MY TEN FAVORITE SILENTS

Dec 14 '03

The Bottom Line These are my personal favorites as they represent a good cross section of the
movies that were produced in the late teens and the twenties. comments welcome.

I love silents and have collected them for years. I find that in the genre, there are either really
good movies or really bad ones. But they all have their place in cinema history. My personal
favorites are:

1. BLOOD AND SAND with Rudolph Valentino and Nita Naldi. One of Valentino's better films
which explores the life of a bullfighter who betrays himself, his wife and his honor for love of
another woman.

2. FLESH AND THE DEVIL with John Gilbert and Greta Garbo. Classic Garbo and Gilbert
pairing. Excellent cinematography.

3. METROPOLIS a Fritz Lang offering. Great storyline, fantastic sets although a little long. A
good example of what becomes of a utopian society that has been mismanaged.

4. THE WOMAN IN GREY a very early serial from the late teens featuring Arline Pretty. A
chapter play with exciting cliffhangers, good plot and decent acting.

5. QUEEN KELLY with Gloria Swanson and Erich Von Stroheim. Even tho this film is
unfinished, it still ranks up there because of the detail ascribed to Mr. Von Stroheim. I loved it,
even with the filler stills.

6. GREED with Zasu Pitts,directed by Von Stroheim, probably my favorite of all silents. Even
tho it was chopped and re-chopped over the years and is still fairly long, it is a great film and a
must see for any silent movie fan.

7. STEAMBOAT BILL JR. with Buster Keaton. While I like Chaplin, I adore Keaton and think
his comedy over the years has been left behind in many ways. This one has a good plot, lots of
real comedy and a little less slapstick than some of his others.

8. OUR DANCING DAUGHTERS with Joan Crawford is a good film which really gives insight
into the morals of the twenties. Fine performance by Crawford and also by Anita Page. The
sequels to this were pretty good also, but this one is the best.

9. PANDORA'S BOX with Louise Brooks. Brooks was really something. She fled America for
Germany where this film was made and most of her really prolific work was done there.
Interesting character study.

10.THE UNKNOWN with Lon Chaney Sr. I am a huge Chaney fan and have seen very few of
his films I did not like, but this one is my favorite. The story of a circus performer who is
supposedly armless (but really has arms) he commits the ultimate sacrifice for a woman who in
the end he does not get. Superb acting, and although the female lead is played by Joan Crawford,
Chaney takes the movie.
FEATURES --Best, Greatest, Favorite-- A Project 300 essay
Jul 15 '04 (Updated Jul 18 '04)

The Bottom Line Here are some Silent Movies you shouldn't miss. Some powerful,warm,
touching and some among the funniest films of all.

I rarely get an opportunity to write very much about silent films and its unlikely that there’s all
that much interest or a sizable audience for many of these films. Oh there’s many fans of
Chaplin and Keaton and Gish and sometimes people have a passion to explore a dozen or so
silent film classics and see how things used to be. D.W. Griffith and Passion of Joan of Ark and
early Fritz Lang and Greed have many fans.

SPECIAL NOTE:
edit: THE LIST IS CHRONOLOGICALLY ORDERED (BY YEAR OF RELEASE). I mention
it in the intro but several have missed this fact. end special note.

The problem for modern audiences is that you have to watch Silent Films in a complete different
kind of way than you watch television or even theater. There’s automatically an artifice and a
theatricality of style that is unfamiliar to most audiences. At first it will seem ridiculous to you,
even campy and hilarious. I don’t mean comic pantomine which depending on your mood you
can adjust to fairly easily but some of the gestures and movements in the serious and dramatic
films now seem more mannered and forced then they actually played back in their day. Over
time, however you'll begin to accept the different style and gain an appreciation for what is being
done—even understand that the movement is exaggerated sometimes because there is no heard
dialogue.

Silent Films were not actually every silent. The films were shown with live music. In big
theaters that meant on incredible pipe organs loaded up with sound effects and all kinds of
things. In smaller theaters that meant mini-orchestras or just a single piano player. Sometimes
there was sheet music that was intended to be played along with the film. At other times, the
musicians improvised.

Remember in many of these films they were creating a film language. The way scenes were
composed, screen direction, the two shot, the establishing shot, how it was all edited together.
We take all of this for granted now, but back in the silent era, is where it was invented. All of it.
Everything since has been a refinement or expansion or what once was. Buster Keaton for
instance created incredible special effects within the camera and using his unique acrobatic skills
and vaudeville experience. You look at his masterpiece Sherlock Junior and you realize the
genesis of what can be done with special effects is all here. The pioneers of silent film were
magicians. Everyone who has ever enjoyed a film or television show owes these men and
women a great debt of gratitude.

Yet I don’t believe most people will watch most silent films more than once or twice. I’m not
sure too many will be enthralled with silent films. They are odd, they are dated, they are in black
and white, (except for hand colored and tinted sequences) they are stilted and phony and… And
they can be graceful and stylistic and a unique mesmerizing experience.

At their peak, silent films could be played anywhere in the world since only the title cards
needed to be translated. Cinema had progressed rapidly in 35 years and remarkable special
effects, even color were part of the biggest silent films. Then sound came in and film became a
slave to the technical problems that early sound brought to making movies. It also forever
segregated movies into English and Foreign films.

Here’s a list of the finest silent films I’ve seen and remembered in the few weeks I’ve been
putting this piece together. There are a few I’m forgetting and you might remind me of some in
your comments. There are many others that I just left off the list because I only remember bits
and pieces of them or they aren’t quite as spectacular as the ones I’ve included. I've also left off
films shorter than three reelers (with one exception). In some cases, like Chaplin, Keaton, Laurel
and Hardy, Larry Seemon, Charley Chase, Harold Lloyd, Fatty Arbuckle and several others they
were often more entertaining than the feature films. I've given the best of them their very own
list and I hope you'll look at that one as well.

Greatest Silent Shorts – Comedies.

http://www.epinions.com/content_4007698564

This is part of my Project 300 where I will be commenting on more than 300 special films from
various eras in chronological order as I approach my 300th epinion. Here are the 30 Silent Films
I’ve enjoyed the most and consider the greatest of them all -- arranged by year of release. Enjoy.

1. The Birth of a Nation (1915)

There are several films that led up to this landmark of American motion pictures. D.W. Griffith
combined new, borrowed and at the time experimental techniques to tell an epic story of two
families during Civil War and Reconstruction. Unfortunately anyone’s admiration of the
technical brilliance of the film is squashed by how utterly racist the film is. I mean the Klu Klux
Klan in this movie wind up being the heroes and that is disgraceful. It was criticized in its day
for being racist (so imagine how over-the-top it must be). It’s an important, extremely
controversial film.

2. Intolerance (1916)
Griffith made the most expensive flop in movie history at the time. Part of the movie is a
response toward the attacks of how inaccurate and racist Birth of a Nation was. Part of it was an
apology for that film too. It remains a remarkable epic that interweaves four stories of prejudice
and inhumanity, from the Babylonian era to the modern day. It is overly melodramatic, stylized,
and dated but as it builds and becomes more and more exciting as it moves towards it’s powerful
climax. From Babylon to modern Paris. Many stars of the day from Lillian Gish to Constance
Talmadge as the mountain girl deliver fascinating performances. This was a pre-code film and
features nudity and violence. Consider it PG-13.

3. Broken Blossoms (1919)

D.W. Griffith’s masterpiece is about a young Chinese man who lives in London’s poverty
stricken Limehouse district and intends to spread the peaceful philosophy of his Eastern religion.
He attempts to help a street waif, Lillian Gish (in a superb performance) who has been
mistreated by her brutal sadistic father. Tragedy ensues. A classic.

4. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920) Director John S. Robertson

This oft filmed Robert Louis Stevenson tale of man's inner beast, was given a top notch
production and starred the greatest actor of his time, John Barrymore. Barrymore is stunning to
watch. He creates two distinct characters and the special effects, lighting, and make-up are far
better than you'd expect. Of course it's dated, and it's a silent film, but try to pick up KINO DVD
version because you’ll also find a clip of the 1911 version of the film and some other neat stuff.
This features a restoration of the original hand color tinting and a fine music score.

5. Nosferatu (1922)

F.W. Murnau's classic first surviving film adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula is still
atmospheric and creepy. Some may have seen poorly presented version of the film run at the
wrong film speed which made parts of it seem like a Keystone Cop Comedy. That's a real pity.
See a properly restored copy and marvel at how beautiful the shots are composed, how utterly
frightening and rodent like Max Schreck truly is. A masterpiece you may need to see again. (a
behind the scenes fictional fantasy story was
concocted as the movie Shadow of the Vampire in 2000 with Willem Dafoe --Oscar nominated
as Schreck/Nosferatu --I didn’t care fo SOTV much myself though Dafoe was good).

