# Classic Silent Films
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-silent-films/265136
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [September 20, 2004, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-silent-films/265136 "2004-09-20T14:30:08Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2004, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-silent-films/265136/1 "2004-09-20T14:30:08Z")
I’ve enjoyed a few silent films over the years, but … sometimes they’re a little painful to get through. I seem to have this problem with the dramas, especially - I’ve come to rely on vocal inflection to sell an actor’s performance. Most of the time.
I saw Way Down East (1920), and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920/I) this weekend.
I enjoyed them - but in places, it almost hurt to keep paying attention.
Oh well.
Nita Naldi was hot.
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### Author:  [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2004, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-silent-films/265136/2 "2004-09-20T14:33:53Z")
I prefer **Nosferatu** to every other vampire movie I’ve ever seen…and I’ve seen quite a few. When I was in college I forced a few people to watch the library’s copy with me, and most were surprised by how much they enjoyed it.
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### Author:  [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2004, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-silent-films/265136/3 "2004-09-20T14:42:13Z")
I enjoy silent horror films, generally speaking… Jekyll and Hyde is something of a hybrid, though. Nosferatu was good, and Phantom of the Opera was excellent. I enjoy some silent comedies - but I can’t think of many silent dramas that have appealed to me. Not that I’ve seen loads and loads…
I’ve got DeMille’s Male and Female on track to be watched tonight or tomorrow…
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### Author:  [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2004, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-silent-films/265136/4 "2004-09-20T15:18:38Z")
Die Nibelungen
Birth of a Nation
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### Author:  [@LibrarySpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LibrarySpy)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2004, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-silent-films/265136/5 "2004-09-20T15:25:05Z")
Just in case you’ve missed it in your comedy tastings, [City Lights](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021749/).
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2004, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-silent-films/265136/6 "2004-09-20T15:40:03Z")
Dramas only:
The Wind
Greed
The Phantom of the Opera
Sadie Thompson (there’s a restored version which finishes the lost ending using stills)
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Metropolis
Of course, you’ll enjoy them more if you see them in a theater.
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2004, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-silent-films/265136/7 "2004-09-20T15:43:10Z")
> [@CandidGamera](#):
>
> Nita Naldi was hot.
Not only was she hot, she was a funny, smart, bitter lady; sort of a vampy Dorothy Parker.
Silent films are a different animal: _you have to pay attention_. You can’t read or chat or wander into the kitchen for a beer. You have to make the commitment to turn off the lights, sit back and _watch_. People just aren’t used to that anymore.
For comedy, I highly recommend _It, Show People_ and nearly anything with Buster Keaton or Harold Lloyd. Not-too-exhausting drama? _Broken Blossoms, Sunrise, The Crowd_.
By the way, how did you like the waterfall sequence in _Way Down East_? Zowie!!
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### Author:  [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2004, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-silent-films/265136/8 "2004-09-20T15:44:27Z")
I’ve seen City Lights, and Birth of a Nation, and Metropolis. Metropolis is the prime offender in the ‘Silent Dramas that really hurt me to watch’ category, next to the Passion of Jeanne D’Arc.
Uh oh - I think I heard lissener and Ilsa Lund coming to kill me.
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### Author:  [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2004, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-silent-films/265136/9 "2004-09-20T15:47:05Z")
> [@Eve](#):
>
> Not only was she hot, she was a funny, smart, bitter lady; sort of a vampy Dorothy Parker.
>
> Silent films are a different animal: _you have to pay attention_. You can’t read or chat or wander into the kitchen for a beer. You have to make the commitment to turn off the lights, sit back and _watch_. People just aren’t used to that anymore.
>
> For comedy, I highly recommend _It, Show People_ and nearly anything with Buster Keaton or Harold Lloyd. Not-too-exhausting drama? _Broken Blossoms, Sunrise, The Crowd_.
>
> By the way, how did you like the waterfall sequence in _Way Down East_? Zowie!!
Harold Lloyd is like a god. Glad to see some of his stuff coming to DVD finally. I like Keaton, but neither he nor Chaplin are fit to kiss Lloyd’s shoes.
