The Buster Keaton Collection: Volume 5 Blu-Ray Review – Amusing Silent-Era Efforts From The Great Stone Face

THREE AGES was Buster’s first foray into feature film production after a successful string of shorts. This hilariously inventive satire of D.W. Griffith’s INTOLERANCE follows the age-old story of misadventures on the road to finding love, retold in three separate eras, a structure that cleverly allowed Keaton to recut the film into three separate shorts if it failed as a feature. For this restoration, 5 elements were compared, with a second-generation duplicate negative being used for the majority. 

OUR HOSPITALITY is perhaps Keaton’s most nuanced comedy and again finds Buster recreating a bygone era. In it, he plays a 19th-century New Yorker who returns to the antebellum South to claim his inheritance, but finds himself also inheriting a longstanding multi-generational feud between his family and that of the woman he loves (played by Buster’s real-life spouse, Natalie Talmadge). For this restoration, a total of 17 film elements were compared, with a first-generation nitrate positive held at the Library of Congress being the main element used.

For thoughts on Buster Keaton Collection: Volume 5 (Three Ages/Hospitality), please check out our discussion on The Video Attic:

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Video Quality

These two Buster Keaton comedies come to Blu-Ray newly restored courtesy of the Cohen Film Collection in an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in their original 1.33:1 aspect ratio. As noted before each feature, these new restorations were an extensive undertaking where multiple source elements were used such as the original camera negative, a first generation nitrate positive, and a second generation safety dupe negative. Many of the available elements were severely affected by chemical decay, so it’s a minor miracle these look as good as they do. They have been around for a century! 

The natural film grain is present without being noisy, which allows details not to be scrubbed away. Textures on clothing and within the production design are now way more defined than ever before. The contrast in the black-and-white photography is pretty strong given the source elements. Three Ages comes off a bit fuzzier with a few instances of black crush. The upside is there is less apparent damage than Our Hospitality. The most consistently impressive of the two films is Three Ages, which is surprisingly stable outside of some more egregious contrast fluctuations between eras.  

The restorations are quite an achievement, as they take some really problematic elements and clean them up substantially. There are still minor blemishes, and the occasional instance of more noticeable damage, but these films appear very natural and filmic. There is some noticeable softness to some of the shots that likely stems from the quality of the source material. Both films have their pluses and minuses, but the general opinion is they both look pretty incredible for what they can be. The Cohen Film Collection continues to do right by Buster Keaton. 

Audio Quality

This Blu-Ray set presents these two films with DTS-HD 5.1 and 2.0 Master Audio tracks that sound pretty wonderful. Our Hospitality is graced with a score from Carl Davis, while Three Ages is given a new one compiled by Rodney Sauer. As these are both silent films, the music is the only element to contend with in these tracks, and they both sound bright and lovely with no clipping or age-related wear and tear. Classic film fans should be beyond pleased with the sound quality of these two films, as the pieces seem to complement the visuals perfectly. 

Special Features

• Our Hospitality Re-Release Trailer: The minute-long trailer touting the new restoration and musical score is provided here. 

Final Thoughts

The Buster Keaton Collection: Volume 5 offers up two amusing silent-era films that do not quite rank near the top of the performer’s talent but entertain all the same. There are definitely better films to try out if you are new to the Great Stone Face, but established fans should get a lot from this set. The Cohen Film Collection has done a truly stellar job of restoring both of these films to the best versions of themselves on this new Blu-Ray that sports a grand A/V quality but not much in the way of special features. Recommended 

The Buster Keaton Collection: Volume 5 (Three Ages/Hospitality) is currently available to purchase on Blu-Ray and DVD. 

Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.

Disclaimer: The Cohen Film Collection and Kino Lorber have supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.