6. & 7. Dr. Mabuse, Parts 1 and 2 (1922), aka Doktor Mabuse der Spieler (Dr. Mabuse: The
Gambler and Dr. Mabuse: King of Crime)

Fritz Lang’s massive two part crime melodrama was an indictment of German society post world
war 1. We follow the twisted mad master mind, extortionist evil criminal Dr. Mabuse as he
tangles with spies, femmes fatales, rival gangs, cops, other crooks and eventually goes insane!!!
It’s an action packed silent roller coaster ride. Lang would later create Testament of Doctor
Mabuse and Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse and the Dr. Mabuse character would be used by
others in several films. Nothing ever came close to this however. You’ll be amazed.

8. & 9. Safety Last (1923) and Why Worry 1923

Harold Lloyd was one of the most popular comedians of the silent era and like Keaton he
devised and performed a number of dangerous stunts. His best known sequence is (from Safety
Last,) the spectacular building climbing and hanging from the clock sequence (borrowed most
recently by Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson in Shanghai Knights). He plays an average man who
comes to the big city to seek his fortune which ends up in several mishaps. An even funnier, but
far less known film is WHY WORRY which features Lloyd as a spoiled millionaire who gets
involved in a third world country’s revolution. You’ll hurt from laughing so hard when you
watch it. Both these films are still easy to enjoy and extremely funny. Lloyd isn’t quite as well
known as Chaplin and Keaton but he should be. The other films of Lloyd you don’t want to miss
are 1925’s The Freshman (which features the famous Football game finale), 1928s Speedy
where Harold takes Babe Ruth to the baseball game and then tries to stop the railroad company
from running the last of the horse drawn trolleys out of business. New York locations highlight
film.

10. The Hunch Back of Notre Dame (1923)

Is the first silent version of this oft told tale of the disfigured bell-ringer of Notre Dame. Lon
Chaney, the man of a thousand faces delivers an incredible performance underneath some
impressive improvised make-up that was extremely uncomfortable and painful to wear. The
sweet disfigured hunchback is ridiculed by the townsfolk, cares for the gypsy girl Esmeralda so
much he is willing to sacrifice everything for her safety and happiness.
11. Greed (1924)

Erich von Stroheim who is known by most as an entertaining and hammy villain in several films
from the 1930s to the 1950s (he plays a director in Sunset Boulevard) destroyed his career as a
director and filmmaker when he fought with the studios and created an 8 hour film adaptation of
Frank Norris' novel McTeague, about a simple man who tries to feed his wife's obsession for
money, but it winds up driving him to madness. Even after to being cut by the studio to 140
minutes it’s still a powerful stunning masterpiece that features an unforgettable climax filmed in
Death Valley. There is an interesting restored version of the film that combines photographs and
explanations of what the film would have been like if the footage survived and it was eight hours
long. That version is about 4 hours long.

12. 㪨. Sherlock Jr. (1924), The Navigator (1924), The General (1926), Steamboat Bill Jr. (1928)
and The Cameraman (1928)

Keaton made a series of the most inventive comic short films ever made starting in the 1920s..
His first full length comedy feature was 1921’s The Saphead. His most entertaining films are
listed above. 1924’s Sherlock Jr is a 45 minute masterpiece and remains one of the most clever
and inventive comedies you will ever see. It was technically brilliant (for it's time), and it opened
the door in both technique and inspiration for hundreds of filmmakers.. Woody Allen borrowed
the idea twice (for Zelig and Purple Rose of Cairo), Zemekis then took it a bit further with Forest
Gump (and Who Framed Roger Rabbitt) and it's inspired film-makers and comedians for over 70
years (including Bunnuel and Rivette). The Navigator (1924) and Steamboat Bill Jr. (1928) are
the full length Keaton films you’ll probably laugh the hardest at. They are full of funny
situations and inventive acrobatic comedy sequences. One of the most famous is the cyclone
sequence from Steamboat which featured one of the most dangerous stunts ever performed on
film. The General is a testament to Keaton’s perfectionism. He plays a confederate solider who
single handedly retrieves a steam locomotive train (The General) from a Northern territory. Rich
in recreated period detail the film is a masterpiece. The Cameraman (1928) is another film
modern audiences will find easy to enjoy and is one of Keaton’s most technically inventive and
clever features. To impress a girl he becomes a newsreel photographer and finds himself in the
middle of a Tong War gang fight. See these Keaton films first and then don’t miss: 1923’s Our
Hospitality and Three Ages, 1925’s Seven Chances (featuring the famous Brides chasing after
Keaton sequence), 1927’s College and 1929’s Spite Marriage. Most of his incredible shorts from
the 20s have been restored and are gems. Long Review of Steamboat Bill Jr. is here:
http://www.epinions.com/mvie-review-1459-120B3E64-39B4713C-prod6

17. Hands of Orlac (1924) Directed by Robert Wiene

This is the original Classic silent film version of the Maurice Renards' classic story (re-made
several times- Mad Love with Peter Lorre, Hands of Orlac -1960 with Christopher Lee and Mel
Ferrer) about a famed concert pianist (Conrad Veidt), whose hands which are mutilated in
an accident. His hands are replaced with those of a murderer and a growing urge to kill
overwhelms him. Conradt Veidt and director Robert Wiene are the same actor/director team
responsible for the influential horror expressionist classic Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. This one is
also extremely expressionistic, and better than Cabinet.

18. Body and Soul (1924)

African American, Oscar Micheaux wrote and directed this remarkable film that marks the first
screen appearance of Paul Robeson. He plays a dual role as a conniving minister and his good
brother. The minister befriends the owner of a gambling clubhouse to get closer to a young girl.
He nearly ruins the young woman’s life. Censors objected to the film’s minister character who
was originally not going to be redeemed. A worthwhile ground-breaking film.

19. The Gold Rush (1925)

The dance of the rolls, the eating of the shoe, the slapstick fights, mirages, the cabin teetering on
the edge of the cliff define silent film comedy. It’s a story of Chaplin’s little tramp trying to win
the favor of a dance hall girl. He gets caught up in the Gold Rush and braves the elements of the
cold desolate Yukon and fights with a burly bullying prospector. Chaplin added music, sound
effects and narration to a 72 minute version of the film in 1942. It’s a timeless, unforgettable
classic.

20 Battleship Potemkin (1925 - Russian) aka Potemkin

You might have heard about this film being one of those good-for-you films that folks taking
film history classes must sit through. It’s just 65 minutes long and it still has the power to
enthrall an audience. Sergei Eisenstein created several masterpieces in Russia, this was his
finest. Do you remember that famous scene in Brian DePalma’s Untouchables that occurs on the
steps? He stole that sequence outright from this film. It was an homage to the film. He had
borrowed from it not quite as directly for the climax of Carlito’s Way as well. Many others have
as well. The Odessa steps sequence is one of the most famous, most thrilling in all of movie
history. See it in the context it was made to be viewed in. Find a good copy of this film and
watch it… soon.

21. The Big Parade (1925) Directed by King Vidor

Some of the most realistic battle scenes every put on film (for the time) are found in this exciting
World War 1 film. It features John Gilbert as the hero and Renee Adoree as the memorable
heroine. They are lovers torn apart by World War 1. It’s an intense and still powerful film.

22. Phantom of the Opera (1925)

Rupert Julian directed the Man of a Thousand Faces Lon Chaney whose famous un-masking
caused hundreds to faint and millions to scream all around the slightly more naive (though not
less innocent) world of the 1920's. The film is still effective particularly if you are lucky enough
to view it on the big screen. Make sure you see the 88 minute version which includes the fully
restored two strip technicolor Bal Masque sequence. It seems every fifteen years or less another
version of this has been made
and the story is timeless enough I suspect they will keep trying. A truly inventive re-working of
the tale was done by Brian DePalma in 1974 (Phantom of the Paradise). There have been
versions with Claude Rains, Herbert Lom, Maximillian Schell, Robert Englund, Charles Dance
and Burt Lancaster, and Italian horror meister Dario Argento has re-worked this material twice.
Once in the very loose adaptation released in 1988 called Terror at the Opera or Opera and the
other a pretty bad loose/remake in which the Phantom is a strange guy who's been raised by rats
and isn't physically disfigured called Phantom of the Opera or Dario Argento's POTO released
around 1998. And I understand there’s a famous play based on this too.

