I forgot to add Potemkin to my list of viewed films. Hey, it was only one of the best propaganda movies I’ve seen, not an unforgettable classic like Cheerleader Ninjas. 
Now, is there any way to determine if the film I’m watching has the correct musical score?
Is that the silent Cheerleader Ninjas, starring Noma, Constance and Natalie Talmadge?
My favorites have been listed, but I want to urge you to get good, restored versions. It makes a world of difference. It’s a chore watching the cheap versions, made from many-generation-duped prints. The cheap DVD versions are often such poor prints, not the most complete versions, and often don’t have apropriate music. Fortunately, a lot of previously unavailable silent films are being released in much more complete versions on DVD now. Metropolis has been released in a restored print, and the difference between it and the earlier ones is so immense that I wouldn’t even recommend watching the cheap versions. Likewise, there’s a restored version of The Lost World, made by combining six searate prints, that is about 95% complete. It’s better than the Eastman House version (previously the best available). There’s a two-disc DV of Phantom of the Opera that includes the entire 1925 version, the 1929 version, and as mch as they could scrape together of the added scenes from three other versions (including one with partial sound!) The 1929 version is of extraordinary quality, with the best version of the “Bal Masque” sequence in two-color Technicolor I’ve seen (other versions look very washed out), and with the Phantom’s cape coloed n red for the scenes atop the Opera House – an effect I’ve never seen in any other version.
I saw (and taped!) the Rohauer restoration of Douglas Fairbanks’ The Thief of Baghdad, and it really is superb – the scenes are all tinted, and the new musical score based on Rimsky=Korsakov’s music (mostly his “Scheherazade”) fits perfectly. I was surprised to hear that this three-hour version still isn’y complete, but I’ve no seen one more complete, and I haven’t seen any on DVD (athough I know that Blackhawk also has a VS version).
Other silent films worth seeing:
The Cartoons of Windsor McCay – on of the first, and best. profound influence on a other animtors. Thi [ihas* been out on DVD, and I didn’t buy it. Try to find a copy now!
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea – tries to present both 20,000 Leagues under the Sea and The Mysterio Island (!) Dazzling underwater photography, especially for a circa 1920 movie (when Disney did its version over 30 years later, they shot in the sam spot - the water was so very clear there). It’s also the only version I know that depicts Nemo as an Indian Prince (as in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and as Verne himself made him out to be)
Tarzan of the Apes - Elmo Lincoln plays the Apeman, ages before Weissmuller. And more faithful to the books.
I’m no expert, but I’m lucky enough to live in Seattle, where Dennis James regularly fires up the mighty Wurlitzer house organ (original 1928) at the Paramount Theatre, and shows recently restored prints. My favorites so far:
Safety Last
The Cameraman
The Navigator
The Golem
Woman in the Moon
Sally of the Sawdust
Pandora’s Box
The Eagle
And I know that Modern Times doesn’t quite count as silent, but I thought it was brilliant.
F.W. Murnau’s Faust, starring Emil Jannings as Mephisto. It’s a gorgeous film with incredible special effects.
All the really great ones have been mentioned so far (I think)…The Last Laugh, Metropolis, Man With a Movie Camera, etc.
I just want to say that you should not skip Battleship Potemkin. Everything leading up to and including the Odessa steps is great. After that is a little “eh”, but don’t cheat yourself out of the movie.
All the great ones…what about Sunrise?
Or City Lights?
Eh, I knew as soon as I hit submit that I shouldn’t have worded it like that. Just pretend I said “all my favorites.”
No worries!
As those are the only two silents (besides Metropolis) I’ve seen, I was amazed that I got to be first to list them! But now I have all those others to start looking for. If nothing else, SDMB helps me put my free time to good use.
I thought of another: The Adventures of Prince Achmed, the real first animated feature film. Fun, too–I love the Fire Mountain Witch.
Other silent Dreyer films besides Jeanne d’Arc you might want to see: Master of the House and The Parson’s Widow.
Thanks to your suggestions, my Netflix queue now includes:
La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc
Sherlock, Jr.
The Phantom of the Opera
The Lost World
Intolerance - I’d prefer autogyros, but Babylonians are a close second.
I noticed in their new releases the had Fritz Lang’s
That SHOULD be Fritz Lang’s The First Woman on the Moon. Any opinion on this one?
I’m going to bump the thread to recommend “The Freshman”, which I actually hadn’t seen until this weekend. It’s just funny.
Also known as Woman in the Moon; the original German title is Frau im Mond. The performance I saw had live organ, live English reading of the German intertitles, and live electronica, and it was brilliant. Even the electronics seemed authentic: synthesized crowd noise and such, very tastefully done. The acting is even more, uh, **sincere **than usual, but a lot of the visuals are beautiful and the story is surprisingly melancholy.
Just about anything with Fatty Arbuckle in it. He was a gifted and engaging comedian; it is too bad his career ended in such grubby scandal.
The silent version of Ben Hur, but only if it had the musical score written by Cousin Pearl from The Beverly Hillbillies. (Drive them horses, Ben, Ben, drive them horses Ben…)
Pandora’s Box starring Louise Brooks. Melodramatic and tragic.
Vampyr by Carl Theodor Dreyer, for it’s experimental techniques.
Nosferatu, obviously.
Judex, a serial by Louis Feuillade, if you like his serial Les Vampires.
The Lumiere Brothers’ First Films. Historical edutainment.
The Magic of Méliès. Fantasy!
Fairbanks is magnificent in The Mark of Zorro.
I can’t believe I didn’t think of that until I saw this, considering it’s the best film version I’ve seen so far(the 1940’s version was just Bleh).
Though it might not be the best film by the time 2005 rolls around…