Must see Silent Movies

Byron has The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari 1920 at the moment as his sig and I am sporting Die Büchse der Pandora 1929 {Pandora's Box}.

Both just happen to be German silent movies. Really two of four great German Expressionist films, the other two being Metropolis 1927 and Nosferatu 1922. Of the four films Pandora's Box is much more natural than the other three, but still has elements of expressionism in it's lighting techniques and it carries with it a dark message. The other three movies have bizarre artificial sets and an atmosphere of almost total surreality. Metroplois creates a totally unique surrealistic future. The Cabinet of Dr. Calgari, creates the bizarre world of a madman, and trust me it is like nothing you have ever seen before.
Nosferatu is a masterpice of the silent era, and really a must see for any cineophile.

They are really a treat to watch, it is always refreshing to see something different, they are so old, they seem new. And the fact that they are silent only adds to the experience. I never find these film boring. It is being able to go back in time and see what came before. You will see many elements in all of these films that you might or will recognize in films today.

They are all available on DVD.

I hate to brag, but I have Metropolis, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Nosferatu. And they are three of my most treasured DVDs. I have yet to get Die Büchse der Pandora on DVD, only have a worn out VHS...

There are many many silent movies still out there and more and more being put out on DVD, I'll give this a rest and maybe somebody else will make some suggestions, but I still have a few more films to bring up.

Good movies all. Among my favorites is the silent French serial Les Vampires.

I'm think I've mentioned it somewhere here before.


[edit]

Yup, here it is:

http://www.chasingthefrog.com/forums/showthread.php?t=97&highlight=silent

Good movies all. Among my favorites is the silent French serial Les Vampires.

I'm think I've mentioned it somewhere here before.


[edit]

Yup, here it is:

http://www.chasingthefrog.com/forums/showthread.php?t=97&highlight=silentI did remember that thread, but I felt like elaborating on a few films. Trying to drum up some interest in some really worthwhile movies.

I'll look for Les Vampires.

I recently got hold of the DVD of Wegener's Der Golem and I spend more time watching it than eating.

What about Dreyer's Vampyr? Where else have you ever seen a baddie drowned in flour?

Vampyr? I recently got hold of the DVD of Wegener's Der Golem and I spend more time watching it than eating.

What about Dreyer's Vampyr? Where else have you ever seen a baddie drowned in flour?Next time I go to Border's I am looking for Der Golem, I have only read about it and seen stills, but it always looked like something I would like. The other silent movie on my wish list at the mo is The Man Who Laughs.

Der Golem was one of the films they played over and over on the monitors at the pub where the vampyre group used to meet..being a silent fim you could just stand at the bar and follow the story easily without needing to strain to hear dialogue in a noisy pub...it was one of the films I'd heard a lot about and wanted to see for myself.

I find Dreyer's Vampyr a little too 'surreal and dreamlike' for me...

I'd quite like to see The Man Who Laughs as well.

Don't know if it's been mentioned already but Chaney's Phatom of the Opera is a must see..if only for the 'unmasking' scene...must have scared the sh*t out of audiences in 1925.

I also heartily endorse Oz's choices of The Cabinet of Dr Caligari and of course Nosferatu

While we're talking about Dreyer, it's worth mentioning Passion of Joan of Arc. It's the first silent I was able to sit all the way through. Also, I don't know if their considered expressionist films or not, but Murnau's Sunrise and The Last Laugh are two other excellent German silents. If I remember correctly, The Last Laugh was actually done without a single title card.

While we're talking about Dreyer, it's worth mentioning Passion of Joan of Arc. It's the first silent I was able to sit all the way through. Also, I don't know if their considered expressionist films or not, but Murnau's Sunrise and The Last Laugh are two other excellent German silents. If I remember correctly, The Last Laugh was actually done without a single title card.Well Sunrise is a fantastic film whatever you want to call, it was extremely moving and poignant and ran the gambit of human emotions. I loved it, I haven't watched it in years now, but it is unforgettable. It also won 3 Oscars in 1927, Best Picture, Best Cinematography and Janet Gaynor Best Actress. Thinking about this movie makes me remember another great silent movie The Wind 1928, with Lillian Gish and well, the wind, it is a masterpice of the silent era as well.

And so nice to see you back SkepTi.

It's said that when the first print of Phantom Of The Opera arrived at London Docks, the studio had persuaded a company of Horse Guards to escort it to their headquarters in case it fell into the wrong hands. The Establishment was incensed, and questions were asked in Parliament, thus of course increasing the publicity value 100%.

The Last Laugh was indeed done without a single card, a masterpiece of storytelling yet, I'd guess, to be equalled. Talking of Emil Jannings, he was astonishing as Mephistopheles in Murnau's Faust. That's available on DVD, but I don't know. The first 20 minutes and the last 5 or so are outstanding, but all the stuff in between with Gretchen is deadly dull in my opinion.