23. Metropolis (1927 - German)

Fritz Lang’s 120 minute Classic silent-film meditation on technology set in a futuristic city with
an advanced mechanized society is considered one of the most innovative and still hip science
fiction films of all time. It’s plot revolves around a young man of high society who abandons his
luxurious life to join the oppressed worked in a revolt. It’s dated and the pacing at times will not
completely enthrall modern viewers but its set design and special effects are still appealing. It
was restored to its most complete version in 2002. Avoid shorter prints and especially the 87
minute 1984 color tinted version produced by Giorgio Moroder that featured songs by Bonnie
Tyler, Queen and Pat Benatar. It doesn’t do the film justice.

24. SUNRISE (1927)Directed by F.W. Murnau

When anyone wants to see what film poetry is, have them watch this exquisite silent film that
remains just as moving and powerful today as it was in 1927. It’s a simple story of a country lad
who is convinced by a city women to murder his wife. The direction, camerawork,
cinematography and performances will take your breath away. I’m not exaggerating how
hauntingly beautiful this film truly is. The film won Oscars, is considered a masterpiece and
features an incredible performance by Janet Gaynor. Full onscreen title is: Sunrise - A Song of
Two Humans. Don’t miss F.W. Murnau’s masterpiece.

25. The Crowd 1928

Another King Vidor classic. It’s one of the finest silent film dramas every made. It’s about the
happy and difficult times of a couple (in a large city). Their day to day struggles make for a
compelling, fascinating film. It all holds up beautiful and once you see it, you will never forget
it.

26. The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928, France)

Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer’s masterpiece. Masterpiece is so mis-used these days
perhaps a new word should be coined to be used on those handful of films which are truly
masterpieces. I wish there was a word to truly emphasize this film is among the finest you will
ever experience in your life. It's a silent film. A stark, stylistic, unique film; as timeless as the
finest opera or ballet performance anyone has ever seen. It still feels innovative, daring and
impassioned today.
No student or lover of film should miss this one.
The images of the faces from this film are ones you will never forget. Whether you have seen the
previously available murky video taken from a damaged print of the film or the beautiful and
meticulously restored version recently released on a Criterion Series DVD.

There is one face, above all others, however, that will be remembered alongside any of the faces
imprisoned on the screen within your head and that is the face of Renee Maria Falconetti. Of
Falconetti's performance Pauline Kael wrote: "It may be the finest performance ever recorded on
film.''

Indeed it is.

Here’s a review I wrote of the film more than 4 years ago:

http://www.epinions.com/mvie-review-5A8C-25CC2E3-39ABBC8B-prod1

27. Das Tagebuch einer Verlorenen [Diary of a Lost Girl] (1929- German)
G.W. Pabst’s second film starring former U.S. flapper Louise Brooks (Pandora’s Box) is this
dark, tragic tale of a frail young girl who follows a path into degradation and ruin. She is raped,
has an unwanted child in a half-way house, becomes a prostitute, inherits money, and….there’s
more. Controversial, and daring for its day. It was based on the popular book by Margarete
Boehme.

28. MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA (1929)

Since 1922 Russian documentary film-maker Dziga Vertov declared the new language of the
cinema as practices by D.W. Griffith and other fiction film makers was false and numbing
intellectual growth. In 1929 he created a masterpiece of camera and editing innovations and
tricks to comment on on the tone, styles and methods of film-making and it's role and uses in
society. It's partially a political film, but it's also a work of art—though never stuffy. When you
sit and watch it you are watching a 68 minute collection of images which will probably remind
you of the more recent docu-message films : Koyaanisquatsi or Powaqquatsi. They took the best
of Buster Keaton and took it to the next level. Man with a Camera is a masterpiece, but one that
deals with form and content and the juxtapositions of images and how edits can create messages,
comparisons, ironies, or ideas. The film does not have a plot or actors, or sets, or even inter-
titles. Vertok believed the most important contribution filmmakers could make was to show life
as it really was and catch people unaware -- as in unaware of the camera. On it's surface the film
looks at a typical day from dawn to dusk in a large Russian city. Director Vertov believed in the
power of the ‘kino-glaz' or cinema eye. And he wanted to compare city life to human life. The
Camera--- like windows in a building. Static--- like the mannequins in storefronts, but more
useful--- like a machine created to help with work tasks. The people wash themselves, the city
streets are washed, and the people walk or perform tasks, and so on and so forth. Comparisons
are made throughout the film. One of my favorites is between sewing machines and operators in
a busy factory and Vertov's wife editing a film. One need only remember that the earliest movie
cameras were made with parts from sewing machines to realize what an apt parallel Vertov and
Kaufman have found. And indeed, combining pieces of cloth to make a finished piece of
clothing, is not unlike splicing together bits of film stock to make a complete movie.
Let me direct you to a longer review of the film:

http://www.epinions.com/content_6686412420

29. L'Age d'Or/Un Chien Andalou (1930-French/Spanish), aka The Age of Gold or The Golden
Age, France, directed by Luis Bunuel co-scripted by Dali

Luis Bunuel's L’Age d’Or is about an hour in length. It’s the tale of a man who is separated from
his true love and kept apart from her by society, and the church. It is a powerful surrealistic.
controversial subversive film that was banned for years.

Un Chien Andalous is incredible surrealistic short film featuring ants crawling out the palm of a
hand and the infamous eyeball/razorblade scene.

30. City Lights (1931)

Chaplin's silent masterpiece released after sound revolutionized film is the story of the Tramp’s
love for a blind flower girl and his roller coaster friendship with a drunken millionaire. Funny,
sad, moving and brilliant. A great film.
PLEASE Also SEE MY EPINION ON THE 7 BEST SILENT HORROR FILMS here:
http://www.epinions.com/mvie-review-2D29-1F7C33D7-397B8ABC-prod5

MORE GREAT SILENT FILMS WORTH WATCHING:

Pre-1920
Le Voyage Dans La Lune (A Trip to the Moon (1902- France)Directed by George Melies
Best known of several innovative experimental films.

Les Vampires (1915-16, France) Several films about a gang of criminals not supernatural
vampires.

The Circus (1919)

1920
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920, Germany)
The Golem (1920, Germany)
The Last of the Mohicans (1920)
The Mark of Zorro (1920)

1921
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921)
The Kid (1921)

1922
Foolish Wives (1922)
M�de Tod, Der aka Destiny (1921)
Nanook of the North (1922)
Robin Hood (1922)

1923
The Ten Commandments (1923)
A Woman of Paris (1923)

1924
He Who Gets Slapped (1924)
The Last Laugh (1924, Germany)
Nibelungen: Siegfried, Die (1924)
Nibelungen: Kriemhilds Rache, Die (1924)
The Thief of Bagdad (1924)

1925
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925)
Go West (1925)
The Lost World (1925)
The Unholy Three (1925)

1926
Beau Geste (1926)
The Black Pirate (1926)
Don Juan (1926)
Faust (1926, Germany)
The Lodger (1926, England)
Scarlet Street (1926
The Son of the Sheik (1926)

Sparrows (1926)
The Student of Prague (1926, Germany)
What Price Glory? (1926)

1927
The Cat and the Canary (1927)
Flesh and the Devil (1927)
It (1927)
The King of Kings (1927)
Napoleon (1927, France)
Underworld (1927)
Wings (1927)

1928
The Docks of New York (1928)
The Man Who Laughs (1928)
October (1928, USSR)
West of Zanzibar (1928)
The Wind (1928)

1930
Earth (1930, USSR)

All of the above films are among the finest silent films ever made. Enjoy some silent movies
soon.

NOTE: CHAPLIN’S MODERN TIMES released in 1936 featured some synchronous sound, bits
of dialogue, sound effects and the song ‘Smile’.

Films did not have to have sound in order to be great. This should be obvious. There are many
great silent films, here are the ones that I have appreciated most.

5. Wings
A Beautiful and surprisingly enjoyable war film. I did not expect a 2+ hour silent film could be
good, but this was. It is no masterpiece, but it is a treat in it's extreme simplicity. The story has
become cliche over the years (made in 1928 and the first Oscar-winner for best picture), but I
still recommend it.

4. The Gold Rush

One of Chaplin's most beloved achievements. Though not his best, it works on many levels, as
most of his films do. Many jokes that are now legendary, including the dancing potatoes, and
other gags that have been recycled over the years (ie: the man being so hungry he pictures his
partner as a large, walking chicken), Charlie Chaplin is one of the funniest filmmakers ever to
grace the screen and he deserves all the brilliant compliments he receives.

3. Modern Times
Another famous Charlie Chaplin masterpiece. Foreseeing a technical revolution, it pokes fun at
technology and it's consequences. Shocking in how hilarious it is, it is certainly an American
classic.

2. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

A black, surreal story of obsession and horror. It manages to be terrifying without gore. It's set
design is graphically warped and adds emphases to the already spooky atmosphere. A German
expressionist film. One of the greatest films of it's era.

