# How common was it to rerelease silent films with narration? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 18, 2009, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-was-it-to-rerelease-silent-films-with-narration/493488 "2009-04-18T01:04:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Just\_Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ad7895/32.png) [@Just\_Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2009, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-was-it-to-rerelease-silent-films-with-narration/493488/1 "2009-04-18T01:04:48Z")
I recorded _The Gold Rush_ off of TCM the other day and I found that it was a version with Chaplin talking narration over the film. It may have been Chaplin talking but the narration was pointless; it described what was obviously happening on the screen. So I can mute the sound, but I am wondering how common this kind of thing was. TCM hasn’t done this with other silent films I’ve watched on the channel so was this version of _The Gold Rush_ an experiment on the part of UA? Are silent prints of _The Gold Rush_ just in terrible shape and TCM chose the better re-release? ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2009, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-was-it-to-rerelease-silent-films-with-narration/493488/2 "2009-04-18T06:45:09Z")
There are silent prints of _The Gold Rush_ that are in fine condition, and in fact the 1925 and the 1941 versions are sold as a double DVD pack. I don’t like Chaplin’s unnecessary narration, either, and prefer the 1925 version. That was the only time he did that; when he reissued the feature _The Pilgrim_ (1923) as part of _The Chaplin Revue_ in 1959, he added a music score, a song “I’m Bound for Texas”, and sound effects, but no narration. Ditto for his later reissues of _The Kid_, _The Circus_, and _A Woman of Paris_. There was a version of _From the Manger to the Cross_ (1912) with a score and narration that circulated in 16mm to churches and schools in the 1930s. The Lon Chaney _Phantom of the Opera_ (1925) was reworked by Universal as a sound film in 1929 with a creepy narrator with a lantern (not Chaney) who appears at the beginning, but I don’t believe he does a voice-over anywhere else in the picture. There was an abridged version of Buster Keaton’s _The General_ (1926), about an hour long, that was released in I think the late 1950s with music score and narration; I remember seeing it later at my local library. Robert Youngson compiled features using clips from silent comedies, with added music, sound effects, and narration: _The Golden Age of Comedy_ (1958), _When Comedy Was King_ (1960), and several more. That’s about it; none of the other reissues of silent features I know of added narration. ---
**Author:** ![Student\_Driver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3da27b/32.png) [@Student\_Driver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Student_Driver)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2009, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-was-it-to-rerelease-silent-films-with-narration/493488/3 "2009-04-18T07:20:15Z")
[_Häxan_](http://www.criterion.com/films/352) from 1922 was given narration in 1968 by William S. Burroughs and released as _Witchcraft Through the Ages_. ---
**Author:** ![JR\_Brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JR\_Brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JR_Brown)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2009, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-was-it-to-rerelease-silent-films-with-narration/493488/4 "2009-04-18T19:53:14Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > […]when he reissued the feature _The Pilgrim_ (1923) as part of _The Chaplin Revue_ in 1959, he added a music score, a song “I’m Bound for Texas”, and sound effects, but no narration. […] I’m too lazy to look up the specifics for the films you quote, but it was standard for silent films to come with a score (or score suggestions in the form of “cue sheets”), which might include sound effects, and sometimes even called for singers or actors reciting dialogue (all of which had to be performed live in the movie theatre). Usually the score or score sheet would be arranged in such a way that a greater or lesser number of musicians / performers could be used, depending on the budget of the theater. For most of the surviving films of the era, the score and the film have become separated, so we don’t know exactly what the original performance experience was like, but the movies were never truly silent. More info: > **[Silent film](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_film#Live_music_and_sound)** > > A silent film is a film without synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, when necessary, be conveyed by the use of intertitles. > The term "silent film" is something of a misnomer, as these films were almost always accompanied by live sounds. During the silent era, which existed from the mid-1890s to the late 1920s, a pianist, thea... > **[Photoplay music](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photoplay_music)** > > Photoplay music is incidental music, soundtrack music, and themes written specifically for the accompaniment of silent films. > Early films (c. 1890–1910) merely relied on classical and popular repertory, mixed usually with improvisation by whatever accompanist was playing (usually a pianist). > Around 1910, folios of photoplay music began being published by companies such as Sam Fox Music and Academic Music. These were only a minute or so long and could not sustain an entire feature, but were used... [Silent Movie Compositions](http://www.perfessorbill.com/pbmidi17.shtml) _Music and the silent film: contexts and case studies, 1895-1924_, by Martin Miller Marks, on [Google Books](http://books.google.com/books?id=ALbz24g5aOAC&printsec=frontcover) ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2009, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-was-it-to-rerelease-silent-films-with-narration/493488/5 "2009-04-18T20:09:37Z")
It wasn’t common for silent films to be rereleased that way. Once sound came in, Hollywood just let silent films rot. Few people were willing to put up the money for a soundtrack. Chaplin was different. He was fabulously rich, and he owned the rights to his films. So in order to appease audiences who demanded a soundtrack, he’s record them so his films could be released again. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2009, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-was-it-to-rerelease-silent-films-with-narration/493488/6 "2009-04-18T21:02:23Z")
> [@](#): > > The Lon Chaney Phantom of the Opera (1925) was reworked by Universal as a sound film in 1929 with a creepy narrator with a lantern (not Chaney) who appears at the beginning, but I don’t believe he does a voice-over anywhere else in the picture. There was quite a bit more sound recorded, and you can hear samples of it on the two-disc deluxe edition. They DID record a voice for the “Angel of Music” when he’s talking from behind the wall. Chaney was _furious_, because he thought it was debasing his art (it’s not his voice). > [@](#): > > Robert Youngson compiled features using clips from silent comedies, with added music, sound effects, and narration: The Golden Age of Comedy (1958), When Comedy Was King (1960), and several more. Jay Ward and company (the folks behind Rocky and Bullwinkle, and later on many other cartoons) also added their own narration and voices to obscure silent ciomedies. They called the result **Fractured Flickers** , and it ran for a brief time in the early 1960s. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2009, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-was-it-to-rerelease-silent-films-with-narration/493488/7 "2009-04-18T21:06:44Z")
I think I covered that fact about the 1929 version of _Phantom_ when I said they reworked it as a “sound film”. There is lots to be said about music for silent films that I did not bother to go into, because the OP was about _narration_ added to silent films. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ad7895/32.png) [@Just\_Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2009, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-common-was-it-to-rerelease-silent-films-with-narration/493488/8 "2009-04-18T21:21:29Z")
Thanks for the information everyone. It was just so odd that TCM was showing _The Gold Rush_ that way that it threw me for a loop.