Buster Keaton

Margaret Leahy

Wallace Beery

Joe Roberts

Lillian Lawrence

The rituals of courtship, romantic rivalry, and love play out three times as a man vies with a villain for the girl. In the Stone Age, the rivalry is set off by dinosaurs, a turtle used as a ouija board, and a round of golf with stones. In ancient Rome, the men display their brawn through a chariot race, using dogs instead of horses. In contemporary times, the man finds himself overcome by modernity, including a very fragile car.

A film projectionist longs to be a detective, and puts his meager skills to work when he is framed by a rival for stealing his girlfriend's father's pocketwatch.

Six burglars separately break into the Vickers mansion on Long Island to loot the safe but catch each other in the act. They all pretend to be members of the household when locked in by a well meaning police officer.

Chaos reigns at the natural history museum when night watchman Larry Daley accidentally stirs up an ancient curse, awakening Attila the Hun, an army of gladiators, a Tyrannosaurus rex and other exhibits.

When Luke, a travelling salesman, finally arrives at the Countess' castle, he discovers his client is not what she seems to be...

A club man's country jaunt with friends leads to a breach of promise suit by a landlady.

A henpeck man inherits a fortune and starts a club for women-haters.

On the surface, this collection of shorts by up-and-coming African American filmmakers arrived at a perfect time. The cutting-edge products of the New Black Cinema of the early '90s had disappeared, giving way to embarrassingly stereotypical, scatological fare such as Booty Call and Next Friday. This feature-packed compilation (which includes production notes, interviews with all of the filmmakers, and audio commentary by four) attempts to prove that African American cinema is intent on moving past the lowbrow humor, as six of the seven shorts steer clear of any comedy.

1. A taxi driver barely finishes his coffee before a young woman asks for a ride to impress her boyfriend, only to reveal her beau’s ramshackle “plan” beside his sleek car. He then smooths over a quarreling couple, helps a frustrated engineer solve his machine’s fault in a dream, and delivers a masked father’s gifts for his estranged daughter. 2. Mr. Kalina, an airport employee, fulfills a flight attendant’s plea by taking in an orphaned African girl for the night. He ensures her safe transfer to a children’s home the next day. 3. Zaza, a coquettish milliner’s assistant, juggles the attentions of a shy tailor and her stern salon manager. After a humiliating fall on the runway, the tailor comforts her and stages a private reprise, revealing where her heart truly belongs.