1. City Lights
My favorite Chaplin film. A funny and also touching story of a man who falls in love with a
blind woman. He is one of the few comedians of his time who could have a combination of
comedy and drama and still manage to make a genuinely beautiful story where you both tear up
and laugh. His now legendary boxing gag withholds in time and is as hilarious today as it ever
could have been.

1. The Birth of a Nation - (1915, D.W. Griffith) (Lillian Gish, Wallace Reid)
2. Wings - (1927, William A. Wellman) (Clara Bow, Richard Arlen) (1st Academy Award, Best Picture)
3. Modern Times - (1936, Charles Chaplin, partial talkie) (Charles Chaplin, Paulette Goddard)
4. Intolerance - (1916, D.W. Griffith) (Lillian Gish, Constance Talmadge)
5. Metropolis - (1927, Germany/Fritz Lang) (Brigitte Helm, Alfred Abel)
6. The Battleship Potemkin - (1925, USSR/Sergei M. Eisenstein) (Aleksandr Antonov, Vladimir Barsky)
7. City Lights - (1931, Charles Chaplin) (Charles Chaplin, Virginia Cherrill)
8. Napoleon - (1927, France/Abel Gance) (Albert Dieudonne, Edmond Van Daële)
9. The General - (1927, Clyde Bruckman) (Buster Keaton, Marion Mack)
10. The Phantom of the Opera - (1925, Rupert Julian) (Lon Chaney, Mary Philbin)
11. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse - (1921, Rex Ingram) (Rudolph Valentino, Alice Terry)
12. Nosferatu, the Vampire - (1922, Germany/F.W. Murnau) (Max Schreck, Greta Schröder)
13. The Hunchback of Notre Dame - (1923, Wallace Worsley) (Lon Chaney, Patsy Ruth Miller)
14. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari - (1920, Germany/Robert Wiene) (Werner Krauss, Conrad Veidt)
15. Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ - (1925, Fred Niblo) (Ramon Novarro, Francis X. Bushman)
16. The Passion of Joan of Arc - (1928, France/Carl Theodor Dreyer) (Maria Falconetti)
17. The Gold Rush - (1925, Charles Chaplin) (Charles Chaplin, Mack Swain)
18. The Big Parade - (1925, King Vidor) (Gohn Gilbert, Renée Adorée)
19. The Wind - (1928, Victor Sjöström) (Lillian Gish, Lars Hanson)
20. Greed - (1924, Erich von Stroheim) (Zasu Pitts, Gibson Gowland)
21. Beau Geste - (1926, Herbert Brenon) (Ronald Colman, William Powell)
22. The Circus - (1928, Charles Chaplin) (Charlie Chaplin, Merna Kennedy)
23. Sunrise - (1927, F.W. Murnau) (Margaret Livingston, Janet Gaynor, George O'Brien)
24. Orphans of the Storm - (1921, D.W. Griffith) (Lillian Gish, Dorothy Gish)
25. Show People - (1928, King Vidor) (Marion Davies, William Haines)
26. Tess of the Storm Country - (1922, John S. Robertson) (Mary Pickford, Lloyd Hughes)
27. Way Down East - (1920, D.W. Griffith) (Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess)
28. The Sheik - (1921, George Melford) (Rudolph Valentino, Agnes Ayres)
29. Safety Last! - (1923, Fred C. Newmeyer) (Harold Lloyd, Mildred Davis)
30. It - (1927, Clarence G. Badger) (Clara Bow, Antonio Moreno, Gary Cooper)
31. Peter Pan - (1924, Herbert Brenon) (Betty Bronson, Mary Brian)
32. Blood and Sand - (1922, Fred Niblo) (Rudolph Valentino, Rosa Rosanova)
33. Joan The Woman - (1916, Cecil B. DeMille) (Geraldine Farrar, Wallace Reid)
34. Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm - (1917, Marshall Neilan) (Mary Pickford, Eugene O'Brien)
35. Earth (Zemlya) - (1930, USSR/Aleksandr Dovzhenko) (Semyon Svashenko, Stepan Shkurat)
36. The Golem: How He Came Into The World - (1920, Germany/C. Boese, P. Wegener) (Paul Wegener)
37. Nanook of the North - (1922, Robert J. Flaherty/Documentary) (Allakariallak , Nyla)
38. The Ten Commandments - (1923, Cecil B. DeMille) (Richard Dix, Theodore Roberts)
39. Seventh Heaven - (1927, Frank Borzage) (Janet Gaynor, Charles Farrell)
40. Shoulder Arms - (1918, Charles Chaplin) (Charles Chaplin, Edna Purviance)
41. Robin Hood - (1922, Allan Dwan) (Douglas Fairbanks, William Lowery)
42. Faust - (1926, Germany/F.W. Murnau) (Gösta Ekman, Emil Jannings)
43. The Iron Horse - (1924, John Ford) (George O'Brien, Madge Bellamy)
44. Foolish Wives - (1922, Erich von Stroheim) (Rudolph Christians, Miss DuPont)
45. The Last Command - (1928, Josef von Sternberg) (Emil Jannings, William Powell)
46. Male and Female - (1919, Cecil B. DeMille) (Gloria Swanson, Thomas Meighan)
47. The Crowd - (1928, King Vidor) (James Murray, Elanor Boardman)
48. Les Vampires - (1915, France/Louis Feuillade) (Musidora, Édouard Mathé)
49. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - (1920, John S. Robertson) (John Barrymore, Nita Naldi)
50. The King of Kings - (1927, Cecil B. DeMille) (H. B. Warner, Dorothy Cumming)
51. Flesh and the Devil - (1926, Clarence Brown) (Greta Garbo, John Gilbert)
52. The Cameraman - (1928, Edward Sedgwick) (Buster Keaton, Marceline Day)
53. The Mark of Zorro - (1920, Fred Niblo) (Douglas Fairbanks, Noah Beery)
54. The Lost World - (1925, Harry O. Hoyt) (Wallace Beery, Bessie Love)
55. The Iron Mask - (1929, Allan Dwan) (Douglas Fairbanks, William Bakewell)
56. Hands Up! - (1926, Clarence G. Badger) (Raymond Griffith, Marian Nixon)
57. Pandora's Box - (1929 Germany/Georg Wilhelm Pabst) (Louise Brooks, Fritz Kortner)
58. The Black Pirate - (1926, Albert Parker) (Douglas Fairbanks, Billie Dove)
59. For Heaven's Sake - (1926, Sam Taylor) (Harold Lloyd, Jobyna Ralston)
60. The Merry Widow - (1925, Erich von Stroheim) (John Gilbert, Mae Murray)
61. For Better, for Worse - (1919, Cecil B. DeMille) (Gloria Swanson, Elliott Dexter)
62. The Scarlet Letter - (1926,, Victor Sjöström) (Lillian Gish, Lars Hanson)
63. Tabu - (1931, F.W. Murnau) (Anna Chevalier, Matahi)
64. The Cat and the Canary - (1927, Paul Leni) (Laura La Plante, Creighton Hale)
65. The Covered Wagon - (1923, James Cruze) (J. Warren Kerrigan, Alan Hale)
66. The Mysterious Lady - (1928, Fred Niblo) (Greta Garbo, Conrad Nagel)
67. The Thief of Bagdad - (1924, Raoul Walsh) (Douglas Fairbanks, Julanne Johnston)
68. Sadie Thompson - (1928, Raoul Walsh) (Lionel Barrymore, Gloria Swanson)
69. Uncle Tom's Cabin - (1927, Harry A. Pollard) (Margarita Fisher, James Lowe)
70. What Price Glory? - (1926, Raoul Walsh) (Victor McLaglen, Dolores del Rio)
71. My Best Girl - (1927, Sam Taylor) (Mary Pickford, Charles 'Buddy' Rogers)
72. Stachka (Strike) - (1925, USSR/Sergei M. Eisenstein) (Aleksandr Antonov, Grigori Aleksandrov)
73. The Navigator - (1924, Donald Crisp, B. Keaton) (Buster Keaton, Kathryn McGuire)
74. The Last Laugh - (1924, Germany/F.W. Murnau) (Emil Jannings, Maly Delschaft)
75. Man with a Movie Camera - (1929, USSR/Dziga Vertov) (Documentary)
76. Sparrows - (1926, William Beaudine) (Mary Pickford, Gustav von Seyffertitz )
77. The Diary of a Lost Girl - (1929, Germany/Georg Wilhelm Pabst) (Louise Brooks)
78. Something to Think About - (1920, Cecil B. DeMille) (Gloria Swanson, Elliott Dexter)
79. The Freshman - (1925, F. C. Newmeyer, S. Taylor) (Harold Lloyd, Jobyna Ralston)
80. The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg - (1927, Ernst Lubitsch) (Ramon Novarro, Norma Shearer)
81. Cleopatra - (1917, J. Gordon Edwards) (Theda Bara, Fritz Leiber, Thurston Hall)
82. The Man Who Laughs - (1928, Paul Leni) (Conrad Veidt, Mary Philbin)
83. Seven Chances - (1925, Buster Keaton) (Buster Keaton, Ruth Dwyer)
84. Big Business - (1929, James W. Horne) (Stan laurel, Oliver Hardy)
85. A Woman of Affairs - (1928, Clarence Brown) (Greta Garbo, John Gilbert)
86. West of Zanzibar - (1928, Tod Browning) (Lon Chaney, Lionel Barrymore)
87. Go West - (1925, Buster Keaton) (Buster Keaton, Kathleen Myers)
88. Steamboat Bill, Jr. - (1928, Charles Reisner) (Buster Keaton, Ernest Torrence)
89. Liberty - (1929, Leo McCarey) (Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Jean Harlow)
90. Don Juan - (1926, Alan Crosland) (John Barrymore, Myrna Loy)
91. The Docks of New York - (1928, Josef von Sternberg) (George Bancroft, Betty Compson)
92. College - (1927, James W. Horne) (Buster Keaton, Anne Cornwall)
93. Broken Blossoms - (1919, D.W. Griffith) (Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess)
94. Underworld - (1927, Josef von Sternberg) (George Bancroft, Evelyn Brent)
95. Beggars of Life - (1928, William A. Wellman) (Louise Brooks, Wallace Beery)
96. The Strong Man - (1926, Frank Capra) (Harry Langdon, Priscilla Bonner)
97. The Son of the Sheik - (1926, George Fitzmaurice) (Rudolph Valentino, Vilma Bánky)
98. Little Lord Fauntleroy - (1921, Alfred E. Green) (Mary Pickford, Claude Gillingwater)
99. Tumbleweeds - (1925, King Baggot) (William S. Hart, Barbara Bedford)
100. Manslaughter - (1922, Cecil B. DeMille) (Leatrice Joy, Thomas Meighan)
Mencion especial para las peliculas _---------

