# Cops (1922 film)
*Cops* is a 1922 American silent two-reel comedy short starring [Buster Keaton](https://www.edgepedia.org/buster-keaton), co-directed by Keaton and Edward F. Cline, in which a hapless young man trying to win his sweetheart ends up chased by an entire city's police force. It was produced by Joseph M. Schenck for the Comique Film Corporation and distributed by Associated First National Pictures, Incorporated.[1](https://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/C/Cops1922.html) The mass chase finale, in which Keaton flees hundreds of officers through the streets of Los Angeles, is one of the best-known sequences of his silent shorts.[2](https://silentlocations.com/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | Theatrical release March 11, 1922; copyright registered February 15, 1922 (LP17630)[3](https://cohenmedia.net/product/cops) • [1](https://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/C/Cops1922.html) |
| Format | Black-and-white two-reeler, 1,725 feet, standard 35mm 1.33:1; run time 18 minutes[1](https://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/C/Cops1922.html) • [3](https://cohenmedia.net/product/cops) |
| Direction and writing | Co-directed and co-written by Buster Keaton and Edward F. Cline; produced by Joseph M. Schenck[1](https://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/C/Cops1922.html) |
| Cast | Buster Keaton, Virginia Fox (his girl), Joe Roberts (the detective), Eddie Cline, Steve Murphy (the conman selling furniture)[1](https://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/C/Cops1922.html) |
| Crew | Cinematography by Elgin Lessley; technical direction by Fred Gabourie[1](https://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/C/Cops1922.html) |
| Finale scale | Keaton said in a 1963 interview that 350 police officers appeared in the mass chase, limited by the number of uniforms available[4](https://filmforum.org/do-not-enter-or-modify-or-erase/client-uploads/COLLEGE_-with-_COPS.pdf) |
| Rights | Public domain in the United States; a 35mm positive survives in the Cohen Media Group (Raymond Rohauer collection)[1](https://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/C/Cops1922.html) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
The film opens with what appears to be Keaton behind bars talking to a young woman; a quick cut reveals he is at the gate of her father's mansion, and she rejects him until he becomes "successful."[5](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/cops.pdf) His quest to make money goes wrong at every step: he "borrows" a cop's wallet, is duped by a conman into buying a wagonload of stolen furniture, and wheels it into the middle of a police parade.[7](https://www.loc.gov/item/97505498/) • [8](https://mubi.com/en/us/films/cops) When a bomb explodes near the parade, the crowd assumes Keaton is the culprit, and the entire police force gives chase.[7](https://www.loc.gov/item/97505498/)
The rest of the film is an extended chase in which Keaton escapes the officers in various ways, including the ladder stunt and a sequence in which he leads the cops into a building he then locks up.[9](https://embed.letterboxd.com/itai_lev/film/cops/) The film ends unconventionally: the girl rejects him again, a dark conclusion capped by an unusually pointed title card.[5](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/cops.pdf)
## Production
**Keaton's own unit.** Keaton made *Cops* in 1922, when he was 26, about three years after he began making films of his own following his apprenticeship with Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle.[5](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/cops.pdf) It was one of ten Keaton films made under a distribution contract with First National.[1](https://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/C/Cops1922.html)
The concept was deliberately simple. Keaton described it as a pursuit through the streets of Los Angeles, "just ducking cops in all directions. Just a common ordinary chase sequence," building to a finish in which he was chased en masse by the city's entire police force. In a 1963 interview he put the number at "three-hundred and fifty [cops]... because we could only find three hundred and fifty cop uniforms." The logistics required pre-planning on a scale Keaton's production team had never before attempted: locations selected, extras scheduled and costumed, and every evasion worked out in advance, even though Keaton never worked from a script.[4](https://filmforum.org/do-not-enter-or-modify-or-erase/client-uploads/COLLEGE_-with-_COPS.pdf)
