Joseph M. Schenck Productions

A Buster Keaton short co-directed with Edward F. Cline. Keaton plays a young man who is mistaken for an escaped convict and sentenced to death. After a series of chaotic prison sequences—including a golf game with a noose around his neck—he escapes and tries to rescue his girlfriend from a gang of criminals. The film features some of Keaton's most audacious physical gags, including a scene where he is nearly hanged for real when the prop rope was accidentally replaced with a real one. The film is in the public domain.

Comedy · Silent

One of Buster Keaton's greatest short comedies, co-directed with Edward F. Cline. Keaton plays a young man trying to win the hand of his girlfriend, whose father insists he must become a successful businessman first. Through a series of mishaps involving a stolen wallet, a horse-drawn wagon of furniture, and a lit bomb, Keaton finds himself pursued through the streets of Los Angeles by the entire Keystone Kops-style police force—hundreds of officers in a escalating chase of breathtaking choreography. The film's famous opening, with Keaton rejected behind a gated door, and its apocalyptic climax, with cops everywhere, make it one of the most perfectly constructed chase comedies ever made. The film is in the public domain.

Comedy · Silent

A Buster Keaton short co-directed with Edward F. Cline. Keaton plays a young man who travels to the city to make his fortune, promising to send for his girlfriend once he succeeds. Each letter he writes home describes a glamorous new career—as a steam room attendant, a street cleaner, and an amusement park ride operator—but the reality is far less impressive. The film's structure, alternating between the girlfriend's romantic fantasies and the grim truth of Keaton's menial jobs, creates a comic tension between aspiration and reality. Though not as celebrated as Keaton's other 1922 shorts, it features excellent physical comedy and a memorable amusement park sequence. The film is in the public domain.

Comedy · Silent

A 1929 American sound romantic drama film directed by Ernst Lubitsch, starring John Barrymore and Camilla Horn. Set in 1806 in the Swiss Alps village of Pontresina, the film follows Marcus Paltran (Barrymore), a mountain man in love with Ciglia (Horn). But the jealous and vindictive Pia throws herself at Marcus and, when rejected, spreads rumors that force Marcus into a loveless marriage with her. Marcus and Ciglia struggle to find happiness together amid the constraints of their marriages and the rigid village society. Based on the novel Der König der Bernina by Jakob Christoph Heer, this was the last silent film for both Lubitsch and Barrymore. While the film has no audible dialogue, it was released with a synchronized musical score and sound effects.

Drama · Romance

A Buster Keaton short co-directed with Edward F. Cline. Keaton plays a down-on-his-luck man who decides to end it all, but every suicide attempt fails spectacularly—he can't even drown properly. A series of opportunities to better his situation arise, each ending in comic disaster, until he finally finds success in the most unlikely way. The film's famous ending—a wild diving stunt gone wrong—was considered lost for decades and was only rediscovered in the 1990s, making the film complete again. Keaton reportedly considered this his favorite of his short comedies. The film is in the public domain.

Comedy · Silent

A Buster Keaton short co-directed with Edward F. Cline. Keaton plays a hapless man who is tricked into marrying a woman from a large, combative family of roughnecks. The in-laws torment him relentlessly, but when a bootlegger hides a stash of liquor in their house, Keaton's ingenuity turns the tables on his tormentors. The film's comic premise—Keaton as the outnumbered outsider in a hostile household—allows for a cascade of physical gags and clever set pieces. The film is in the public domain.

Comedy · Silent

A Buster Keaton short co-directed with Edward F. Cline, often described as a comic Romeo and Juliet. Keaton plays a young man in love with the girl next door, but their families are feuding and have built a fence between their tenement houses. The boy's attempts to reach his beloved involve increasingly elaborate acrobatic stunts, including a spectacular sequence where Keaton is tossed back and forth between the two families like a human projectile. The film's blend of romantic longing and breathtaking physical comedy makes it one of Keaton's most charming early shorts. The film is in the public domain.

Comedy · Silent

Widely considered one of the greatest comedy shorts ever made, One Week was Buster Keaton's first independent release as a director-star. A newlywed couple receives a prefabricated house in a box, with instructions to assemble it in one week. But a jealous rival has tampered with the numbering, and the resulting house is a surreal architectural nightmare—walls where doors should be, stairs leading nowhere, and a facade that defies gravity. The film culminates in one of Keaton's most celebrated sequences: the house, caught in a storm, is swept onto train tracks and demolished by a locomotive. Keaton's engineering genius and deadpan physical comedy are on full display in every frame. The film was selected for the National Film Registry in 2008. The film is in the public domain.