Raja Harishchandra - (1913, India/Dadasaheb Phalke) (First 'feature-length' silent film)

The Jazz Singer - (1927, Alan Crosland) (Al Jolson, Mary Dale) (some synchronized dialogue)
Silent Movie - (1976, Mel Brooks) (Mel Brooks, Marty Feldman, Dom DeLuise)

Greatest Silent Films

The Best of the 23.The Cabinet of Dr. 51.Sherlock, Jr. (1924) 79. The Student Prince In
Caligari (1920) 52.The Thief of Bagdad Old Heidelberg (1927)
Best
24.The Last of the Mohicans (1924) 80. Underworld (1927)
(1920) 53.Siegfried (1924) 81. The Unknown (1927)
1. The Birth of a 25.The Mark of Zorro (1920) 54.Kriemhild's Revenge 82. Wings (1927)
Nation (1915) 26.Way Down East (1920) (1924) 83. Beggars of Life (1928)
2. Intolerance (1916) 27.Camille (1921) 55.Ben-Hur (1925) 84. The Cameraman (1928)
3. Nosferatu (1922) 28.Destiny (1921) 56.Don Q Son of Zorro 85. The Circus (1928)
4. Greed (1924) 29.The Four Horsemen of the (1925) 86. The Docks of New York
5. Battleship Apocalypse (1921) 57.The Freshman (1925) (1928)
Potemkin (1925) 30.The Kid (1921) 58.The Joyless Street 87. The Last Command
6. The Big Parade 31.Orphans of the Storm (1925) (1928)
(1925) (1921) 59.The Merry Widow 88. The Fall of the House of
7. The Gold Rush 32.The Sheik (1921) (1925) Usher (1928)
(1925) 33.The Three Musketeers 60.The Phantom of the 89. The Man Who Laughs
8. Faust (1926) (1921) Opera (1925) (1928)
9. The General (1927) 34.Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler 61.Seven Chances (1925) 90. Sadie Thompson (1928)
10.Metropolis (1927) (1922) 62.Strike (1925) 91. Show People (1928)
11.Sunrise (1927) 35.Foolish Wives (1922) 63.The Adventures of 92. Steamboat Bill, Jr.
12.The Crowd (1928) 36.Nanook of the North Prince Achmed (1926) (1928)
13.The Passion of (1922) 64.Beau Geste (1926) 93. West of Zanzibar (1928)
Joan of Arc (1928) 37.Robin Hood (1922) 65.The Black Pirate 94. The Wind (1928)
14.Un Chien Andalou 38.Tess of the Storm Country (1926) 95. Diary of a Lost Girl
(1929) (1922) 66.Don Juan (1926) (1929)
15.City Lights (1931) 39.The Covered Wagon 67.Flesh and the Devil 96. The Iron Mask (1929)
The Rest of the (1923) (1926) 97. The Man With the
Best 40. The Hunchback of Notre 68.For Heaven's Sake Movie Camera (1929)
Dame (1923) (1926) 98. Pandora's Box (1929)
41.Our Hospitality (1923) 69.The Strong Man 99. Queen Kelly (1929)
16.A Trip To the 42.Safety Last (1923) (1926) 100
Moon (1902) Earth (1930)
43.The Ten Commandments 70.Tramp, Tramp, .
17.The Great Train (1923) Tramp (1926)
Robbery (1903) Mostly Silent Films
44.A Woman of Paris (1923) 71.It (1927)
18.Cabiria (1914) 45.Girl Shy (1924) 72.The Kid Brother
19.The Perils of 46.He Who Gets Slapped (1927) 1. The Jazz Singer (1927)
Pauline (1914) (1924) 73.The King of Kings 2. Modern Times (1936)
20.Les Vampires 47.The Last Laugh (1924) (1927) 3. Silent Movie (1976)
(1915) 48.The Marriage Circle 74.The Lodger (1927)
21.Broken Blossoms (1924) 75.My Best Girl (1927)
(1919) 49.The Navigator (1924) 76.Napoleon (1927)
22.Male and Female 50.Peter Pan (1924) 77.October (1927)
(1919) 78.Seventh Heaven (1927)
 Country of
Rank Title Year Director
Production
Buster Keaton and
1. The General 1926 USA
Clyde Bruckman
2. Metropolis 1927 Fritz Lang Germany
3. Sunrise 1927 F.W. Murnau USA
4. City Lights 1931 Charles Chaplin USA
5. Nosferatu 1922 F.W. Murnau Germany
6. The Gold Rush 1925 Charles Chaplin USA
La Passion et la Mort
Carl Theodor
7. de Jeanne d’Arc 1928 France
Dreyer
[The Passion of Joan of Arc]
Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari
8. 1920 Robert Wiene Germany
[The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari]
Bronenosets ‘Potyomkin’ Sergei M.
9. 1925 USSR
[The Battleship Potemkin] Eisenstein
10. Greed 1924 Erich von Stroheim USA
Die Büchse der Pandora
11. 1929 G.W. Pabst Germany
[Pandora’s Box]
12. The Crowd 1928 King Vidor USA
13. The Wind 1928 Victor Sjöström USA
14. Intolerance 1916 D.W. Griffith USA
15. Napoléon 1927 Abel Gance France
16. Sherlock, Jr. 1924 Buster Keaton USA
17. The Birth of a Nation 1915 D.W. Griffith USA
18. The Big Parade 1925 King Vidor USA
Fred Newmeyer and
19. Safety Last 1923 USA
Sam Taylor
20. The Phantom of the Opera 1925 Rupert Julian USA
21. Broken Blossoms 1919 D.W. Griffith USA
Der letzte Mann
22. 1924 F.W. Murnau Germany
[The Last Laugh]
23. The Kid 1921 Charles Chaplin USA
24. Steamboat Bill, Jr. 1928 Charles F. Reisner USA
25. The Thief of Bagdad 1924 Raoul Walsh USA
26. Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ 1925 Fred Niblo USA

27. Flesh and the Devil 1927 Clarence Brown USA

28. Our Hospitality 1923 Buster Keaton and USA

John G. Blystone
29. Wings 1927 William Wellman USA

30. Chelovek s kinoapparatom 1929 Dziga Vertov USSR

[Man with a Movie Camera]
31. Faust 1926 F.W. Murnau Germany

32. Way Down East 1920 D.W. Griffith USA

33. Nanook of the North 1922 Robert J. Flaherty USA

34. Häxan 1922 Benjamin Christensen Sweden

[Witchcraft Through the Ages]
35. The Unknown 1927 Tod Browning USA

36. Das Tagebuch einer Verlorenen 1929 G.W. Pabst Germany

[The Diary of a Lost Girl]
37. The Cameraman 1928 Edward Sedgwick USA

38. The Circus 1928 Charles Chaplin USA

39. Show People 1928 King Vidor USA

40. Un Chien Andalou 1928 Luis Buñuel and France

[The Andalusian Dog] Salvador Dali
41. The Hunchback of Notre Dame 1923 Wallace Worsley USA