Watching Der Golem in a pub must have been an experience far more surreal than anything in Vampyr, I'd have thought. Especially after the fifth flagon.

Ah! Must remember to mention Haxan.

Ok I am buying Der Golem as soon as I can find it.

Wings 1927, Clara Bow, Richard Arlen and Charles (Buddy) Roders it also has Gary Copper in a small role, his first in a movie I believe, and the flying scenes are just awesome...it is a much better movie that Hell Angels. I think Hughes was trying to cash in on the success of Wings when he made Hells Angels, but he fell short of the mark. Hell Angels is also a talkie but Hughes first made it as a silent movie, and then with the advent of talkies he re-did it with sound.

While Wings is today credited as the first movie, and the only silent movie (in the 20th century), to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, in actuality the Best Picture category went through many labels and forms, before its current one was created--as "Best Picture"--in 1962. In the time of Wings, that first year, the category was known as Outstanding Production, and the category for 1927/28 was split three ways by the Academy. 1) "Wings" (1927/28 Outstanding Production) 2) "Sunrise" (1927/28 Outstanding Artistic Quality of Production) 3) "The Jazz Singer" (1927/28 Pioneering Outstanding Production) This was done because the Academy did not feel any one of the three pictures could fairly compete with the other. How do you place "Sunrise" against "Wings" and say the other is better? And, of course, they recognized the way in which "The Jazz Singer" had fundamentally changed the industry. Both the "Artistic Quality" and "Pioneering" categories were dropped the next year, though of course the MPAA does occasionally bring back honorary awards, without suggesting they are a subset of the "Best Picture" category.

*EDIT*
Oh yes Phantom of the Opera with Lon Chaney is quite good, I have seen it several times, and yes the un-masking scene is fantastic. It is still frightening, even by today's standards.

Just since we started talking about these films, so many silent movies I have seen over the years come flooding back to me, I think they are just marvelous, not something to be avoided, but something to actively seek out.

I like to imagine what it must have been like almost 90 years ago to be seeing such magical things for the first time.

I don't know if their considered expressionist films or not, but Murnau's Sunrise and The Last Laugh are two other excellent German silents.
Strictly speaking, they're not expressionist, but they certainly are great films. Also, strictly speaking, Sunrise is not German (Murnau made it at Fox).

Talking of Emil Jannings, he was astonishing as Mephistopheles in Murnau's Faust. That's available on DVD, but I don't know. The first 20 minutes and the last 5 or so are outstanding, but all the stuff in between with Gretchen is deadly dull in my opinion.

Another film I've seen 'in the pub' on the monitors...but not one I'd recommend. As Byron says the beginning and and end are the best bits and the SFX (for the time period) are great....but not something I could sit all the way through more than once, I think.

Has anybody out there seen Paul Leni's Waxworks? I haven't, but the word on the street is that it's a film worth selling a few relatives for.

Ozma, they say strong men fainted when Lon's mask came off. And just imagine if you didn't know what to expect when Max Schreck comes up out of the coffin as if he's on a hinge! Oo-errrrr!

Has anybody out there seen Paul Leni's Waxworks? I haven't, but the word on the street is that it's a film worth selling a few relatives for.

Ozma, they say strong men fainted when Lon's mask came off. And just imagine if you didn't know what to expect when Max Schreck comes up out of the coffin as if he's on a hinge! Oo-errrrr!Both of those are great moments. Still very creepy, even by today's standard.

but the word on the street is that it's a film worth selling a few relatives for

'word on the street'???

Since when did you become Huggy Bear? ;)

'word on the street'???

Since when did you become Huggy Bear? ;)

When I found Paul Michael Glaser's cardigan in the Oxfam Shop. When else?

I can't wait to go to our library and check out some silent films. The only one I've seen is Phantom Of The Opera with Lon Chaney. The films you guys are discussing sound great!

Chaney's Hunchback Of Notre Dame is another good one...although for my money Charles Laughton's HoND is the definitive version...

I know they're kind of a given, but I don't think this thread can go on much longer without mentioning Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd. I also forgot the great Soviet silents Battleship Potemkin and Man with a Movie Camera. I personally don't think they're too entertaining, but worth looking at for their technical influence.

I know they're kind of a given, but I don't think this thread can go on much longer without mentioning Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd. I also forgot the great Soviet silents Battleship Potemkin and Man with a Movie Camera. I personally don't think they're too entertaining, but worth looking at for their technical influence.

I think there's another thread called something like 'Classic Silent Movies' in which the comedy greats you mention above get recommended by several posters. Personally I'm not a huge fan of Chaplin...but Keaton was a GENIUS!!!

Another excellent silent that's not particulary well know but predates all of those mentioned is Giovanni Pastrone's Cabiria (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0003740/). It was made in 1914. It was, via a device of Pastrone's own devising known as the carrello, the first film to make extensive and systematically use of tracking shots, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracking_shot) and Martin Scorsese has credited Pastrone with inventing the historical epic with this film. It definately, as one writer (Pat Graham) put it "significantly influenced the form and flow of the feature film then in its developmental infancy."