Comedy · Silent

Willie McKay travels south to claim his inheritance, unaware that his family has been locked in a generations-long feud with the Canfields. On the journey he meets and falls for Virginia Canfield, and is invited to the Canfield home, where the men want to kill him but southern hospitality forbids them from shooting a guest under their own roof. Willie stretches his stay as long as he can, then escapes into a chase that moves to a river, where he dangles from a rope over a waterfall and swings to rescue Virginia from the rapids. The falls and cliff stunts were done for real. Keaton's own father, Joe Keaton, plays the train engineer, and his wife Natalie Talmadge plays the lead. The film is in the public domain.

Comedy · Action · Romance · Silent

A 1930 American pre-Code musical comedy directed by Edmund Goulding, starring Douglas Fairbanks and Bebe Daniels. Wall Street wizard Larry Day (Fairbanks), new to the ways of love, is coached by his valet Roger (Edward Everett Horton). He follows Vivian Benton (Daniels), an amateur aviatrix, on an ocean liner, where cocktails laced with a "love potion" work their magic. He then loses his fortune in the market crash and feels he has also lost his girl. The film features songs by Irving Berlin and an early appearance by Bing Crosby. Originally released at 91 minutes; surviving versions are typically cut to about 72 minutes.

Comedy · Musical · Romance

A projectionist who dreams of being a detective is framed for a theft he did not commit and banished by his rival. Back in the booth he falls asleep and walks into the film on screen, becoming the world's greatest detective, Sherlock Jr. The movie inside the movie is a parade of stunts, including a famous sequence where Keaton rides on the handlebars of a motorcycle through traffic, unaware the driver has fallen off. The scene where the screen keeps cutting to new locations while Keaton stays in place was one of the earliest jokes about editing itself. Keaton wrote, directed, and performed his own stunts, and broke his neck on the water-tower gag without realizing it for years.

Comedy · Action · Silent

A Buster Keaton short co-directed with Edward F. Cline. Keaton plays a young man who wanders into a balloon and accidentally launches himself into the sky. He crash-lands in the wilderness, where he encounters a young woman and demonstrates his survival skills—or lack thereof. The film features a series of inventive gags involving canoes, fishing, and campfire cooking, all executed with Keaton's trademark deadpan precision. Though one of his lesser-known shorts, The Balloonatic showcases Keaton's ability to find comedy in any setting, from the sky to the rapids. The film is in the public domain.

Comedy · Silent · Adventure

A 1930 pre-Code mystery film directed by Roland West and produced by Joseph M. Schenck for United Artists. Based on the 1920 play The Bat by Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood, the film follows the mysterious criminal known as "The Bat" who terrorizes the occupants of a lonely country mansion. Notable as one of the first widescreen films, West shot the picture in both standard 35mm and an experimental 65mm format requiring two cameramen. The film stars Chester Morris, Una Merkel, and Grayce Hampton, and is widely cited as an inspiration for Bob Kane's Batman. Long thought lost, a nitrate print was discovered at the Mary Pickford Estate in 1987 and restored by UCLA. The film is in the public domain.

Mystery · Crime · Thriller

Buster Keaton plays the long-suffering assistant to a monumental blacksmith (Joe Roberts) in this two-reel silent comedy co-directed with Malcolm St. Clair. In twenty minutes Keaton wrecks a Rolls-Royce, mis-shoes a horse, turns the shop's anvil into a weapon, and woos the local girl (Virginia Fox) through escalating disaster. The film is packed with signature Keaton engineering gags — the hinged car body, the horse that lifts a customer skyward — and a nude-statue routine that got the short censored in some territories. Made at the peak of Keaton's shorts period for producer Joseph M. Schenck, a year before he moved into features. Published in 1922, it is in the public domain in the United States.

Comedy · Silent

A Buster Keaton short co-directed with Edward F. Cline. Keaton plays a man who builds a boat—the "Damfino"—in his basement, only to discover it's too large to fit through the door. After demolishing his house to get it out, he launches the vessel with his family aboard, and things go from bad to worse as the boat proves spectacularly unseaworthy. The film's nautical gags showcase Keaton's gift for engineering-driven comedy, with each mechanical failure cascading into the next. The name "Damfino" (a play on "damn if I know") becomes the film's running punchline, uttered by Keaton each time disaster strikes. The film is in the public domain.

Comedy · Silent

A Buster Keaton short co-directed with Edward F. Cline. Keaton plays a botanist who, through a mix-up, is hired to electrify a wealthy man's house. He installs a series of automated gadgets—an escalator staircase, a self-setting dinner table, a motorized pool table—that all go hilariously wrong. The film is a showcase for Keaton's engineering ingenuity, with each mechanical contraption designed to fail in the most spectacular way possible. The escalator sequence, where Keaton is repeatedly carried up and dumped back down the stairs, is one of his most celebrated mechanical gags. The film is in the public domain.