Like many filmmakers of the day, Keaton used [Southern California](https://www.edgepedia.org/southern-california) as his backlot, shooting on the streets of Hollywood and downtown Los Angeles and at mansion gates in Pasadena. The stunt in which Keaton rocks a ladder back and forth to knock down pursuing officers was filmed on Cahuenga just south of [Hollywood Boulevard](https://www.edgepedia.org/hollywood-boulevard).[5](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/cops.pdf) • [6](https://silentlocations.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/hollywoods-silent-echoes-cahuenga-tour-2018.pdf) Crowds of onlookers watching the filming are visible at the edges of some shots; in one take Keaton reacts to a passing car and keeps his character, and the take was used for its naturalness.[5](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/cops.pdf)
## Style and reception
Keaton's approach favored long takes and real stunts performed in uninterrupted real time, letting the audience see that the gags were actually done. Randy Haberkamp, Managing Director of Preservation and Foundation Programs at the [Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences](https://www.edgepedia.org/academy-of-motion-picture-arts-and-sciences), describes the production values as "as complex as any feature of the period" and calls the short a concise, marvelously constructed film with unmistakable authorship.[5](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/cops.pdf) A contemporary review by Robert E. Sherwood in *LIFE* wrote that Keaton developed "the old police-chase idea to the nth power" and that the mob effect was "as stupendous as anything in Mr. Fox's spectacles."[10](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/cops)
The film's humor builds through dramatic irony: the audience knows the horse and wagon are not for sale, that the family is moving rather than selling its belongings, and that the man Keaton relieved of his cash is a cop, while Keaton's character does not.[5](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/cops.pdf) It also carries period texture, mixing early automobiles with horse-drawn carts and touching on contemporary fears of political anarchy through the bomb plot.[11](https://hannahbuttonsalevelfilmstudiesblog.wordpress.com/2022/05/19/cops-buster-keaton-1922/)
On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an 88% Tomatometer score from three critics, and on MUBI it carries a rating of 8.1 from 1,034 users.[10](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/cops) • [8](https://mubi.com/en/us/films/cops)
## Preservation and availability
A 35mm print exists in the film holdings of Cohen Media Group from the Raymond Rohauer collection, and a 16mm reduction positive survives in a private collection; the film is in the public domain in the United States.[1](https://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/C/Cops1922.html) Cohen Film Collection released a restoration by Cineteca di Bologna at the L'Immagine Ritrovata laboratory.[3](https://cohenmedia.net/product/cops) The film is available on home video in Blu-ray Disc and DVD editions.[1](https://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/C/Cops1922.html)
## References
1. [Cops (1922), Progressive Silent Film List, Silent Era](https://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/C/Cops1922.html)
2. [Chaplin-Keaton-Lloyd film locations, John Bengtson, Silent Locations](https://silentlocations.com/)
3. [Cops, Cohen Media Group](https://cohenmedia.net/product/cops)
4. [College (1927) with Cops (1922) program notes quoting James Curtis, Buster Keaton: A Filmmaker's Life, Film Forum](https://filmforum.org/do-not-enter-or-modify-or-erase/client-uploads/COLLEGE_-with-_COPS.pdf)
5. [Film essay for "Cops" by Randy Haberkamp, National Film Preservation Board, Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/cops.pdf)
6. [Hollywood's Silent Echoes Tour, John Bengtson](https://silentlocations.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/hollywoods-silent-echoes-cahuenga-tour-2018.pdf)
7. [Cops, Library of Congress catalog record](https://www.loc.gov/item/97505498/)
8. [Cops (1922), MUBI](https://mubi.com/en/us/films/cops)
9. [Cops review by Itai Lev, Letterboxd](https://embed.letterboxd.com/itai_lev/film/cops/)
10. [Cops, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/cops)
11. [Cops (Buster Keaton, 1922), Hannah Button's A-Level Film Studies Blog](https://hannahbuttonsalevelfilmstudiesblog.wordpress.com/2022/05/19/cops-buster-keaton-1922/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Films by genre, form, and subject › Animated and short films › Individual short films*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license