I watched my recently purchased copy of Chaney's 'The Hunchback Of Notre Dame' yesterday which was an absolute delight! Amazingly convincing set of the exterior of Notre Dame cathedral..

I'm about to watch Buster Keaton in 'The General'

I recommend The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Battleship Potemkin, which were already mentioned... and Modern Times!

As well as Potemkin I'd put in a mention of Eisenstein's October, which is likewise outstanding.

Some other good silents are:

The Pastor's Wife (1920)
Clash of the Wolves (1925)
Blind Husbands (1919)
Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921)
Haxan (1922)
Crainquebille (1922)
The Red Lily (1924)
Sparrows (1926)
La Boheme (1926)
The Adventures of Prinche Achmed (1926)
Laugh, Clown Laugh (1928)
Untamed (1929)
Pandora's Box (1929)

Eureka! One More! Nanook of the North was, I believe, the first documentary film. If not, it was the first to have any kind of widespread popularity.

Also, I've a great site specifically dedicated to silent film, Silent Era (http://www.silentera.com) . They have alot of information about not only the films, but their DVD releases, which is very important with films this old, as the difference from one transfer to another can be drastic.

Edit: And another! Un Chien Andalou was Luis Bunuel's first attempt at film-making, and it's considered one of the most famous short films of all time. It has not plot, and is chock full of bizarre, surreal imagery, including a women getting her eye cut open with a razor blade. For those who have seen any version of The Ring, the images on the videotape are similar to those found in this film.

Eureka! One More! Nanook of the North was, I believe, the first documentary film. If not, it was the first to have any kind of widespread popularity.

Also, I've a great site specifically dedicated to silent film, Silent Era (http://www.silentera.com) . They have alot of information about not only the films, but their DVD releases, which is very important with films this old, as the difference from one transfer to another can be drastic.

Edit: And another! Un Chien Andalou was Luis Bunuel's first attempt at film-making, and it's considered one of the most famous short films of all time. It has not plot, and is chock full of bizarre, surreal imagery, including a women getting her eye cut open with a razor blade. For those who have seen any version of The Ring, the images on the videotape are similar to those found in this film.Oh yes I have seen An Andalusian Dog :eek: it is a sixteen-minute surrealist film made in France in 1929 by writer/directors Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí . They used a cow's eye for that infamous DISTURBING scene.
I talked about it before on here someplace.

Hey thanks for the great link to the Silent site Skept.

It is nice to see some interest in Silent films on here, I think they are great fun to watch, it is watching history not only of films, but life as well.

Just realised no one's mentioned the amazing Georges Mélies. A great showman and fx innovator. His Rocket To The Moon had everything: exploding aliens, the Moon with a rocket in its eye and lots of girls in tights.

Just realised no one's mentioned the amazing Georges Mélies. A great showman and fx innovator. His Rocket To The Moon had everything: exploding aliens, the Moon with a rocket in its eye and lots of girls in tights.Yes a very historic movie.

http://tdf.lbcc.cc.ca.us/film%20media/ATripToTheMoon.jpg

My girlfriend has found a really comprehensive collection of Buster Keaton's films (features and shorts) in a box set for only £20 on Amazon...which has gone on my 'wish list'..

I just hope that the music for them is a bit better than the music on my copy of Keaton's The General. A wonderfully funny and comedically inventive film is somewhat spoilt by the use of Scott Joplin piano rags as a soundtrack...the music bearing no relation to the action on screen. Keaton's girlfriend being dragged off , gagged and bound, by Union soldiers while 'The Entertainer' plinky-plonks away on the soundtrack does tend to kill the dramatic atmosphere somewhat!

Fritz Lang's Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler is another excellent example of German Expressionism. I just got it from the library, it's really a brilliant piece of work, alot of things I didn't even realize were done in silent films. The movie has spawned a number of sequels, the most recent of which are also incredibly entertaining if you like really campy horror flicks.

A fascinating documentary film, Silent Britain, is now available on DVD and I'd heartily recommend it. It's narrated by Matthew Sweet, and is all about debunking the old myth that Britain was (Hitchthing apart) the poor relation of the pre-sound film world.

For example, many of the fx we now took for granted made their first appearances in British films. George Melies bought his first camera from a shop in the South of England whose owner dabbled in film-making, and whose surviving work suggests that GM may have found his inspiration by watching them. Some of the best-known shots from The Great Train Robbery may well have been copied from an earlier British movie. And Ivor Novello was as big a heart-throb in his day as Valentino, and every bit as hammy.

A couple of others that haven't been mentioned are South: Ernest Shackleton and the Endurance Expedition and C.T. Dreyer's Leaves From Satan's Book. The former, if it isn't the first documentary film, is one of the earliest (released in 1919 or 1920) and has some awesome imagery.