42. Dr. Mabuse: Der Spieler 1922 Fritz Lang USA

[Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler]
43. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse 1921 Rex Ingram USA

44. The Sheik 1921 George Melford USA

45. Die Nibelungen 1924 Fritz Lang Germany

(including Siegfried and Kriemhilds Rache
[Kriemhild’s Revenge])
46. The Freshman 1925 Sam Taylor and USA
Fred Newmeyer
47. Tol’able David 1921 Henry King USA
48. HE Who Gets Slapped 1924 Victor Sjöström USA
49. Girl Shy 1924 Fred Newmeyer and USA
Sam Taylor
50. The Lodger 1922 Alfred Hitchcock England

51. The Mark of Zorro 1920 Fred Niblo USA

52. The Wedding March 1928 Erich von Stroheim USA
53. The Man Who Laughs 1928 Paul Leni USA
54. Seven Chances 1925 Buster Keaton USA
55. The Last Command 1928 Josef von Sternberg USA
56. Orphans of the Storm 1921 D.W. Griffith USA
57. Sparrows 1926 William Beaudine USA
58. Foolish Wives 1922 Erich von Stroheim USA
59. The Navigator 1924 Buster Keaton and USA
Donald Crisp
60. Zemlya 1930 Alexander Dovzhenko USSR
[Earth]
61. Tabu 1931 F.W. Murnau and USA
Robert J. Flaherty
62. Beggars of Life 1928 William Wellman USA
63. My Best Girl 1927 Sam Taylor USA
64. Les Vampires 1915-16 Louis Feuillade France
65. Cops 1922 Buster Keaton and USA
Eddie Cline
66. The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg 1927 Ernst Lubitsch USA
67. The Son of the Sheik 1926 George Fitzmaurice USA
68. 7th Heaven 1927 Frank Borzage USA
69. Der Golem 1920 Paul Wegener USA
[The Golem]
70. It 1927 Clarence Badger USA

71. The Lost World 1925 Harry O. Hoyt USA

72.
72. The Kid Brother 1927 Ted Wilde and J.A. Howe USA
Le Voyage dans la lune
73. 1902 Georges Méliès France
[A Trip to the Moon]
74. The Immigrant 1917 Charles Chaplin USA
75. Cabiria 1914 Giovanni Pastrone Italy
76. Queen Kelly 1928 Erich von Stroheim USA
Oktiabr
77. 1928 Sergei M. Eisenstein USSR
[October]
78. Robin Hood 1922 Allan Dwan USA
79. The Docks of New York 1928 Josef von Sternberg USA
Stachka
80. 1924 Sergei M. Eisenstein USSR
[Strike]
The Great Train
81. 1903 Edwin S. Porter USA
Robbery
Der müde Tod German
82. 1921 Fritz Lang
[Destiny] y
83. Speedy 1928 Ted Wilde USA
84. Sadie Thompson 1928 Raoul Walsh USA
Tess of the Storm
85. 1922 John S. Robertson USA
Country
86. A Woman of Paris 1923 Charles Chaplin USA
87. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde 1920 John S. Robertson USA
Maurice Tourneur and Clarence
88. The Last of the Mohicans 1920 USA
Brown
89. The Unholy Three 1925 Tod Browning USA
Mat
90. 1926 Vsevolod I. Pudovkin USSR
[Mother]
91. The Cheat 1915 Cecil B. DeMille USA
Variété German
92. 1925 E.A. Dupont
[Variety] y
Die Freudlose Gasse German
93. 1924 G.W. Pabst
[The Joyless Street] y
94. Big Business 1929 James W. Horne USA
95. The Iron Horse 1924 John Ford USA
96. The Penalty 1920 Wallace Worsley USA
97. The Iron Mask 1929 Allan Dwan USA
98. Stella Maris 1918 Marshall Neilan USA
99. Underworld 1927 Josef von Sternberg USA
100. Male and Female 1919 Cecil B. DeMille USA

Greatest Silent Films

A thorough history of the films of the classic silent era is described in two other places in this site:
Greatest Films of the Pre-20s

Greatest Films of the 1920s

Silent Films are the films of the early era that were without synchronized sound, from the earliest film
(around 1891), until 1927, when the first 'talkie', The Jazz Singer (1927) was produced, although there
were a few other 'silents' later on, such as City Lights (1931).

Calling them silent films is something of a misnomer - movie theatres and other dream palaces provided
pianists, wurlitzers, and other sound machines, and some films were produced with complete musical
scores. Most early silents were accompanied with a full-fledged orchestra, organist or pianist to provide
musical background and to underscore the narrative on the screen. Some even had live actors or narrators.
Unfortunately, many of the early classics have been lost to decomposing nitrate film bases and outright
destruction.

Many early silent films were either dramas, epics, romances, or comedies (often slapstick). One-reelers
(10-12 minutes) soon gave way to four-reel feature-length films.

Early masters of cinema during the silent years included Cecil B. De Mille, known for his epics such as
The Ten Commandments (1923), Erich Von Stroheim's dramatic tale of the degenerative effects of
avarice in Greed (1924), King Vidor's war drama The Big Parade (1925) and his simple yet
dramatic story The Crowd (1928) of a young couple in the city experiencing the plight of Everyman.
In addition, F. W. Murnau is most famous for his silent melodramatic masterpiece Sunrise (1927).

Early pioneering director D. W. Griffith was often identified with epics including:

• the Civil War saga The Birth of a Nation (1915)

• the spectacular saga Intolerance (1916) with four inter-woven narratives
• Broken Blossoms (1919), the melodramatic story of an abused girl (Lillian Gish) who is
cared for by a young Chinese man
• Orphans of the Storm (1921) - a tale set during the French Revolution

The most-remembered films from the silent years are the visual comedies from the Mack Sennett
Keystone Kops series, starring Fatty Arbuckle and Mabel Normand, and slapstick from the 'silent clowns.'
Tragi-comic superstar Charlie Chaplin is most noted for The Kid (1921), his classics including The
Gold Rush (1925), the exquisite City Lights (1931), and his first mute "silent film" with sound
Modern Times (1936) - a satire on the machine age.

Physically-daring comedian Buster Keaton ("Old or Great Stoneface") appeared in many other classic
comedies, including Sherlock Jr. (1924), The General (1927), and Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928).
 Harold Lloyd's most famous silent film found him dangling from a clock on the side of a city building in
Safety Last (1923).

Greatest Silent Films

(in chronological order)

Pre-1920 The Freshman (1925)

