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Silent Comedy
see all genres ›What many still consider the "Golden Era" of film comedy took place during the silent years when a stellar lineup of comedic talent (most famously Charles Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd) churned out umpteen funny shorts and features. Considered disposable entertainment then, they've by and large stayed remarkably fresh over a century's course since.
Discover Silent Comedy Films
Genres / Silent / Silent Comedy
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The Lucky Holdup
"Two old businessmen quarrel over a deal, and when it is learned that their respective son and daughter are in love, there is strenuous objection on their part. The young couple elopes to the West, and here is held up. The stage drivers are much disgusted to find they have no money. - New York Dramatic...Start your free trial to watch
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Mabel at the Wheel
Charles Chaplin, costumed in top hat, frock coat and sporting a goatee, was impersonating the "Dutch" screen character of Ford Sterling, the former Keystone comedian whom Chaplin was hired to replace. The comedy, the first two-reeler in which he appeared, incorporates footage taken at the Vanderbilt Cup...Start your free trial to watch
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Mabel's Busy Day
Mabel (Mabel Normand) is a hot dog vendor who, like a shabby scoundrel (Charles Chaplin), has to trick her way into entry at the racetrack. Chaplin wears his usual moustache and big boots but sports a light-colored derby and frock coats as a comic villain. Charlie pesters several women while Mabel has...Start your free trial to watch
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Mabel's Married Life
Mabel (Mabel Normand) and her husband (Charles Chaplin) visit a park where she is subjected to the unwanted flirtations of a cad (Mack Swain). Charlie's unsuccessful efforts to stop the cad later inspire Mabel to buy a boxing dummy in the hopes that the dummy will make a man out of her ineffectual spouse.Start your free trial to watch
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Mabel's Strange Predicament
Charles Chaplin's character is described as "a drunken masher." In his very first scene, Chaplin was savvy enough to create so much comic material that it would be difficult to cut in editing. MABEL'S STRANGE PREDICAMENT is the first of several Keystone comedies in which Chaplin reprises in some form the...Start your free trial to watch
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Madam Blanche, Beauty Doctor
A good example of the clever light comedy Thanhouser produced for its Falstaff label, while other studios cranked out broad slapstick comedies. Harry Benham and Mignon Anderson were versatile and popular Thanhouser stars, here showing considerable skill in light comedy, a genre that invites plenty of...Start your free trial to watch
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Making a Living
In his first comedy, Charles Chaplin has not yet adopted his famous character or costume. The character in MAKING A LIVING is a dubious dandy who aspires to be a newspaper reporter. He sports a top hat, frock coat, monocle and drooping moustache. Director Henry Lehrman (who plays the rival) cut Chaplin's best comedy bits.Start your free trial to watch
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A Man About Town
Stan Laurel’s clueless man-about-town follows an attractive woman making his same streetcar transfer. She ends up taking the scenic route, breaking off for several errands along the way. The pursuit is duplicated when Laurel attracts the attention of a store detective (James Finlayson) and the dreamlike...Start your free trial to watch
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Mandarin Mix-Up
Failing all tests of political correctness, Stan Laurel stars as a Chinatown launderer named Sum Sap. MANDARIN MIX-UP compensates for its questionable premise with brilliantly surreal slapstick. In one scene, a very adult Laurel plays an infant; in another, he floats through an opium dream. The location detail of a radiant...Start your free trial to watch
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The Marvelous Marathoner
Thanhouser’s "Falstaff Comedies" was a schedule of one-reel comedies released each Friday beginning in April 1915, later changed to each Tuesday. Looking for a niche, Thanhouser’s short plot-driven comedies stood out from other studios’ trend toward longer offerings and broad gag-oriented comedy. The...Start your free trial to watch
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The Masquerader
Charles Chaplin plays a mischievous version of himself in this splendid comedy. He is first seen in his civilian clothes and without comedy makeup entering the Keystone studios. Once he has put on his familiar comedy makeup and Tramp costume, he flirts with two attractive ladies, misses his cue and twice ruins the scene being...Start your free trial to watch
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The Matrimaniac
His penultimate Fine Arts release, THE MATRIMANIAC has Douglas Fairbanks as Jimmie Conroy, a headstrong young man determined to wed his girlfriend, Marna Lewis (Constance Talmadge), despite the efforts of her father and a rival suitor to stop them by any means necessary. THE MATRIMANIAC was filmed extensively in and around...Start your free trial to watch
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Matrimonial Shoes
A man and woman in adjoining hotel rooms put out their shoes for a shine. A simple romantic farce transforms into something more surreal when the shoes come alive and step through their own courtship ritual. Émile Cohl’s stop-motion chamber drama manages to be both urbane and magical.Start your free trial to watch
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Midwife to the Upper Class
In the abstract, it is difficult to know (a century later) what Alice Guy intended from this unusual short. To poke fun at the notion of where children come from? Perhaps. To satirize the upper class? Perhaps. Outside of an offensive sight-gag, the story is somewhat entertaining (if slight) regardless of...Start your free trial to watch
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Mighty Like a Moose
Man and wife (with the surname of Moose and faces to match their namesake) independently decide that plastic surgery would do wonders in this exceptional Charley Chase comedy short. Unfortunately, the work is a bit too good for either of them to recognize their spouse! Hilarity ensues.Start your free trial to watch
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Mine Your Business!
Fred Parker stars as Rastus, a man who couldn't shine as a movie star so he shined as a boot-black. Parker made 142 films but was uncredited in most. This was his first film and is most unusual in that even though Parker was white he is seen here playing a black cowboy. The film was also released as A...Start your free trial to watch
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The Mollycoddle
In THE MOLLYCODDLE, his third United Artists release, Douglas Fairbanks latched onto the catchword to evoke his trademark "lamb into a lion" character transformation, used from his very first film. Fairbanks plays the Arizona-born Richard Marshall V, the "mollycoddle" of the film's title, a hopeless anglophile sporting such...Start your free trial to watch