Reviews of silent film releases on home video. Copyright © 1999-2026 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

The Garage (1920)

This comedy short, directed by Roscoe Arbuckle, stars Roscoe Arbuckle and Buster Keaton, with Al St. John, Molly Malone, Harry McCoy, Daniel Crimmins and Luke the dog.

In The Garage (1920), Roscoe and Buster work in a small-town garage, and double as town firemen. Keystone veteran Harry McCoy pops up in this latter-day film as Jim the village Casanova out to cajole the garage-owner’s daughter. And, is that a picture of Mabel Normand that Roscoe kisses before going to sleep?

The films are accompanied by music scores composed, compiled and performed by Frank Bockius, Neil Brand, Timothy Brock, Günter Buchwald, Antonio Coppola, Stephen Horne, Robert Israel, The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, Rodney Sauer, Dennis Scott, Donald Sosin, and Sandra Wong. Some films feature two optional music soundtracks.

Supplemental material includes a collection introduction by Serge Bromberg (6 minutes); an alternate ending for My Wife’s Relations (1922) from the Lobster Films collection (2 minutes); “Life with Buster Keaton,” an excerpt of one of three 1951 remakes of Buster’s 1950 television episodes (3 minutes); and a 28-page insert booklet with an essay by Jeffrey Vance; an introduction, notes on the versions of the films utilized for this collection, and notes on two versions of The Blacksmith by Serge Bromberg; and analytical notes on the films.

For information about other films in this collection, see our Buster Keaton: The Shorts Collection 1917-1923 on home video page.

Currently, this is our recommended home video edition of this film for North American collectors.

This review was updated in 2026.

This Region A Blu-ray Disc edition is available directly from . . .

Supplemental material includes an introduction by preservationist Serge Bromberg; audio commentary on six films by Joseph McBride; a recently-discovered version of The Blacksmith containing four minutes of previously unseen footage; alternate endings for Coney Island and My Wife’s Relations; a video essay by critic David Cairns; a discussion of Keaton’s style by actor Pierre Étaix; an audio recording of Keaton at a 1962 party; and a 184-page booklet with a roundtable discussion with critics Brad Stevens, Jean-Pierre Coursodon and Dan Sallitt, an essay and with detailed notes on each film by Jeffrey Vance; an essay by Serge Bromberg on the two versions of The Blacksmith and other discoveries; an excerpt from Life with Buster Keaton (1951) including a reenactment by Keaton of Roscoe Arbuckle’s “Salomé dance,” first performed in The Cook and the words of Buster Keaton.

For information about other films in this collection, see our Buster Keaton: The Complete Short Films 1917-1923 on home video page.

Sight unseen, this is our recommended home video edition of the film for European collectors. North American collectors will need a region-free Blu-ray Disc player to view this edition.

This Region B Blu-ray Disc edition is available directly from . . .

The films are accompanied by music scores composed, compiled and performed by Frank Bockius, Neil Brand, Timothy Brock, Günter Buchwald, Antonio Coppola, Stephen Horne, Robert Israel, The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, Rodney Sauer, Dennis Scott, Donald Sosin, and Sandra Wong. Some films feature two optional music soundtracks.

Supplemental material includes a collection introduction by Serge Bromberg (6 minutes); an alternate ending for My Wife’s Relations (1922) from the Lobster Films collection (2 minutes); “Life with Buster Keaton,” an excerpt of one of three 1951 remakes of Buster’s 1950 television episodes (3 minutes); and a 28-page insert booklet with an essay by Jeffrey Vance; an introduction, notes on the versions of the films utilized for this collection, and notes on two versions of The Blacksmith by Serge Bromberg; and analytical notes on the films.

For information about other films in this collection, see our Buster Keaton: The Shorts Collection 1917-1923 on home video page.

This is our recommended DVD home video edition of the film.

This Region 1 NTSC DVD edition is available directly from . . .

Supplemental material includes audio commentary on six films by Joseph McBride; and a 184-page book with notes on the films.

For information about other films in this collection, see our Buster Keaton: The Complete Short Films 1917-1923 on home video page.

North American collectors will need a region-free PAL DVD player capable of outputting an NTSC-compatible signal to view this edition.

This Region 2 PAL DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

For some enthusiasts, the main attraction of this collection will be the piano scores performed by Neil Brand and others, which offered an alternative to The Alloy Orchestra scores on the similarly programmed Kino editions.

For information about other films in this collection, see our The Best Arbuckle/Keaton Collection on home video page.

This collection should be of similar quality to the FPA disc noted below.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is available directly from FLICKER ALLEY through . . .

This DVD edition, produced by Lobster Films and Film Preservation Associates, has been mastered from a good archival 35mm print. Dust, speckling, schmutz, frame jitters, mild exposure fluctuations, sprocket tears, and other print flaws are present.

The film is presented with an energetic music score arranged and performed on Fotoplayer by Robert Israel.

Supplemental material includes an eight-page booklet with film notes by Jeffrey Vance.

For information about other films in this collection, see our The Best Arbuckle/Keaton Collection on home video page.

This edition is now out-of-print; it has been replaced by two split Flicker Alley editions.

This review was updated in 2026.

This Region 1 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

The Garage (1920) is another of the well-known Comique films, having been available for years on public-domain videotape. The opening moments of the film are disheartening because the film doesn’t look much better than those previously available tapes. Portions of the film appear to have survived only in contrasty 16mm reduction prints. However, the source print for this analog video transfer has utilized just such a 16mm print and another good 35mm print to compile a fairly complete representation of the total film. Dust, speckling, schmutz, emulsion scuffing, frame jitters, splices, exposure fluctuations, filmbase scuffing, and other print flaws are present in the conflated presentation. An effort has been made to present as much of the detailed 35mm footage as possible, even to the point of inserting a few seconds of higher-quality footage into a longer 16mm-based shot. Again, short sections of shots are missing, as action jumps forward over a break in the film. And, again, the film ends abruptly.

The film is presented with a music score composed and performed by The Alloy Orchestra, who has provided unorthodox music scores for the entire Kino Arbuckle-Keaton series, and all of the shorts include some punctuating sound effects that are well synchronized to the action.

For information about other films in this collection, see our Arbuckle & Keaton, Volume Two on home video page.

This review was updated in 2026.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

Other silent era ROSCOE ARBUCKLE films available on home video.