Le Voyage Dans La Lune (A Trip to the Moon) (1902, The Gold Rush (1925)
Fr.) Go West (1925)
The Great Train Robbery (1903) The Joyless Street (1925, Germany)
David Copperfield (1913, England) The Lost World (1925)
A Traffic in Souls (1913) The Merry Widow (1925)
Cabiria (1914, Italy) The Phantom of the Opera (1925)
Gertie, The Trained Dinosaur (1914) Seven Chances (1925)
The Perils of Pauline (1914) Tumbleweeds (1925)
The Squaw Man (1914) The Unholy Three (1925)
The Birth of a Nation (1915)
The Cheat (1915) 1926
Les Vampires (1915-16, France) Battling Butler (1926)
Regeneration (1915) Beau Geste (1926)
Intolerance (1916) The Black Pirate (1926)
The Immigrant (1917) Don Juan (1926)
Joan the Woman (1917) Faust (1926, Germany)
The Outlaw and His Wife (1917, Sweden) Flesh and the Devil (1926)
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1917) Hands Up! (1926)
The Sinking of the Lusitania (1918) The Lodger (1926, England)
Stella Maris (1918) The Scarlet Letter (1926)
Blind Husbands (1919) The Son of the Sheik (1926)
Broken Blossoms (1919) Sparrows (1926)
Male and Female (1919) The Strong Man (1926)
True Heart Susie (1919) The Student of Prague (1926, Germany)
What Price Glory? (1926)
1920
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920, Germany) 1927
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920) The Cat and the Canary (1927)
The Golem (1920, Germany) College (1927)
The Last of the Mohicans (1920) Flesh and the Devil (1927)
The Mark of Zorro (1920) The General (1927)
The Penalty (1920) It (1927)
Way Down East (1920) The Jazz Singer (1927) (mostly silent)
The Kid Brother (1927)
1921 The King of Kings (1927)
Destiny (1921, Germany) Man, Woman and Sin (1927)
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921) Metropolis (1927, Germany)
The Kid (1921) My Best Girl (1927)
Orphans of the Storm (1921) Napoleon (1927, France)
The Sheik (1921) Seventh Heaven (1927)
The Three Musketeers (1921) The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (1927)
Tol'able David (1921) Sunrise (1927)
Underworld (1927)
1922 The Unknown (1927)
Blood and Sand (1922) The Way of All Flesh (1927)
Cops (1922) Wings (1927)
Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler (1922, Germany)
Foolish Wives (1922) 1928
Nanook of the North (1922) Beggars of Life (1928)
Nosferatu, the Vampire (1922, Germany) The Cameraman (1928)
Robin Hood (1922) Un Chien Andalou (1928, France)
Tess of the Storm Country (1922) The Circus (1928)
Witchcraft Through the Ages (1922, Sweden) The Crowd (1928)
The Docks of New York (1928)
1923 A Girl in Every Port (1928)
Anna Christie (1923) The Last Command (1928)
The Covered Wagon (1923) The Man Who Laughs (1928)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) October (1928, USSR)
Our Hospitality (1923) The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928, France)
Safety Last (1923) Queen Kelly (1928)
Scaramouche (1923) Sadie Thompson (1928)
The Ten Commandments (1923) Show People (1928)
A Woman of Paris (1923) Speedy (1928)
Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928)
1924 The Wedding March (1928)
Aelita (1924) West of Zanzibar (1928)
America (1924) The Wind (1928)
Girl Shy (1924)
Greed (1924) 1929
He Who Gets Slapped (1924) Big Business (1929)
The Iron Horse (1924) The Circus (1929)
Isn't Life Wonderful? (1924) The Diary of a Lost Girl (1929, Germany)
Kriemhild's Revenge (1924, Germany) The Iron Mask (1929)
The Last Laugh (1924, Germany) Liberty (1929)
The Marriage Circle (1924) Man with a Movie Camera (1929, USSR)
The Navigator (1924) Pandora's Box (1929, Germany)
Peter Pan (1924) Seven Footprints to Satan (1929)
Sherlock, Jr. (1924) A Woman of Affairs (1929)
Strike (1924, USSR)
The Thief of Bagdad (1924) 1930
Earth (1930, USSR)
1925
The Big Parade (1925) 1931
The Battleship Potemkin (1925, USSR) City Lights (1931)
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925) Tabu (1931)
Body and Soul (1925)
1936
Modern Times (1936) (mostly silent]
Object 1

Foundations of the Prolific Film Industry:

Films really blossomed in the 1920s, expanding upon the foundations of film from earlier years.
Most US film production at the start of the decade occurred in or near Hollywood on the West Coast,
although some films were still being made in New Jersey and in Astoria on Long Island (Paramount).
By the mid-20s, movies were big business (with a capital investment totaling over $2 billion) with
some theatres offering double features. By the end of the decade, there were 20 Hollywood studios,
and the demand for films was greater than ever. Most people are unaware that the greatest output of
feature films in the US occurred in the 1920s and 1930s (averaging about 800 film releases in a year)
- nowadays, it is remarkable when production exceeds 500 films in a year.

Throughout most of the decade, silent films were the predominant product of the film industry,
having evolved from vaudevillian roots. But the films were becoming bigger (or longer), costlier, and
more polished. They were being manufactured, assembly-line style, in Hollywood's 'entertainment
factories,' in which production was broken down and organized into its various components (writing,
costuming, makeup, directing, etc.).

Even the earliest films were organized into genres or types, with instantly-recognizable storylines,
settings, costumes, and characters. The major genre emphasis was on swashbucklers, historical
extravaganzas, and melodramas, although all kinds of films were being produced throughout the
decade. Films varied from sexy melodramas and biblical epics by Cecil B. DeMille, to westerns
(such as Cruze's The Covered Wagon (1923)), horror films, gangster/crime films, war films, the
first feature documentary or non-fictional narrative film (Robert Flaherty's Nanook of the North
(1922)), romances, mysteries, and comedies (from the silent comic masters Chaplin, Keaton, and
Lloyd).

The Major Film Studios: The Big Five

1920-1930 was the decade between the end of the Great War and the Depression following the Stock
Market Crash. Film theaters and studios were not initially affected in this decade by the Crash in late
1929. The basic patterns and foundations of the film industry (and its economic organization) were
established in the 1920s. The studio system was essentially born with long-term contracts for stars,
lavish production values, and increasingly rigid control of directors and stars by the studio's
production chief and in-house publicity departments. After World War I and into the early 1920s,
America was the leading producer of films in the world - using Thomas Ince's "factory system" of
production, although the system did limit the creativity of many directors. Production was in the
hands of the major studios (that really flourished after 1927 for almost 20 years), and the star system
was burgeoning.

Originally, in the earliest years of the motion picture industry, production, distribution, and
exhibition were separately controlled. When the industry rapidly grew, these functions became
integrated under one directorship to maximize profits, something called vertical integration. There
were eight major (and minor) studios (see below) that dominated the industry. They were the ones
that had most successfully consolidated and integrated all aspects of a film's development. By 1929,
the film-making firms that were to rule and monopolize Hollywood for the next half-century were
the giants or the majors, sometimes dubbed The Big Five. They produced more than 90 percent of the
fiction films in America and distributed their films both nationally and internationally. Each studio
somewhat differentiated its products from other studios.
The Big Five Studios Logo
1. Warner Bros. Pictures,
incorporated in 1923 by Warner Bros.
Polish brothers (Jack,
Harry, Albert, and Sam); in
1925, Warner Brothers
merged with First
National, forming Warner
Bros.-First National
Pictures; the studio's first
principal asset was Rin Tin
Tin; became prominent by
1927 due to its introduction
of talkies (The Jazz Singer
(1927)) and early 30s
gangster films; it was
known as the "Depression
studio"; in the 40s, it
specialized in Bugs Bunny
animations and other
cartoons
2. Adolph Zukor's Famous
Players (1912) and Jesse Famous Players-Lasky
Lasky's Feature Play - (Paramount)
merged in 1916 to form
Famous Players-Lasky
Corporation; it spent $1
million on United Studios'
property (on Marathon
Street) in 1926; the Famous
Players-Lasky
Corporation became
Paramount studios in
1927, and was officially
named Paramount
Pictures in 1935; its
greatest silent era stars were
Mary Pickford and Douglas
Fairbanks; Golden Age stars
included Mae West, W.C.
Fields, Bing Crosby, Bob
Hope, and director Cecil B.
DeMille
3. RKO (Radio-Keith-
Orpheum) Pictures, RKO
evolved from the Mutual
Film Corporation (1912),
was established in 1928 as a
subsidiary of RCA; it was
formed by RCA, Keith-
Orpheum Theaters, and
the FBO Company (Film
Booker's Organization) -
which was owned by Joseph
P. Kennedy (who had
already purchased what
remained of Mutual); this
was the smallest studio of
the majors; kept financially
afloat with top-grossing
Astaire-Rogers musicals in
the 30s, King Kong (1933),
and Citizen Kane (1941);
at one time, RKO was
acquired by eccentric
millionaire Howard Hughes
4. Marcus Loew of Loew's,
Inc., was the parent firm of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
what eventually became
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Metro Pictures
Corporation was a
production company
founded in 1916 by Richard
A. Rowland and Louis B.
Mayer. In 1918, Mayer left
this partnership to start up
his own production
company in 1918, called
Louis B. Mayer Pictures.
In 1920, Metro Pictures
Corporation (with its
 already-acquired Goldwyn
Pictures Corporation) was
purchased by early theater
exhibitor Marcus Loew of
Loew's Inc. In another
acquisition, Loew merged
his 'Metro-Goldwyn
production company with
Louis B. Mayer Pictures.

