Three Ages (1923) on Netflix
In the Stone Age, ancient Rome and the 1920s, a small suitor and a bigger rival compete for the same woman. The courtship involves dinosaurs, a chariot race and a fragile car.
- Netflix4.1/5
- IMDb7.0/105,837 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes92%
Trailer
Plot summary
Three courtship stories are intercut, set in the Stone Age, in ancient Rome and in the 1920s, and in each of them a small suitor and a bigger, brutish rival want the same woman. In the Stone Age, the rival bullies the suitor and pushes him back whenever he tries to be more assertive, while an attempt to make the woman jealous by flirting with another woman comes to nothing. In ancient Rome, the suitor tries to attract the wealthy woman and is pushed back again, and the rival challenges him to a chariot race. In the 1920s, the suitor is a poor man, the woman's parents are rich, and her mother favors the rival and his bank account over him.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Three Ages (1923)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- It has been alleged that had Three Ages flopped, it would have been broken into three short films, a claim film historians dispute, noting that neither Buster Keaton nor his associates ever made it in their lifetimes.
- Three Ages was the first feature that Buster Keaton wrote, directed, produced and starred in; in the earlier The Saphead he only acted. He had proved himself in short films but had yet to prove himself as a feature-length star.
- When the film's negative was rediscovered in 1954 it was so badly decomposed that it was considered unsalvageable; later restoration work preserved Three Ages for posterity, though a good deal of damage is still visible.
