Best Comedy Movies of 1917

A derelict, huddled under the steps of a missionary church, feels enlightened by the sermon of a passionate preacher and infatuated by the beauty of the congregation's pianist, in such a way that he tries to improve his life of poverty by becoming a policeman. His first assignment will be to patrol along Easy Street, the turf of a vicious bully and his criminal gang.

The daring convict no. 23, known as The Eel, escapes from prison and, after mocking his inept persecutors, saves the lives of three people in peril: a beautiful girl, her mother and an annoying suitor, only to get exhausted and almost drowned. Once he regains his strength at Judge Brown's home, he participates on an upper-class social party where he competes with the suitor for the favors of the charming Miss Brown. But prison guards are still after him…

An alcoholic checks into a health spa and his antics promptly throw the establishment into chaos.

Gwen's family is rich, but her parents ignore her and most of the servants push her around, so she is lonely and unhappy. Her father is concerned only with making money, and her mother cares only about her social position. But one day a servant's irresponsibility creates a crisis that causes everyone to rethink what is important to them.

Customers and clerks frolic in a general store. Roscoe walks out of the freezer wearing a fur coat, then does some clever cleaver tossing. In Buster's film debut he buys a pail of molasses.

Arbuckle escapes the watch of his domineering wife and heads for Coney Island. Keaton arrives that same day with his attractive, and rather easy, girlfriend, who is immediately stolen from him by St. John.

Al and Roscoe, employees at a gas station, are rivals for Alice. When Buster delivers a wedding gown for Alice and begins modeling it, he is mistaken for Alice and is kidnapped by Al.

Living under the same roof with his newly-wed wife and his mother-in-law, a careless Mr Rough sets the nuptial bedroom on fire, as the residence's cook tries to woo the maid who only has eyes for the charming delivery boy. As one thing leads to another, Mr Rough ends up preparing dinner for a pair of duplicitous guests, when, clearly, he should be staying out of the kitchen. Does Mrs Rough know the visitors' true intentions? But, above all, how will this disastrous dinner party at the Rough house end?

In order to claim his inheritance, our hero must first produce a wife and family.

Claire Curtis, Jimmie Strong and Mary have spent their childhood together in the country. Upon reaching adulthood, Claire goes to New York and becomes a success on stage. Jimmie, who has always dreamed of becoming an inventor, goes to New York to sell the machine he invented, and there he renews his acquaintance with Claire. Soon their old friendship ripens into love. Meanwhile, back in the country, Ralph and David Harding, who are making Jimmie's machine, plan to steal the right to it. Back in New York, Mary appears and informs Claire that she loves Jimmie, and the actress resolves to give her a chance to win him. When it appears that the Hardings' scheme to steal Jimmie's machine will succeed, however, Mary's ardor turns cold. Claire and Jimmie then rush back to the country in time to avert the takeover and save his firm from bankruptcy.

Gloria Dawn lives down the hall from her sweetheart, Bobbie Knight. The dishonest Henry Black is Gloria's guardian, and he is also in charge of Bobbie's inheritance. The scheming guardian and his sister have been spending Bobbie's money, and they hope to have the sister marry Bobbie so that they can keep control over his money.

A rich Easterner who has always wanted to live in "the Wild West" plans to move to a Western town. Unknown to him, the town's "wild" days are long gone and it is an orderly and civilized place now. The townsmen, not wanting to lose a rich potential resident, contrive to make over the town to suit the young man's fantasy.

A young man grows restless living in a small Kansas town, dreaming of the adventures of the Three Musketeers. So in hopes of becoming a modern D'Artagnan, he mounts his steed (a Model T Ford) and sets out across the West in search of excitement and adventure.

A young girl travels west to live with her uncle during the California Gold Rush only to find that he has been killed by Indians and his identity assumed by an outlaw.

A healthy outdoors-type follows the girl he loves to a resort for wealthy hypochondriacs. In order to prove to her and the other patients that their "illnesses" are all in their minds, he hatches a scheme to take them on a boat ride, then get them stranded in the wilderness, where he can show them that they can live without their pills, doctors and "cures".

Based on the Happy Hooligan comic strip, by Frederick Burr Opper. Happy speaks with someone in the park and takes a trip to the moon on a rocket that looks like the front half of a current racing car, where he is made king of the moon. A ballerina does a shimmy and Our Hero winds up back in the park being accosted by a cop. The inference is that he has fallen asleep and dreamed the entire trip.

Behind in the mortgage on Sunnybrook Farm and barely managing to feed seven hungry mouths, mother sends young Rebecca off to Riverboro to be raised by her wealthy Aunt Miranda. The little girl is treated like a prisoner by her strict Aunt, yet she gamely does her best to get an education. When spoiled girls at school mock the spirited Rebecca as "missy poor-house," she soon makes them come to eat their words. Despite many difficulties, Rebecca manages to help the less fortunate and spread joy in Riverboro, dreaming that her reward will come when she is "all growed up." This version is notable for having been adapted by famed female screenwriter Frances Marion.

Snitch steals Ginger's (stolen) baseball tickets and takes Ginger's girl to the game. Finding himself without tickets, Ginger dresses as a baseball player and wins the game. A possible debut of the "Glasses" or "Boy" character.

Roscoe is a doctor who falls in love with a pretty woman whose boyfriend, in turn, falls in love with Roscoe's wife's jewelry.

A restless young girl yearns to leave her rural environment and "get away from it all". One day she stumbles upon a film crew shooting a western near her home. She makes friends with the film's leading man, who encourages her to try her luck as an actress. So she leaves her small town and goes to the big city to break into the picture business. However, things don't turn out quite the way she planned.