I don't think anyone's mentioned Der Letzte Mann: Murnau's amazing tour de force. 75 minutes with only a single intertitle. Wow.

I finally saw Der Golem, see it if you can and also Queen Kelly, that was a lot of fun too.

Do silent movies made after the 20s count? If they do, then The Call of Cthulhu (2005) belongs on any must see list.

Do silent movies made after the 20s count? If they do, then The Call of Cthulhu (2005) belongs on any must see list.

Not really, Doc..by 'silent' we mean films made before it was possible to have sound..not films that have been made without sound through choice...

The Lost World 1925, saw this last night what a gem it is, the special effects are really good, it is a really enjoyable film. There also is some nice footage of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle at the beginning of the film.

Basically the plot: boy looses girl, boy finds dinosaur, boy finds another girl, girl looses boy, dinosaur gets loose, boy gets second girl back. And they all lived happily ever after, although I suspect the dinosaur swam off to go set up housekeeping in Loch Ness. You have to watch the movie, it will make sense!
And there were lots of dinosaurs, not just the one that got away and they were very well done. Great stop action.

Read more about it.

The Lost World (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0016039/)

http://www.sci.fi/~animato/books/lost.jpg http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/3/3d/180px-Lost_World_1925_Still_02.jpg

The Penalty 1920, starring Lon Chaney. Holy sh!t what an actor. Talk about suferring for your art. He endured such major pain in playing the role of Blizzard, a criminal mastermind who became such as a result of having his legs amputated as a child, by mistake.

Chaney had his legs bent back and strapped behind him, the effect was amazing. The pain was so intense that he could only do this for 10-20 minutes at a time. He sufferred permanent muscle damage in his legs as a result of this. But it is quite a cinematic achievement. It is a remarkable movie.

It is on Kino video, try to see this movie if you can!

The Penalty (http://www.missinglinkclassichorror.co.uk/penalty.htm)

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t222/psionovore/fantomfeuilposter.jpg

Fantomas is fun. That's all it was ever intended to be. The five serials were directed by Louis Feuillade between 1913 and 1914, based on a series of 32 pulp novels by Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre. They chronicle the exploits of a master-criminal Man Of A Thousand Faces, and the efforts of Inspector Juve of the Sureté to feel his collar. The surrealists claimed to take them seriously. We needn't.

The books were written in a most eccentric manner. Allain and Souvestre would get together and decide on the basic idea. Then they'd go away and write alternate chapters, never meeting until they'd finished. Only then would they impose the semblance of a plot.

Fantomas is played by René Navarre, a splendidly villainous-looking actor -

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t222/psionovore/fantomas1.jpg

- who clearly relishes the part. The odd thing is, it isn't a part. We see him committing his dastardly crimes, running his gang, donning his disguises and getting away with murder, but we never learn a single thing about him. He's just sort of there - enjoyably but entirely anonymously. He uses a variety of names, but we never get the faintest inkling of who he actually is. (Even "Fantomas" isn't really him - in the original manuscript the name was "Fantomus, but the publisher read it wrong.)

Sadly, this Napoleon of Crime is a bit of a plonker. He isn't actually very good at what he does (in the first serial he nearly gets himself caught because he leaves his hat behind him; in another he masquerades as an American detective called "Tom Bob", who hands around cards describing himself as "Tom Bob - Detective Americain"). Also as a master of disguise he leaves a lot to be desired. Examples of his uncanny mimetic prowess follow:

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t222/psionovore/Fantomas_5.jpg
http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t222/psionovore/Fantomas_1X.jpg

His success is largely due to the incredible ineptitude of his arch enemy, Inspector Juve of the Sureté:

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t222/psionovore/Fantomas_6.jpg

(seen here with his awfully good friend, the journalist Fandor who helps him out quite a lot). On the DVD I watched, Kim Newman suggests in an extra that he may have been the inspiration for Inspector Clousseau. He may have a point. In a scene at the end of one of the episodes, Juve and Fandor have arrested Fantomas and are leading him to jail down a path in the garden of Fantomas' mistress. They're on either side of him, holding an arm each. He's on the path, they're on the grass. Suddenly they both fall down concealed pits, and Fantomas is off free to continue his life of crime. With not so much as a bermp upon the head.

Oh well, at least the First World War was coming to an end (unfortunately the wrong end - it hadn't started yet - and I wish it put on record that that wasn't an original Orlock joke); Europe was still in the aftermath of Edwardiana, life was carefree and people went to the cinema for thrills, spills and jokes. And why not?


http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t222/psionovore/dr_mabuse.jpg


Things were different in 1922, when Fritz Lang directed Dr Mabuse - der Spieler. Especially in humiliated Germany. Superficially it would seem that this film (actually two films, but usually shown as one epic) has a lot on common with Fantomas. They're both about mastercrooks and the efforts of the authorities to nab them. They're both highly melodramatic. But there the resemblence ends.