I was wondering about the Waterfall sequence - seems like it would’ve been pretty rough. Did they have a local stuntman type, skilled at hopping between ice chunks, or was that the actual actor? I heard Miss Gish had permanent lingering damage in her hand from the frostbite from leaving it in the water too long…
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2004, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-silent-films/265136/10 "2004-09-20T16:08:04Z")
> [@CandidGamera](#):
>
> I was wondering about the Waterfall sequence - seems like it would’ve been pretty rough. Did they have a local stuntman type, skilled at hopping between ice chunks, or was that the actual actor? I heard Miss Gish had permanent lingering damage in her hand from the frostbite from leaving it in the water too long…
Very few of the scenes actually had Lillian Gish on an ice-covered river on an actual ice floe. The scenes of her and Richard Barthelmess running over the river, jumping from ice to ice, were real, and very dangerous. Many of the scenes of her on the floe, going down an icy river, were done with a double (a local townsgirl) or a dummy. Some of the close-up scenes of Miss Lillian on the floe were in a nice, warm river and on a piece of wood.
Still, with Griffith’s editing, it is a spine-chilling scene, yes?
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### Author:  [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2004, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-silent-films/265136/11 "2004-09-20T16:22:15Z")
> [@Eve](#):
>
> Still, with Griffith’s editing, it is a spine-chilling scene, yes?
Absolutely.
I think, though, that there’s another aspect of the films of the time that causes my attention to wander. It seems that films were still so novel to everyone, that they’d let things meander while fixing the camera on some mildly amusing, but irrelevant image.
Frex, the white kitten in front of (what appears to be) a General Store in Way Down East.
It has no plot relevance. And yet, the camera just stares at it.
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2004, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-silent-films/265136/12 "2004-09-20T16:25:36Z")
That was just Griffith. He loved that kind of vignette, and would show kittens or puppies or blossoms blowing in the breeze. Critics used to kid him about it.
Films were not “new” by the time he made _Way Down East_, either—they’d been pretty well established with the public by 1900, and by the early '20s, sound, color and all kinds of amazing camera effects were already being experimented with.
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### Author:  [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2004, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-silent-films/265136/13 "2004-09-20T16:32:33Z")
> [@Eve](#):
>
> That was just Griffith. He loved that kind of vignette, and would show kittens or puppies or blossoms blowing in the breeze. Critics used to kid him about it.
And well they should have. It broke the pace of the film. Which, in a monster-length movie like Way Down East, is a major crime.
Heck, I didn’t even know they _made_ silents over two hours till this one.
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### Author:  [@slortar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slortar)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2004, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-silent-films/265136/14 "2004-09-20T18:20:01Z")
You should check out Thief of Baghdad (1924) when you get the chance. It’s spectacular. And even if you don’t like it (and I don’t see why you wouldn’t), you can ogle the glorious Anna May Wong.
As a gamer dork, you might be surprised how much of an influence the movie had on Gygax and fantasy in general.
Plus, has there ever been any action star with even a fraction of the screen presence of Douglas Fairbanks? I’m not sure even Erol Flynn came too close.
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2004, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-silent-films/265136/15 "2004-09-20T18:24:47Z")
> [@slortar](#):
>
> And even if you don’t like it (and I don’t see why you wouldn’t), you can ogle the glorious Anna May Wong.
Or, ogle the glorious [Doug Fairbanks](http://silentgents.com/PFair.html), depending on your orientation (lucky, lucky Mary Pickford!).
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### Author:  [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2004, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-silent-films/265136/16 "2004-09-20T18:29:26Z")
> [@slortar](#):
>
> You should check out Thief of Baghdad (1924) when you get the chance. It’s spectacular. And even if you don’t like it (and I don’t see why you wouldn’t), you can ogle the glorious Anna May Wong.
>
> As a gamer dork, you might be surprised how much of an influence the movie had on Gygax and fantasy in general.
>
> Plus, has there ever been any action star with even a fraction of the screen presence of Douglas Fairbanks? I’m not sure even Erol Flynn came too close.
I plan to see it eventually. I actually own a copy of the Mark of Zorro with Fairbanks.