Roscoe flirts with a girl in the park. Later he takes his wife and mother-in-law to the movies only to see his flirtation showing on the screen.

In order to find out who's behind a cattle rustling operation that's hurting ranchers, a detective for the Cattleman's Protective Association pretends to be a tenderfoot from back east who's just arrived in the area and doesn't know how to ride, rope or shoot.

Our vagabond hero dons a lifeguard's uniform and madcap antics ensue on the beach, and in the changing stalls!

Harold's checked cap, blown from his head by a freakish wind, gets him into trouble. First he comes into conflict with the police as a highwayman, then the cap serves to identify him as a housebreaker and lands him in jail, while the innocent cause of his trouble becomes his cellmate for another reason. Eventually a distracted wife rescues both her husband and Harold from the clutches of the law, the cap this time aiding him to regain his freedom.

Max is forced to choose between losing his newly wedded wife and a fortune. He hits upon a brilliant scheme: He will give his wife grounds for a divorce, secure the money and then make his ex-wife Mrs. Linder again. He goes through any amount of trouble in helping her to get the necessary evidence, only to find that it is all a mistake on the part of a stupid lawyer - the money and the wife are both to be his.

A man takes a job in a café, hoping to get to know the pretty waitress working there.

A wealthy invalid tries to add his hard-working cook to his will, but the conniving butler gets in the way.

An inventor and his assistant build a robot that looks like their janitor, and everyone tries to profit off the invention.

Colonel Heeza Liar is a character a bit like Baron Munchausen. Many wild things occur to him in the cartoons and they are meant to be silly entertainment. Here, he gets into a fight with a kangaroo. On the verge of death, he's saved by a quack doctor--who gives him a transfusion of donkey blood! And, as a result, there is a funny lingering after-effect.

Silent version of the Twain tale, filmed in Pleasanton, California. A Missouri boy (Jack Pickford) encounters his first love (Clara Horton) and bucks responsibilities to find adventure with his friend, Huck Finn (Robert Gordon).

Max being a gentleman and helping a lady in distress. Max willingly helps the lady recover her forgotten purse before the boat they're traveling on is leaving.

Musty Suffer, finding a meal ticket, resolves to take a vacation while eating is free. The café owner, however, discovers Musty’s face does not compare with the photograph on the ticket. Musty goes out to have it altered, thinking less of the face than he does of the meal ticket. He is completely recast in a steel foundry and returns to enjoy the free meals only to find that the restaurant has closed.

The story is about Max who in holiday in Switzerland meets two young American girls. They're friends, the first one is blond, the other one is brunette. He falls in love with the two of them and decide to declare his flame first to the brunette then to the blond. When they realize the game Max is playing, they decide to play also. It is a delicate comedy between the three characters realized all in outsides (certainly around the Leman's lake)with a very good direction and very pretty images. The two unknown actress are also very charming. One of the best of Max Linder.

In Bagdad, Princess Badr al-Budur, the daughter of the Sultan, falls in love with Aladdin, the son of a poor tailor, and rejects the suit of evil alchemist al-Talib, her father's choice. Al-Talib consults his Evil Spirit, who advises him to find the magic lamp hidden in an underground cave. Unable to get it himself, al-Talib hires Aladdin, who secures the lamp but keeps it when he realizes al-Talib's wickedness. With wealth obtained through wishes, Aladdin courts the princess. After the lamp changes hands between al-Talib and Aladdin, al-Talib steals it and abducts the princess to the desert. Aladdin follows with only a gourd of water. Suffering from thirst and exhaustion, Aladdin nearly succumbs, but the horsemen of the Sultan, who learned of his daughter's abduction, ride up and rescue Aladdin.

In pre-historic times (dream sequence), our hero, in a loin cloth, battles other cavemen over the opposite sex.

In order to get his daughter away from her suitors, her father decides to spirit her away to Bermuda. Our hero, however, stows away on the ship. When discovered, he is credited with catching a crook, thus winning a reward and the girl.

A man comes home drunk in this slapstick comedy.

Snub Pollard plays a drunken man-about-town who believes Harold has robbed him. Meanwhile, Bebe has her hands full with a lounge lizard who won't take no for an answer.

A young couple head to Mexico to elope, but as they get closer to the border they realize they're running out of gas.

While on the job, delivering a message, Luke finds himself in a girl's seminary.

A counterfeit count is aided in his courtship of the heroine by her father who is overwhelmed by his "title."

Billy is a hobo who hangs around the train station. He creates disruption in the ticket office, at the lunch counter, and in the lives of some of the customers.

Our hero is a police officer who gets involved in a crap game, flirting with a nurse and other amusements.

The adventures of Max Linder, some based on real events, some fictional, as he travels by ocean liner from France to America.

A Lord foils a plot to kill his favourite and rides it to win.

The film opens in the lobby of a small hotel, where the desk clerk/owner (Budd Ross) is addressing three members of staff: the cook, the waiter and the bellboy. It is obvious from their reactions, particularly the cook (Leo White) that whatever was said did not go down too well. His animated arms knock down the man standing behind him repeatedly until all three servants simultaneously quit. They storm off into the adjoining kitchen where a slavery maid (Blanche White) is on the floor scrubbing the floor. The men all trip over her, moan briefly and then leave.

Farmer Al Falfa's pipe is stolen, smoked and buried by his frisky dog Fido. Some frantic chases ensue, with the farmer after Fido and Fido after various ducks and hens. The pooch's climactic battle with a fierce rooster leads to "fowl play."

A Fake Chaplin movie with Billy West as the tramp.