While it was mentioned in a long list, let me recommend Keaton’s Steamboat Bill Jr., with amazing effects. This is the one where the building falls around him - I’m sure everyone has seen that clip. I liked it far better than The General.
And another vote for Wings and the Thief of Baghdad.
I just saw the DVD via Netflix a couple of months ago, so it is still available. Hell, you can probably buy a copy from Amazon. I agree, it was cute. I found it worth at least watching once; however, I don’t think it was ever likely to achieve the following earned by Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, High Anxiety, or Spaceballs.
Most of my favorites have already been mentioned, but there are two surprising gaps:
The Phantom of the Opera – arguably Lon Chaney’s most outrageous makeup. The plot doesn’t really make a hell of a lot of sense, but the production is gorgeous, with huge sets and extravagant and memorable scenes. Try to get the Milestone Collection edition, which includes both the original 1925 version and the higher-quality 1929 release, complete with the Technicolor scenes and the rare Handscheigl color scene on the roof of the Paris Opera House (they “cheated” – it’s not the original color, but they restored it with computer processing)
The Lost World – The 1925 silent film had the blessing of Arthur Conan Doyle. It was the first film to be shown on an airplane. Then the studio planned on doing a remake, recalled the film, and butchered the prints, aside from a few abbreviated prints containing less than 70% of the full footage. But the film has been restored to better than 95% of its length, using footage in various film collections around the world. In fact, they did it three times. The official Eastman House version was made, but pissed off a lot of fans who contributed to the restoration when they didn’t release the damned thing, so a group of them set about making their own version, which they released on DVD in 2001. I prefer it, myself. The Eastman house version is now available as a backup feature on the DVD of the 1960 remake of The Lost World (talk about getting things backward). There’s a third version out there, too.
The 1927 Thief of Baghdad has already been mentioned. I’d just like to recommend the Rohauer collection version, with music by Carl Davis (based on Rimsky-Korsakov’s themes). It was broadcast on PBS’s Great Performances, and I think it’s now on DVD. The restoration looks great and is properly tinted, and the music is wonderful (if too repetitive for some people). my only complain is that they cut three scenes for some reason, and at least one of them – the first time the Thief enters the mosque – is pretty damned important. Still, highly recommended.
And, of course, you should get the fully restored version of Metropolis. That film is now something like 99% complete. And the restoration uses the original score (although I have to admit that I still like the 1984 Giorgiou Moroder version, too)
Thanks again for all of the replies.
Considering the evergreen popularity of the genre, I’m surprised that there haven’t been more recommendations for silent westerns.
I’ll fourth Metropolis. It’s one of the few silent features I’ve seen (thanks to the annual sci-fi movie marathon I attend). I thought I wouldn’t like it but I quite enjoyed it!
Let’s not forget the chase scene in Buster Keaton’s Seven Chances.
Oh hell, just watch any Keaton. You won’t be sorry.
Keaton was the first to shoot outside the film studio. My grandfather was an LA resident at this time period, in his 40s and 50s, and sometimes when I watch Keaton going through the neighborhoods, I imagine my grandfather standing just offscreen.
Buster Keaton from “The General”: That was actually a pretty dangerous stunt. If the locomotive wheels had lost traction, they would have started spinning rapidly throwing Keaton up into the running board or worse. I believe that the engineer actually mentioned this possibility to Keaton before filming.
Too Many Kisses, but only because it’s the only film that Harpo Marx talks in.
The first music video fifty years ahead of its time!
Have you ever seen Lloyd’s The Kid Brother? The interplay between kid Harold and his burly big brothers is just fantastic. Very beautiful, pastoral cinematography, too.
I’m a big Lloyd fan, but I really don’t care that much for the big chases across town, or the building climbing. I laugh more at the buildup to those events, like his department store clerk routine in Safety Last, and his love-struck stutterer from Girl Shy.
And here it is. The Kid Brother. It’s a good one, imho.
My sister was spellbound by Don Juan (1926), with John Barrymore, and in particular by a swordfight in which the two combatants each use two swords. She saw it at her grandfather’s house, and begged us to get a DVD copy of it for her.
I don’t know why, but Chaplin’s film The Circus doesn’t get as much attention as his other big films. This despite having some of the funniest scenes in any of his movies. Monkeys swarming the Tramp while he’s trying to walk a tightrope, or an angry donkey chasing him while he’s trying to balance a pile of dishes are both priceless scenes. And then there’s the scene of the circus clowns trying to give Chaplin lessons in how to be funny.
I think it’s my favorite of his films.
If you want to experience as close to a night at the movies in 1917 as you can, I recommend Kidnapped: A Complete 1917 Night at the Movies Kidnapped: A Complete 1917 Night at the Movies Preview - YouTube
I attended a silent-film viewing in at a movie museum in Brussels once. They had a pianist on hand to play throughout the film. That was cool.
I’ve been to several silent films where there was a live organist playing the accompaniment, and on one occasion I attended a screening of the silent Phantom of the Opera with live orchestra as accompaniment.
A film club I belonged to presented Wings and was to have an organist who’d played for the initial run playing the score – he’d kept the sheet music. Unfortunately he was well into his 80s and was not feeling well enough that night but we got his prerecorded version on tape.
The Navigator (1924) is my personal favorite Keaton movie, if only for the hilarious boy/girl chase around the abandoned steamship.
The Unknown (1927) is the most jaw-dropping of the Chaney features. He stars as “Alonzo the Armless,” a circus knife-thrower faking his condition. For the love of circus girl Joan Crawford he has his arms lopped off for real, then learns she’s dropped him for another man. His reaction scene to the news is one of the great cinematic moments.
The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) is Carl Theodor Dreyer’s masterpiece, always included in “best of” lists of ALL films. It is really FUCKING amazing.
Lots of big thumbs-up to many movies already cited, especially The Wind, Don Juan, City Lights, Pandora’s Box, Broken Blossoms, and any weird expressionist German film, particularly The Golem and Metropolis (possibly my favoritest movie EVAIR.
The original DeMille King of Kings is spooky weird. I love it. And don’t forget Cabiria, the 1914 Italian epic written by the great decadent poet Gabrielle d’Annunzio. First movie shown at the White House. (D.W. Griffith took credit for his racist fuckshow The Birth of a Nation (1915), but that was the first one shown inside.. Cabiria was shown out on the lawn)
Speaking of racist fuckshows, keep an open mind while you watch a lot of this stuff. Things were way different back in 1900-1930, including a resurgent Ku Klux Klan that had a big voice in local and national politics. There were rumors that both Presidents Harding and Coolidge were secret members. (Also Wilson being a segregationist Virginia-born piece of shit)
Cinematic genius Buster Keaton had several fails in this department, including the oogie-boogie Black natives in The Navigator, Keaton himself in Blackface to work as a waiter in a “colored” restaurant in College, and a “hilarious” joke about him possible marrying a Black woman in Seven Chances. He was an alcoholic too. Still cinematic genius, so don’t judge him.