Oh good! You found us.
We’re an on-demand movie theater where you can discover hand-picked films from festivals and collections around
the world. We make it easy for you to find films you’ll love, no matter what your interests are.
Classic Comedy
see all genres ›Shakespeare to screwball, these vintage rib-ticklers prove that a good laugh is timeless.
Discover Classic Comedy Films
Genres / Classic / Classic Comedy
-
Alice Chops the Suey
A highly unusual Alice Comedy, featuring devices familiar from other cartoon series. The opening and closing are similar to those in the OUT OF THE INKWELL cartoons which the Fleischer Studio was producing at the same time, with the main characters emerging from, and disappearing back into, an ink bottle....Start your free trial to watch
-
Alice Rattled by Rats
Several of the Alice Comedies, including this one, featured crowds of nondescript mice or rats. These rats bear scant resemblance to the later Mickey Mouse, but this particular short was loosely remade in 1929 as a Mickey Mouse cartoon, WHEN THE CAT'S AWAY. Here it's Alice who goes away, leaving Julius in...Start your free trial to watch
-
Alice Solves the Puzzle
Little Margie Gay, who would go on to play Alice in more than half of the Alice Comedies, made her first appearance in ALICE SOLVES THE PUZZLE (The title introducing her was lettered by Ub Iwerks, who was not only the studio's lead animator but also its lettering specialist). And this short also marked the...Start your free trial to watch
-
Alice the Jail Bird
In this offbeat entry, Alice and her friends steal a pie from a windowsill and wind up on the wrong side of the law. The sight of a Disney character in prison stripes may seem incongruous today, but in fact this film anticipates a Mickey Mouse short, THE CHAIN GANG, produced five years later. Note that...Start your free trial to watch
-
Alice the Whaler
This entry in the Alice Comedies was released near the end of the series. In it we can see the fourth and last of the girls who played Alice, the relatively little-known child actress Lois Hardwick. Notice that Ub Iwerks' drawing style has matured by 1927, and now looks very different from that in the 1925...Start your free trial to watch
-
Alice's Balloon Race
Reflecting the mid-1920s obsession with air travel, stunts and competition, this short pits Julius against Pete as more or less friendly rivals. By late 1925 Julius had as more or less friendly rivals. By late 1925 Julius had effectively replaced Alice as the main protagonist in these films. Here Alice,...Start your free trial to watch
-
Alice's Egg Plant
A child actress known as Dawn O'Day made her first and only appearance as Alice in this delightful short. In later years she would change her name and become much better known in the 1930s and 40s as Anne Shirley. Here she's the owner of an "Egg Plant," a factory in which hens lay eggs until incited by an...Start your free trial to watch
-
Alice's Orphan
The title is a misnomer: Alice can be glimpsed here, but it's really Julius who finds, adopts and attempts to raise the orphan. The basic situation, and even some of the individual gags, are borrowed from Chaplin's feature-length comedy THE KID, released four years earlier. But Julius' unconventional parenting techniques are...Start your free trial to watch
-
Alice's Tin Pony
The title of this short is a takeoff on John Ford's THE IRON HORSE (1924), an epic Western about the building of the railroads. The short itself is a spoof on Westerns and, in particular, railroad films. Walt Disney indulges his well-known affinity for railroad trains here, with extended train gags and a...Start your free trial to watch
-
Allez Oop
The most obvious parallel to ALLEZ OOP is COLLEGE, where Buster Keaton's attempts at various athletic events are a disaster until his girl is threatened. Then, in a total reversal, he performs the same feats brilliantly while trying to effect a rescue. The girl here is Dorothy Sebastian, his leading lady five years earlier in...Start your free trial to watch
-
An Orphan on the Streets
Three Hairs was the name of a popular comic character, a street urchin with a bald head save for three thin stalks sticking straight up towards the sky. After a night on the streets, Three Hairs looks for work wherever he can get it; he polishes shoes, picks garbage and even sells newspapers, but finally...Start your free trial to watch
-
Bimbo's Initiation
One of the all-time-great commercial cartoon mixes of the surreal and the silly, this Fleischer Studios short featuring Betty Boop's canine friend Bimbo has been a longtime favorite amongst animators, cinephiles and lovers of the simply strange. Minding his own business while walking down the street, Bimbo...Start your free trial to watch
-
Blue Blazes
There is a free-wheeling quality to BLUE BLAZES with plenty of scope for physical comedy in several set-pieces. Buster Keaton uses gags from THE GOAT, THREE AGES and THE CAMERAMAN, amongst others. The film also bears more than a passing resemblance to the Harry Langdon feature HIS FIRST FLAME. With little in the way of plot...Start your free trial to watch
-
The Chemist
The action in THE CHEMIST is fast and furious, with sight gags abounding, perhaps partly due to the influence of the director, Al Christie, who was Mack Sennett's great rival in the silent era. This was the only time that Keaton and Christie worked together. There is also an early appearance by Don (later Donald) McBride. As...Start your free trial to watch
-
Crossroads
CROSSROADS follows four recent graduates: Zhao wants to be a writer but is stuck proofreading; Tang wants to be an artist but is hired to dress windows. Xu has given up hope, while Liu has "gone north" to fight the Japanese. Zhao lives in a crowded boardinghouse with an annoying female neighbor. Unbeknownst to each other, the...Start your free trial to watch
-
Ditto
Leonard Maltin, whilst asserting that Buster Keaton's sound shorts are far from poor, cites DITTO as one of his worst mainly due to the last gag with the girls being done with their backs to us. Although the identical height and dress of each girl and Buster's reaction make the gag obvious, an added punch would have been to...Start your free trial to watch
-
Down Among the Z Men
An absent minded professor loses a top secret formula in the grocery shop. When it is found by "Bats of the Yard," he proudly attempts to return it to the professor. Crazy comedy ensues. Starring the legendary Goons (Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe and Michael Bentine).Start your free trial to watch
-
The E-Flat Man
Not the most memorable short Buster Keaton ever did, THE E-FLAT MAN was instead a case of missed opportunities. The scene on the train is a total anti-climax. Once aboard, someone locks them in. The camera pans to reveal that their chosen boxcar is refrigerated. Several possible outcomes spring to mind but the rather weak one...Start your free trial to watch