I was just browsing some funny silent movies on youtube and heres some decent ones I found…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZ15QBn3–M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-s_40rM_L0s
(The classic drunk guy one)
Hitchcock directed twelve silent films at the start of his career. I wonder if he was the last silent film director still working when he made his final films in the seventies.
There is a director still working today (two of his films will be released next year) who directed a silent film in 1931:
So his career as a director will have lasted 81 years as of next year:
For somebody like me who has seen few silent films but wants to see more but doesn’t want to waste time watching the silent equivalent of Rob Schneider films, what are the “Short List” ones you’d recommend as “must sees” to appreciate the genre?
Always a chance of let down, yeah. For instance, the plots are often quite thickly cheese. The gestures are sometimes too big and there’s really a fine line between the beautiful and the absurd. For instance watch a whole crown rush forward, with Mary Philbin backing slowly out of the scene in Phantom. It works, but it doesn’t, but it does.
I think in some of the more famous ones (Phantom, Hunchback, The Penalty) there are flashes of brilliance. Not quite the consistent quality of Caligari or Nosferatu. Some of this is to be expected- the first, in particular, had several different directors, including Chaney himself.
Things like The Unknown (see a very young Joan Crawford here), HE Who Gets Slapped, Ace of Hearts…I think they’re maybe more representative. Things like the ‘healing’ scene in The Miracle Man are simply fabulous- this is sadly just about the only bit of this film preserved.
And there’s the Unholy Three- made twice, so you get to hear him talk! Chaney clearly would have had a talkie career.
Speaking of preservation makes me more than a little sad, and Chaney’s also the reason I give money to film preservation causes. Hes easily one of the most well-known silent actors out there. His films made buckets of money back in their day (hell, they still probably did better than Gigli). And a fraction of them survive. Imagine what else is gone.
Thanks very much Eve for asking. Mantrap with Clara Bow and lots of men including Ernest Torrence and Percy Marmont. It’s now on DVD, on Treasures 5: The West, 1898-1938. It’s a lively, fun movie, with Clara a charmer throughout, and I believe that it would be a good introduction to silents for those who have seen few to none. (Womanhandled, also in the collection, is also fun.) A big thank-you also to the many other fans upthread for their comments and suggestions.
Of course, if possible, a better introduction to such movies is to see them on the big screen at a theatre, in a clean and complete print projected at the correct speed(s) with appropriate full-bodied sound. The Mighty Wurlitzer or the house band can suffice for the latter.
If I remember correctly, about 30 years ago the Avenue Photoplay on Silver Avenue in South San Francisco California was showing silent movies every Friday night. It typically would have a double bill with a short subject, the main (silent) attraction with Bob Vaughn playing the organ and synchronized sound effects, then–after intermission–a late 20’s or early 30’s talkie with at least some of the players in the silent movie. Out front would be parked at least one Model A. Inside, a packed house with fans of all ages.
Some of those films, like The Birth of a Nation are controversial, to be sure, never mind the thrilling ride of the clan. Others, like Two Tars, are infectiously laugh-out-loud funny all the way through.
And there are many excellent books on various aspects of movies, like Eve’s which I have in my library. Two books I found very useful and entertaining:[ul]
[li]The Parade’s Gone By… by Kevin Brownlow[/li][li]Lillian Gish: The Movies, Mr. Griffith and Me by Lillian Gish with Ann Pinchot[/li][/ul]
Omigosh. These are just off the top of my head:
Comedies: Buster Keaton’s Seven Chances or Sherlock, Jr. . . . One of Harold Lloyd’s early 1920s shorts . . . Clara Bow’s wonderful **It **. . . The hilarious **Show People **. . .
Dramas: **Sunrise **. . . Broken Blossoms . . . **Love **(a modern dress Anna Karenina with Garbo and Gilbert) . . . **The Big Parade **(a WWI drama) . . .
Star vehicles: Douglas Fairbanks’ The Thief of Bagdad . . . Valentino’s **Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse **(one of his best performances) . . . Lillian Gish in The Wind (fabulous emotional horror film) . . . Mary Pickford in **Sparrows **(ditto) . . . Joan Crawford and my pal Anita Page in **Our Dancing Daughters **. . .
I…do not know for sure.
I realize that I’ve always assumed it was because sunlight was cheaper, and diffused sunlight provided a more even well lit space than a bank of early incandescents. I still think that’s the case, but I can’t find anything to back me up. I do assert that I can tell an inside shot from an outside-for-inside shot.
At any rate, in some films (and lots of outtakes) you can see the shadow of the sheet fluttering in the back of the shot, and sometimes wind will flutter something.
Plus its sequel, Our Modern Maidens, which co-starred Joan’s new husband, 20-year-old Douglas Fairbanks Jr., in a blatant attempt to capitalize on their recent marriage.
. . . followed up by Our Blushing Brides. Anita told me, “We were sure that eventually they’d put us into Our Galloping Grandmas!”
One I saw not too long ago that very much impressed me was A Cottage on Dartmoor, an early Anthony Asquith film. There’s a wonderful sequence where a young lady and her date (and her stalker, who is seated in the row behind them), go to the movies. They’re in a silent movie, but they’re watching a talkie.
I also rather liked the original silent version of The Cat and the Canary. A lot of fun with the fonts on the title cards.
Eve, this evening I did see the Rex Ingram film “The Magician”. Quite the creepy story!
A flyer was available showing the lineup for 2012’s Kansas Silent Film Festival, and surprise, the featured guest will be Leatrice Gilbert Fountain, daughter of John Gilbert and the actress Leatrice Joy. She will be giving an audience interview and then will be a speaker at the Cinema Dinner. Two movies shown will feature her parents “The Clinging Vine”(1926) with Joy, and Monte Cristo(1922) with Gilbert.
Of course there will be other features and shorts. Other featured actors will be Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, Lillian Gish, Will Rogers, Harry Langdon and Roscoe"Fatty" Arbuckle.
The website is www.kssilentfilmfest.org
I hope she is alright–I haven’t heard back from her in months. She gave me her enthusiastic blessings, thank goodness in writing, on my book, but has since not replied to any letters or e-mails. I e’d her daughter last week to check and see if she is OK (she *is *in her late 80s).
I don’t *need *her for anything, I have plenty in the way of research material, photos, films on DVD and videos, I just hope she hasn’t keeled over.