — recommended.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

The film is presented with three optional music scores: a piano and violin music score arranged by Robert Israel and presented in uncompressed LPCM 2.0 stereo sound; an electronic organ score performed by Lee Erwin in Dolby Digital 2.0 mono sound; and a 2.0 mono piano score in Dolby Digital 2.0 mono sound.

This is a great way to affordably acquire Buster’s films on Blu-ray Discs.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.co.uk. Supports Silent Era.

The film is presented with a music score compiled and arranged by Rodney Sauer and performed by a three-piece ensemble.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region A Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region A Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
This Region A Blu-ray Disc edition is also available directly from . . .

The film is accompanied by two optional music scores: a small emsemble performance by members of The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, and an older piano, violin and clarinet music score by Robert Israel from the 1990s Kino releases. Both scores are entertaining and add to the presentation.

Supplementary material includes a presentation of an excerpt from D.W. Griffith’s Man’s Genesis (1912) (9 minutes); a 1958 Alka-Seltzer commercial starring Buster Keaton (1 minute); and a 16mm kinescope print of a repeat performance of Buster’s lunch counter segment on the Candid Camera television series as narrated by Arthur Godfrey (6 minutes). We have seen better-looking footage from this Candid Camera performance elsewhere — still hilarious.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
This Region 1 NTSC DVD edition is also available directly from . . .

This DVD edition, remastered in high-definition, improves on the previous Kino DVD of Three Ages but is only as good as the good to very-good 35mm source print. Unfortunately, the source print shows signs of beginning decomposition, flickering, speckling and a number of other flaws, which have not been digitally cleaned. Our best guess is that the source print is a couple of generations away from the negative, which means some contrastiness and softening of image details.

The film is presented with three optional music scores: a piano and violin music score arranged by Robert Israel and presented in uncompressed LPCM 2.0 stereo sound; an electronic organ score performed by Lee Erwin in Dolby Digital 2.0 mono sound; and a 2.0 mono piano score.

Supplementary material includes a video tour of Keaton locations for Three Ages conducted by John Bengtson (8 minutes); an HD excerpt from D.W. Griffith’s Man’s Genesis (1912), which was one of the inspirations for the prehistoric section of Three Ages, transferred from a 35mm print and accompanied by Ben Model; the three stories of Three Ages reedited as they may have been if had been released as separate short comedies and accompanied by portions of the Lee Erwin score; and a Three Ages photo gallery (21 images).

As is noted in the previous reviews, this is the best DVD home video edition of what turns out to be the American release version of Three Ages — recommended.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

This DVD edition has been mastered from from an analog video transfer of a good to very-good 35mm print, with some beginning decomposition in the first reel. The transfer was originally prepared by David Shepard for release on laserdisc and VHS videotape earlier in the 1990s.

The presentation features the music of a piano and an ensemble, arranged and conducted by Robert Israel.

This edition is now out-of-print.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

Other silent film music scores by ROBERT ISRAEL available on home video.