Three Ages

Through every age there is the faithful worshipper at Beauty's shrine.

If you let your mind wander back through History you will find that the only thing that has not changed since the world began is — LOVE. Love is the unchanging axis on which the world revolves.

—opening title card

For his first feature film, Buster Keaton made an Affectionate Parody of D. W. Griffith's Intolerance, in which a Love Triangle plays out in prehistoric times, during the Roman Empire, and in 1920s America. (The idea was that if the feature-length version flopped, it could be re-edited into three separate shorts.)

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Tropes used in Three Ages include:

• Affectionate Parody
• All Cavemen Were Neanderthals
• Anachronism Stew: In the stone age and Roman eras.
• Ancient Rome
• Bamboo Technology
• Big Little Man: Caveman Buster tries to grab a woman lying on the ground by the hair and drag her away, as cavemen were apt to do back then. The woman stands up and turns out to be a good two feet taller than Buster.
• Discreet Drink Disposal
• Dragged by the Collar: A variation. In the stone age segments, female characters are sometimes dragged by their hair.
• Everything's Better with Dinosaurs
• Love Triangle
• Nubile Savage: Margaret Leahy, who plays the love interest in all three eras, got her start in films by winning a beauty contest.
• The Oner: A caveman throws a rock at Buster, who uses a club to smack the stone back at his attacker, beaning him. Buster made a point of doing this gag in a single, continuous shot.
• Roof Hopping: Subverted hard -- even using a plank as a springboard, he doesn't make it. (This was an actual mishap that was worked into the film.)
• Somewhere a Palaeontologist Is Crying
• Spoof Aesop: When The Roman-era boy winds up in a lion's cage, he recalls that someone, somewhere, did something to a lion's paw...and gives the lion a pedicure.
• Stop Motion: Used in the first Stone Age section so Buster can ride a dinosaur.
• Throw It In: The failed Roof Hopping.
• Unsuspectingly Soused