Dr Mabuse (pronounced Ma Boozer - as in "Ee up, Dad, mother's on the gin again!") is no latter-day Robin Hood. He's a threat to everything that holds the none-too-steady society of the Weimar Republic together. Spell-bindingly played by Rudolf Klein-Rogge, best known as Rotwang in Metropolis, seen here second right with his grotesque gang -

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t222/psionovore/Mabuse_Spieler_4.jpg

- he radiates evil and Will To Power. He admits he's not in it for the money: his primary objective is "to rob men of their faith". It would be tempting to draw parallels with Hitler - his fat associate reminds us of Goering, while in one scene, Mabuse is seen whipping up a popular revolt in a beer cellar - but the Munich putsch didn't happen till a year after the film was released, and Lang's wife was a committed Nazi, so it's hard to judge.

Also his disguises are thoroughly convincing. I had to look twice a good few times. Here's one to be going on with:

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t222/psionovore/Mabuse_Spieler_2.jpg

So why do I prefer Fantomas? Well, for all the reputation Mabuse has as a masterpiece of German Expressionism, there really isn't all that much Expressionism in it. The set pieces in casinos, night clubs etc are fine, and there are wonderful moments of twisted reality, as here, when one of Mabuse's victims is haunted by his own multiple conscience:

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t222/psionovore/Mabuse_Spieler_1.jpg

- or in another scene when Mabuse, posing as a hypnotist, conjures up for his audience a scene of hordes of Biblical types crossing a desert (surely inspired by the vision of The Children Of Israel in Der Golem)

But the trouble is there aren't nearly enough of them. The film in its entirety lasts 279 minutes. Too much is quite simply dull. One major problem is that Mabuse's Nemesis, the splendidly named Wenk, is quite spectacularly uninteresting. Another is Mabuse himself. In the early stages he's invincible. Later, though, he falls in love with a Countess and because she doesn't requite his passion he falls to pieces. I don't know about you folks, but I like my supervillains to be supervillains. This guy is Human All Too Human.

Never mind. The last half hour of the movie redeems any quibbles. Don't read on if you're allergic to spoilers. Mabuse and his gang are trapped. There's a Siege Of Sidney Street situation for a while. Mabuse escapes through a trapdoor and flees down a sewer in a scene which I'm sure must have inspired Carol Reed or Graham Greene or somebody 30 years later. Then . . . no, I won't tell you, but it's a prolonged sequence of pure, brilliant Expressionism which is utterly compelling. It's only afterwards you wonder, Why couldn't it have been like that throughout the whole movie?

They're both available on DVD. I'd recommend them both. Enjoy.


.

I certainly want to see both of these films, what a fantastic, insightful, indepth and humorous review of both films Byron.

I have really been going out of my way to seek out silent films the last few months, and the more I see of them, the more I want to see them.

Keep up the good reviews, they are always a pleasure to read, you have much to say.

Piccadilly 1929, a British film starring Anna May Wong. She was such a gorgeous creature. This film was an utter delight and extremely modern looking for 1929 I thought. I can't rave enough about it.

Piccadilly (http://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s1524picc.html)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v504/ozma/annamaycloseup.jpg

I saw this years ago - don't own it - but I remember thinking it was a very modern movie - and natural acting for a silent.

I'll have to try to see it again - thanks for the wonderful reminder! :)

I saw this years ago - don't own it - but I remember thinking it was a very modern movie - and natural acting for a silent.

I'll have to try to see it again - thanks for the wonderful reminder! :)
Yes that is a good point it was very natural, they were really short on the titles though, you really had to be a good lip reader. I was throughly glued to the movie, it was so well made.

Jeez I know I made a post about this someplace :confused:

The Holy Mountain German 1926, the scenery was spectacular.

The Holy Mountain (http://www.riefenstahl.org/actress/1926/)

Just watched the 1928 Doug Fairbanks, Lupe Velez movie The Gaucho. It was quite good. The DVD also includes the 1916 Fairbanks cult classic, The Mystery of the Leaping Fish, this is not to be believed. :eek: :eek:

The Mystery of The Leaping Fish (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSCTLwHU8x4)

WOW!!! Holy cow! Thanks for the link! :D

That's a treasure that one!

- Asta

Makes you wonder if all concerned weren't genuinely on the stuff "Coke Ennyday" was pumping into himself.

Thanks, Oz!

Makes you wonder if all concerned weren't genuinely on the stuff "Coke Ennyday" was pumping into himself.

Thanks, Oz!Well from what I have read there was alot of that going on back then.

It's said that when the first print of Phantom Of The Opera arrived at London Docks, the studio had persuaded a company of Horse Guards to escort it to their headquarters in case it fell into the wrong hands. The Establishment was incensed, and questions were asked in Parliament, thus of course increasing the publicity value 100%.

