Joseph Schenck

A historical drama directed by Frank Lloyd and starring Norma Talmadge, set in 16th-century France during the wars of religion between Catholics and Huguenots. When Catherine de' Medici orders the massacre of French Protestants, the Comte de la Roche spares his enemy, the Huguenot Rupert de Vrieac, by reducing him to an indentured servant in his castle. Rupert falls in love with Yolande, the count's sister, only to find his rival for her hand is the Duc de Tours, a notorious persecutor of Huguenots. Produced by the Norma Talmadge Film Corporation and presented by Joseph M. Schenck, the film was an expensive prestige production with lavish 16th-century costumes and a reproduction of the Louvre ballroom. As a work published before 1930, the film is in the public domain in the United States.

Drama · Silent · History

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 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

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 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