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### Author:  [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2004, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-silent-films/265136/17 "2004-09-20T18:47:03Z")
> [@CandidGamera](#):
>
> I’ve seen City Lights, and Birth of a Nation, and Metropolis. Metropolis is the prime offender in the ‘Silent Dramas that really hurt me to watch’ category, next to the Passion of Jeanne D’Arc.
>
> Uh oh - I think I heard lissener and Ilsa Lund coming to kill me.
And don’t forget **Cervaise**. I watched it with him a few months ago (his first time) and he said here that it changed the way he watches movies. I think you have to be prepared for that when you watch it. As much as Eve points out that silents’ are not compatible with multitasking, Joan is unique even among silents for the attention it requires. You have to allow its emotional momentum to take over your consciousness. _The Passion of Joan of Arc_ is a very interactive film: you can’t watch it passively. If you sit down with it, in the dark, with the phone unplugged, and \*accompany \*Dreyer on his journey, you’ll find, I think, that the whole is far far greater than the sum of its parts. Its power is entirely emotional, not cinematic, so you have to engage with it emotionally, not cinematically.
That said, I enthusiastically second **Eve** ’s suggestions: _The Crowd_, and another by Vidor, **The Big Parade,** are wonderful, real, involving dramas that are far more emotionally realistic than much of the silent drama that I have seen. Ditto Chaplin’s _A Woman of Paris_, an astonishingly compelling drama.
Dreyer’s _Michael is a lot more conventional that Joan; it’s more in line with films like A Woman of Paris_ and _The Crowd_: real, modern people in real, modern situations. It’s also interesting in that it deals pretty openly with homosexual themes.
\*Foolish Wives \*is another favorite of mine, but I imagine it could be tedious for some.
Another alltime great is _All Quiet on the Western Front_. It’s not a silent, but it’s a very early talkie and still employs many of the twchniques of the silent era. It’s an excellent transition piece. _The Jazz Singer_ and _Noah’s Ark_ may be, technically, more transitional–they’re silent films with isolated sound inserts–but they’re practically unwatchable. \*Noah’s Ark \*is somewhat improved by the sight of George O’Brien running around in a loin cloth, and the opportunity to hear his voice, but if that’s not important to you then I’d forgive your skipping it.
As far as Keaton goes, I can watch \*THe General \*and _Steamboat Bill Jr._ over and over again, but none of his other films call be back for repeated viewings.
Anyway, those were just some random jottings on the subject.
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### Author:  [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2004, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-silent-films/265136/18 "2004-09-20T18:57:58Z")
We love silent films, it’s such a different medium than glorious technoscope and stereophonnnnnnnic sound.
However, I need some help. For a book club discussion, we’re going to have people look at SUNSET BOULEVARD, and we’d like to show them a Gloria Swanson silent movie… just to be able to talk about “we had faces then.” Any recommendations?
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### Author:  [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2004, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-silent-films/265136/19 "2004-09-20T18:58:28Z")
Yay, lissener!
I was wondering which one of you would track me down first.
Too clever by half, though.
[diabolical laughter]
Er… more seriously.
I really didn’t buy the lead performance in Jeanne D’Arc. It was 90% lethargy. She looked brain-damaged.
Oh, well.
The suggestions for viewing, of course, are welcome. I’ve seen All Quiet on the Western Front - liked it quite a bit, as I recall.
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### Author:  [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2004, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-silent-films/265136/20 "2004-09-20T19:08:35Z")
> [@CandidGamera](#):
>
> Yay, lissener!
>
> I was wondering which one of you would track me down first.
>
> Too clever by half, though.
>
> [diabolical laughter]
>
> Er… more seriously.
>
> I really didn’t buy the lead performance in Jeanne D’Arc. It was 90% lethargy. She looked brain-damaged.
Not that this makes it unequivocally so, but that performance is considered by many to be just about the best performance ever captured on film. Just to suggest there might be something to be gained by trying it again.
It was lethargic in that she didn’t burn a lot of calories in the role, but that she was able to convey the entire emotional journey of Joan using mostly her eyes is pretty damn astonishing. Her face tells us the whole story, beginning to end; gestures or blocking would’ve been superfluous.
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