It's said that when the first print of Phantom Of The Opera arrived at London Docks, the studio had persuaded a company of Horse Guards to escort it to their headquarters in case it fell into the wrong hands. The Establishment was incensed, and questions were asked in Parliament, thus of course increasing the publicity value 100%.

Ahhh! Movie hype! Even back then it worked!

If I could go back to a movie-making time - it would be the earlier silent days. Imagine making-it-up-as-you-go-along...on everything!

If a really good film could be done on that era - and the developments - I think it would make an incredible film - or better yet documentary series on TV. I think PBS would do it very well... Ah dreams! :o

What first got me started in being interested in silent film were - well first my grandmothers' reminiscence of taking the trolley in Minneapolis to the Palace - and how the movies "were really something...".

But there was an early 1980's series of films done on the silent days - which I have on VHS - it isn't available yet on DVD I guess - that has the silent stars in the last years discussing the excitment.

"Hollywood - A Celebration Of The American Silent Film".

That settled me... I hope, hope, hope Keno makes it into DVD...

- Asta Sophi

Here is a great web site, I might have posted it before, but anyway here it is again.

Silent Era (http://www.silentera.com/index.html)

My copy of The Man Who Laughs arrived today!! Woo-Hoo! That's me sorted for this evening

My copy of The Man Who Laughs arrived today!! Woo-Hoo! That's me sorted for this eveningOh boy oh boy!
I just heard on some Lon Chaney movie, I think they were talking about it on The Unknown, they wanted Chaney first for The Man Who Laughs, and as much as I love Chaney's work, I couldn't imagine anbody else in the role, Conradt Veidt was so perfect as Gwynplaine.

Oh boy oh boy!
I just heard on some Lon Chaney movie, I think they were talking about it on The Unknown, they wanted Chaney first for The Man Who Laughs, and as much as I love Chaney's work, I couldn't imagine anbody else in the role, Conradt Veidt was so perfect as Gwynplaine.

..I read recently that Conrad Veidt was considered for the role of Dracula after Chaney died..but he turned it down for fear of being typecast (after all he'd already starred in 'The Man Who Laughs' and 'The Cabinet of Dr Caligari' ). He also had a very strong German accent at the time but I don't think that would have mattered much in Dracula. A foreign/European accent is a foreign/European accent to most American ears(I mean no offence by this) and I doubt anyone would have complained that he didn't have the right accent. Besides..Lugosi could barely speak English when he played the role and learnt all his lines phonetically

Ironically, Lugosi took the part...and was typecast for the rest of his career.
If Leni hadn't died in 1929 there's a good chance he could have directed Dracula..and if he had persuaded Veidt to play the Count...I wonder what that version of Dracula would have been like?

But there was an early 1980's series of films done on the silent days - which I have on VHS - it isn't available yet on DVD I guess - that has the silent stars in the last years discussing the excitment.

"Hollywood - A Celebration Of The American Silent Film".

That settled me... I hope, hope, hope Keno makes it into DVD...

- Asta Sophi
I would love to have the opportunity to see that . . . from what I've read they ran into copyright issues (http://silentfilmlegend.blogspot.com/2007/02/kevin-brownlows-hollywood.html)trying to get rights to use some of the footage when they were doing a DVD release

This (http://thehorrordrunx.yuku.com/topic/753) incredible article (and it's really worth reading it in it's entirety) was only posted a week or so back. Could it be true??? Is there still a copy out there???

This (http://thehorrordrunx.yuku.com/topic/753) incredible article (and it's really worth reading it in it's entirety) was only posted a week or so back. Could it be true??? Is there still a copy out there???

Possibly in your pm box, Charlie old son, along with Lord Lucan and the loot from the Great Train Robbery.

Any chance of a cleanout some time?

Be that as it may, great news if true. I would be prepared to sacrifice at least two small countries (to say nothing of the town of Glenrothes - well, the least said about the town of Glenrothes the better) to see that movie.

Any chance of a cleanout some time?

Oops..all clear now. Sorry.

Watched The man Who Laughs last night. What a great film!! The restored version with the specially scored soundtrack and the addition of sound effects and the 'noise of the crowd'..really added to the atmosphere and I had to remind myself that this was 'a silent film' a couple of times.

Conrad Veidt was so good as Gwynplaine. I was amazed by his grin. He was obviously wearing prosthetic teeth to exaggerate the grin but the size of his grin amazed me. Did he wear some sort of contraption in his mouth to extend the corners of his mouth to that extent? (like Chaney did in London After Midnight). You try grinning that widely...continuously for more than a minute or so..it ain't easy! Especially when trying to convey sadness or concern with just your eyes..believe me..I was in front of the mirror for about 10 mins last night trying it! Amazing performance from Veidt!