Comedy · Silent

The Frozen North is a 1922 silent comedy short co-directed by and starring Buster Keaton, with Edward F. Cline. Keaton parodies William S. Hart's Western films, playing a rugged cowboy who arrives in a frozen northern landscape and attempts a series of Western-movie tropes with disastrous results. The short is notable for its surreal humor and self-referential gags, including Keaton breaking the fourth wall. As a 1922 work, the film is in the public domain.

Comedy · Western

The Goat is a 1921 silent comedy short co-directed by and starring Buster Keaton, with Malcolm St. Clair. Through a series of mistaken identities, Keaton becomes wanted as both a criminal and a dead man. The short features some of Keaton's most inventive chase sequences and visual gags, including a memorable scene where Keaton escapes on a motorcycle. As a 1921 work, the film is in the public domain.

Comedy

The Haunted House is a 1921 silent comedy short co-directed by and starring Buster Keaton, with Edward F. Cline. Keaton plays a bank clerk who ends up in a haunted house that is actually a front for a counterfeiting operation. The short features elaborate mechanical gags, including a collapsing staircase and a series of trap doors, as well as a memorable dream sequence where Keaton goes to heaven and hell. As a 1921 work, the film is in the public domain.

Comedy · Horror

The High Sign is a 1921 silent comedy short co-directed by and starring Buster Keaton, with Edward F. Cline. Although made first, Keaton shelved it, considering it too close to his earlier Arbuckle-era style, and it was released later the same year. Keaton plays a drifter who joins a secret society called the Blinking Buzzards and is hired to assassinate a wealthy man, only to end up protecting him instead. The short features Keaton's famous homemade newspaper-reading gag. As a 1921 work, the film is in the public domain.

Comedy · Crime

The Love Nest is a 1923 silent comedy short co-directed by and starring Buster Keaton, with Edward F. Cline. Keaton sets out to sea on a whaling ship to forget his romantic troubles, only to encounter a brutal captain who throws crew members overboard at the slightest provocation. The short features Keaton's inventive physical comedy aboard the ship, including a memorable gag with a hatchet. This was Keaton's last independent two-reel comedy before moving on to feature films. The film is in the public domain.

Comedy

A spoiled rich man and the woman who turned down his proposal end up alone together on an abandoned ocean liner drifting out to sea. Neither can cook, open a can, or manage the simplest chore, and the comedy comes from watching two helpless people improvise a household on an enormous scale, rigging kitchen gadgets with ropes and pulleys. When the ship drifts near a cannibal island, Rollo has to fend off boarders in a deep-sea diving suit, and the famous underwater sequences were filmed in a real tank with Keaton inside the heavy gear. The ship was a real decommissioned passenger liner the production bought for the shoot. Keaton co-directed with Donald Crisp and performed his own stunts.

Comedy · Action · Silent

The Paleface is a 1922 silent comedy short co-directed by and starring Buster Keaton, with Edward F. Cline. Keaton plays a butterfly collector who wanders into a Western town and is captured by cannibal Indians. When he discovers their land is being stolen by corrupt oil prospectors, he helps the tribe expose the scheme. The short features Keaton's trademark physical comedy and deadpan reactions in a Western setting. As a 1922 work, the film is in the public domain.

Comedy · Western

The Playhouse is a 1921 silent comedy short co-directed by and starring Buster Keaton, with Edward F. Cline. The film opens with a famous dream sequence in which Keaton plays every role in a theater — the audience, the orchestra, the performers, the stagehands, and even a monkey. The sequence was achieved through multiple exposure, with Keaton filming the same scene dozens of times. After the dream, the film follows Keaton as a stagehand pursuing a romance with an actress. The opening sequence is widely regarded as one of the greatest technical achievements of the silent era. The film is in the public domain.

Comedy

The Scarecrow is a 1920 silent comedy short co-directed by and starring Buster Keaton, with Edward F. Cline. Keaton and Joe Roberts play farmhands sharing a room filled with Rube Goldberg-style space-saving contraptions. When Keaton is chased by Roberts after a misunderstanding involving Roberts' daughter, he disguises himself as a scarecrow. The short features one of Keaton's most celebrated chase sequences and a memorable scene where he runs through a house while it collapses around him. As a 1920 work, the film is in the public domain.

Comedy

Three Ages is a 1923 silent comedy feature co-directed by and starring Buster Keaton, with Edward F. Cline. Keaton's first feature film, it parodies D.W. Griffith's Intolerance by telling three parallel love stories set in the Stone Age, the Roman era, and the modern age. In each segment, Keaton competes with a larger, more formidable rival for the affections of a woman. The film was designed so that the three segments could be released separately as two-reelers if the feature format proved unsuccessful. The film is in the public domain.

Comedy · Romance