Also..I couldn't get over how much Olga Baclanova (as The Duchess) looked like Madonna!! She even has the mole on the top lip
http://www.olgabaclanova.com/picture_gallery/portraits/even_more_publicity/polar_olga_c_1931_2.jpg

My only complaint is that the sets (supposed to be England circa 1700) looked like the same sets used to represent medeival Paris and Germany in The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Der Golem respectively...also that cheesy song over the love scene at at the end I could have done without. But those minor moans apart I'm so glad I finally got to see this.

http://www.comixconnection.com/uploaded_images/ManWhoLaughs-726958.jpg

I am so glad you got to see it and loved it too. She does look like Madonna.

Veidt did such a fantastic job, my heart just broke a couple of times for the poor guy.

I'll have to look up about the make-up and see how he did do that grin.

The book has a much more tragic ending too.

Well I am in such a rush this morning. What with the 37 spam gold posts and all. :mad:

Right..after trawling the Internet I found the following snippet which explains Gwynplaine's grin...

"Jack Pierce's makeup consists mainly of a set of slightly oversized teeth with a wire rig to hold Veidt's mouth in a painful-looking grimace".

So, like Chaney in 'London After Midnight' it was achieved with a wire contraption in his mouth..

Right..after trawling the Internet I found the following snippet which explains Gwynplaine's grin...

"Jack Pierce's makeup consists mainly of a set of slightly oversized teeth with a wire rig to hold Veidt's mouth in a painful-looking grimace".

So, like Chaney in 'London After Midnight' it was achieved with a wire contraption in his mouth..They wanted Chaney first to play Gwynplaine, now I can remember why he didn't, but I have seen many of Chaney's films, and I think Veidt makes a much better Gwynplaine, maybe it is his more slender build and face. I am not sure, but he certainly made the character come alive.

I also saw the version with the crowd noise, it did add alot to the film, but I love silent movies, I don't miss the talking one bit.

Returning to the subject of lost silent movies you'd love to see, this one, which I've just heard about, seems highly promising:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Head_of_Janus

Considering that Nosferatu almost suffered the same fate for the same reasons, wouldn't it be great if a pirated copy were to turn up in someone's attic? Here are a couple of stills to whet your appetite:

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t222/psionovore/Der_Januskopf_1920.jpg
http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t222/psionovore/der_januskopf_1920-03.jpg

Returning to the subject of lost silent movies you'd love to see, this one, which I've just heard about, seems highly promising:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Head_of_Janus

Considering that Nosferatu almost suffered the same fate for the same reasons, wouldn't it be great if a pirated copy were to turn up in someone's attic? Here are a couple of stills to whet your appetite:

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t222/psionovore/Der_Januskopf_1920.jpg
http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t222/psionovore/der_januskopf_1920-03.jpg
So is it still just a pipe dream.

Murnau, Conrad Viedt, Bela Lugosi and Karl Freund behind the camera. What I wouldn't give to be able to see this film.

Yesterday evening I went to my local theatre where TV comedian and silent comedy film fan Paul Merton had arrived as part of his national tour showing classic clips from silent comedies (accompanied by an amazing pianist who improvises the music beautifully) and finishing with a complete showing of a restored print of Buster Keaton's Steamboat Bill Jnr.

Well having just finished reading Keaton's biography I was keen to see this and was lucky to get a ticket (albeit in the corner of the upper circle). I only found out about it on Saturday afternoon!!

Well..sadly their print of Steamboat Bill Jnr was " a bit dark in places" and so they replaced it with a new print of Keaton's 'Seven Chances'. This is the film in which Keaton must marry by 7pm that day to inherited $7,000,000 and ends up with a spectacular chase involving Buster and several hundred woman in brides dresses and a brilliantly choreographed avalanche of giant rolling boulders. 'Seven Chances' was accompanied by a five piece band made up of the world's leading musicians in the field of silent movie accompaniment. They were awesome!!! Their music was so emotive and spot on..it made the film ten times better!

A thoroughly enjoyable evening..

Yesterday evening I went to my local theatre where TV comedian and silent comedy film fan Paul Merton had arrived as part of his national tour showing classic clips from silent comedies (accompanied by an amazing pianist who improvises the music beautifully) and finishing with a complete showing of a restored print of Buster Keaton's Steamboat Bill Jnr.

Well having just finished reading Keaton's biography I was keen to see this and was lucky to get a ticket (albeit in the corner of the upper circle). I only found out about it on Saturday afternoon!!

Well..sadly their print of Steamboat Bill Jnr was " a bit dark in places" and so they replaced it with a new print of Keaton's 'Seven Chances'. This is the film in which Keaton must marry by 7pm that day to inherited $7,000,000 and ends up with a spectacular chase involving Buster and several hundred woman in brides dresses and a brilliantly choreographed avalanche of giant rolling boulders. 'Seven Chances' was accompanied by a five piece band made up of the world's leading musicians in the field of silent movie accompaniment. They were awesome!!! Their music was so emotive and spot on..it made the film ten times better!

A thoroughly enjoyable evening..Oh green with envy. Sounds like a really great evening you had. With live music, wow, I can just imagine how cool that experience was.
I have never seen a silent on the big screen. I think about the experience, especially at the time, at the dawn of movies, it must have been so magical for people.
I have seen quite a few silents overs the years and the music is so important, having the right music to accompany the film. I know quite a few films have almost been ruined for me, because of the wrong music, not fitting what is going on with the scene. Or just some repeatitious tinny tunes. Lon Chaney's movie The Penalty springs to mind. I had to turn the sound down, it was so awful it was ruining the movie for me!

An excerpt from Silent Era (http://www.silentera.com/DVD/penaltyDVD.html) about the crappy music used for The Penalty .

"The presentation is accompanied by a synthesizer music score composed and performed by Michael Polher; a score that sometimes revels in its artificiality, with unabashedly unreal sounds that might be more appropriate accompanying the futuristic Metropolis (1927). The score is repetitious and is just this side of outright annoying. While we acknowledge that single performers using MIDI synthesizers can be an inexpensive way to synchronize a musical accompaniment to a silent film, the artificial sounds of synthesizers feel out of place with the majority of silent era films. Some synthesizers are quite pleasing in their use of sound samples taken from acoustic instruments and we have little problem with musical scores using those instruments. We simply want performers to strive for tasteful music compositions that accompany silent films on natural-sounding instruments, electronic or not. The score should never distract, it should augment!"

The pianist accaompanied a short Snub Pollard film but explained what he was thinking and how he approched stuff..it was fascinating to get an insight as how he feels as he vamps this music...and the five piece band, although they have all worked together before they have never combined to accompany Seven Chances before.


I know whatyou mean about appropriate music, Oz. My copy of Keaton's 'The General' is backed by Scott Joplin rags!!! His cheery, plinky plonky ragtime doesn't really add tension or suspense to the scenes of Keaton's girlfriend being dragged off by Union soldiers or the dramatic chase on the train!


The only other time I've seen a silent film with a live accompaniment was when I saw a restored and hand tinted print of Murnau's 'Nostferatu' at the National Film Theatre about 15 years ago..that was bloody awesome as well although it was a specially written score rather than improvised accompaniment.

Murnau's Faust 1926, is just BRILLIANT.

The sets of course are fantastic, I want a German Expressionist set designer to build me a house!
Loads of special effects, very well done for 1926, there was a lot of use of minatures, very effectively done.

But the movie is completely stolen by Emil Jannings as Mephisto, jeez you can't take your eyes off of the guy. He just steals every scene he is in. In his shiny black satin costume, he just pops on the screen. And his makeup just enhances his look as well. His facial expressions and movements, what an actor, genius! He is just popping around everywhere. It is really cinema magic this movie.

And also a chance to see William Dieterle (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0226189/) act, he plays Gretchen's brother.

Some pictures of the movie to wet your appitite. It is pretty easy to see how Emil Jannings steals the movie.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v504/ozma/frog1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v504/ozma/frog2.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v504/ozma/frog3.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v504/ozma/frog4.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v504/ozma/frog5.jpg

Murnau's The Last Laugh 1924. Emil Jannings is the star, what a great actor that man was, and after seeing him recently in Murnau's Faust, you'd hardly know it was the same man, always a testament to a great actor.

"The Last Laugh (German: Der letzte Mann) is a German 1924 silent film directed by German director F. W. Murnau from a screenplay written by Carl Mayer which was based on a Broadway play by Charles W. Goddard. It is the most famous example of the short-lived Kammerspiel or "chamber-drama" genre.

This was one of the first films to incorporate a moving camera, although references to cameras following characters up stairs in Murnau's earlier (now lost) film, Der Januskopf, may point to an even earlier use. The set was built entirely within a studio, unusual for Murnau who preferred to shoot on location.

In 2000, it was added to Roger Ebert's list of Great Movies."

I apologize if already mentioned:



"The Sheik"---made Rudolph Valentino a star


"Greed"---it was cut from 10 hours, still a masterpiece


"The Big Parade"----the war scenes are so real it holds up after 85 years


"Battleship Potemkin"----from Russia and had a great unpack on future movie making. Scenes were copied over the years


1927 may have been the greatest of silent era films:

Metroplis
The General
Wings
Napoleon


And my all time favorite: "Sunrise", with Janet Gaynor and George O'Brien. Only referred as "The Man" and The Wife"

This was made in 1957 or 58. Starring Burl Ives as the bad guy. It's about the time when feathered hats were in fashion and there was a lot of illegal hunting of exoctic birds in the Florida everglades. I have found a DVD that actually has english in its language section but I would really like to find a copy that plays in region 1. Anyone out there who's heard of this movie and knows where I could purchase it please drop me a line Thank you.