So, in summary, MGM,

first named Metro-
Goldwyn Pictures, was
ultimately formed in 1924
from the merger of three US
film production companies:
Metro Pictures
Corporation (1916),
Goldwyn Pictures
Corporation (1917), and
the Louis B. Mayer
Pictures Company (1918);
Irving Thalberg (nicknamed
the 'boy wonder') was head
of production at MGM from
1924 until his death in
1936; the famous MGM
lion roar in the studio's
opening logo was first
recorded and viewed in a
film in 1928; its greatest
early successes were The
Big Parade (1925),
Broadway Melody (1929),
Grand Hotel (1932),
Mutiny on the Bounty
(1935), A Night at the
Opera (1935), The Good
Earth (1937), Gone With
the Wind (1939), The
Wizard of Oz (1939), as
well as Tarzan films, Tom
and Jerry cartoons, and
stars such as Clark Gable,
Greta Garbo, and Spencer
Tracy
5. Fox Film
Corporation/Foundation, Movietone Newsreels
founded in 1912 by NY
nickelodeon owner William 20th Century Pictures
Fox (originally a garment
industry worker), was first
known for Fox Movietone 20th-Century Fox
news and then B-westerns;
its first film was Life's
Shop Window (1914); it
later became 20th-Century
Fox, formed through the
1935 merger of 20th
Century Pictures
Company (founded in 1933
by Darryl F. Zanuck) and
 Fox; it became famous for
Shirley Temple films in the
mid-30s and Betty Grable
musicals in the 40s
The Big-Five studios had vast studios with elaborate sets for film production. They owned their own
film-exhibiting theatres (about 50% of the seating capacity in the US in mostly first-run houses in
major cities), as well as production and distribution facilities. They distributed their films to this
network of studio-owned, first-run theaters (or movie palaces), mostly in urban areas, which charged
high ticket prices and drew huge audiences. They required blind or block bookings of films, whereby
theatre owners were required to rent a block of films (often cheaply-made, less-desirable B-pictures)
in order for the studio to agree to distribute the one prestige A-level picture that the theatre owner
wanted to exhibit. This technique set the terms for a film's release and patterns of exhibition and
guaranteed success for the studio's productions. [Monopolistic studio control lasted twenty years
until the late 1940s, when a federal decree (in U.S. vs. Paramount) ordered the studios to divest their
theatres, similar to the rulings against the MPPC - the Edison Trust.]

The Minor Film Studios: The Little Three

Three smaller, minor studios were dubbed The Little Three, because each of them lacked one of the
three elements required in vertical integration - owning their own theaters:

The Little Three Studios Logo

1 Universal Pictures, (or Universal Film
. Manufacturing Co), founded by Carl
Laemmle in 1912; formed from a merger of
Laemmle's own IMP - Independent Motion
Picture Company (founded in 1909) with
Bison 101, the U. S. production facilities of
Universal
French studio Éclair, Nestor Film Co., and
several other film companies; its first
successes were W.C. Fields and Abbott and
Costello comedies, the Flash Gordon serial,
and Woody Woodpecker cartoons
2 United Artists, formed in 1919 by movie
. industry icons Mary Pickford, Douglas
Fairbanks, Sr., Charlie Chaplin, and director
D.W. Griffith as an independent company to
produce and distribute their films; United
United Artists
Artists utilized an 18-acre property owned
by Pickford and Fairbanks, known as the
Pickford-Fairbanks Studio, and later named
United Artists Studio in the 1920s
3 Columbia Pictures, originally the C.B.C.
. Film Sales Company in 1920 founded by
brothers Jack and Harry Cohn, and Joseph CBC Film Sales
Brandt, and officially named Columbia in
1924; their studios opened at the old location
of Christie-Nestor Studios; established Columbia Pictures
prominence with It Happened One Night (1924-1936)
(1934), Rita Hayworth films, Lost Horizon
(1937), The Jolson Story (1946), and
Batman serials. Columbia

"Poverty Row" Studios and Other Independents:

Other studios or independents also existed in a shabby area in Hollywood dubbed "Poverty Row"
(Sunset Blvd. and Gower Street) where cheap, independent pictures were made with low budgets,
stock footage, and second-tier actors. It was the site of Harry and Jack Cohn's new business, the
C.B.C. Film Sales Company (later becoming Columbia Pictures). Many of the films of the
independents were either horror films, westerns, science-fiction, or thrillers:

• Disney Studios - specializing in animation; Walt and Roy Disney originally opened their
first studio in 1923 in Los Angeles in the back of the Holly-Vermont Realty office, and
called it Disney Bros. Studio; in a few years, they opened a new facility in downtown LA;
in the late 30s, they relocated to a 51-acre lot in Burbank, and changed their name to Walt
Disney Productions
• the Monogram Picture Corporation - Rayart Pictures, which had taken over the old
Selig Studio in Echo Park in 1924, became Monogram Pictures in 1930; it was founded by
W. Ray Johnston to make mostly inexpensive Westerns and series (Charlie Chan, the
Bowery Boys, etc.)
• Selznick International Pictures / David O. Selznick - it was formed in 1935 and headed
up by David O. Selznick (previously the head of production at RKO), the son of
independent film producer Lewis J. Selznick, the founder of Selznick Pictures
• Samuel Goldwyn Pictures - headed up by independent film producer Samuel L. Goldwyn
• 20th Century Pictures - formed in 1933 by Darryl Zanuck (head of production at Warner
Brothers) with Joseph Schenck, brother of Nicholas Schenck, president of Loew's, Inc., the
parent company of MGM; in 1935, the Fox Film Corporation merged with 20th Century
Pictures to become 20th Century-Fox, with Zanuck as president
• Republic Pictures - founded in 1935 by the merger of smaller 'poverty row' studios:
Consolidated Film Industries, Mascot, Monogram and Liberty, and headed by Herbert Yates
of Consolidated

Extravagant Movie Palaces:

The major film studios built luxurious 'picture palaces' that were designed for orchestras to play
music to accompany projected films. The 3,300-seat Strand Theater opened in 1914 in New York
City, marking the end of the nickelodeon era and the beginning of an age of the luxurious movie
palaces. By 1920, there were more than 20,000 movie houses operating in the US. The largest theatre
in the world (with over 6,000 seats), the Roxy Theater (dubbed "The Cathedral of the Motion
Picture"), opened in New York City in 1927, with a 6,200 seat capacity. It was opened by impresario
Samuel Lionel "Roxy" Rothafel at a cost of $10 million. The first feature film shown at the Roxy
Theater was UA's The Love(s) of Sunya (1927) starring Gloria Swanson (she claimed that it was her
personal favorite film) and John Boles. [The Roxy was finally closed in 1960.] The Roxy was
unchallenged as a showplace until Radio City Music Hall opened five years later.

Grauman's Theatres:

Impresario Sid Grauman built a number of movie palaces in the Los Angeles area in this time period:

• the Million Dollar Theater (on S. Broadway in downtown Los Angeles), the first movie
palace in Los Angeles, opened in February, 1918 with 2,345 seats, and premiered the
William S. Hart western film The Silent Man (1917)
• the Egyptian Theatre (on Hollywood Boulevard) opened in 1922 with 1,760 seats; it was the
first major movie palace outside of downtown Los Angeles, and noted as having
Hollywood's first movie premiere; its opening film was Robin Hood (1922) that starred
Douglas Fairbanks; the theatre's creation was inspired by the discovery of King Tut's tomb
that same year
• the now-famous Chinese Theater, with 2,258 seats, opened in Hollywood (on Hollywood
Boulevard) in May, 1927 with the premiere of Cecil B. De Mille's King of Kings (1927).

Star Imprints at Grauman's:

Grauman, dubbed as "Hollywood's Master Showman," established the tradition of having Hollywood
stars place their prints in cement in front of the theater to create an instant tourist attraction ever
since. (Legend has it that during the theatre's construction, silent screen actress Norma Talmadge
accidentally stepped into wet cement and inspired the tradition. Grauman immortalized his own
footprints, and invited Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks to do the same.) Listed below are the
first 10 stars, beginning in the spring of 1927, to imprint themselves (with handprints, footprints, or
signatures) in the concrete of the Chinese Theatre's forecourt:

1. Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, Apr. 30, 1927

2. Norma Talmadge, May 18, 1927
3. Norma Shearer, Aug. 1, 1927
4. Harold Lloyd, Nov. 21, 1927
5. William S. Hart, Nov. 28, 1927
6. Tom Mix and Tony (his horse), Dec. 12, 1927
7. Colleen Moore, Dec 19, 1927
8. Gloria Swanson, 1927 (specific date unknown)
9. Constance Talmadge, 1927 (specific date unknown)
10.Charlie Chaplin, Jan, 1928

Pickford and Fairbanks:

Two of the biggest silent movie stars of the era were Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford. America
flocked to the movies to see the Queen of Hollywood, dubbed "America's Sweetheart" and the most
popular star of the generation - "Our Mary" Mary Pickford. She had been a child star, and had
worked at Biograph as a bit actress in 1909, and only ten years later was one of the most influential
figures in Hollywood at Paramount.

She was married to another great star, Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. Their wedding in late March, 1920 was
a major cultural event, although it was highly controversial since both of them had to divorce their
spouses so they could marry each other. She was presented with a wedding gift - "Pickfair" [the first
syllables of their last names], a twenty-two room palatial mansion (former hunting lodge) in the
agricultural area of Beverly Hills - marking the start of the movement of stars to lavish homes in the
suburbs of W. Hollywood and the making of Hollywood royalty. [The couple remained married from
1920-1935.] Strangely, Mary Pickford's downfall began after she bobbed her hair in 1928.

Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. also became an American legend after switching from light comedies and
starring in a series of exciting, costumed swashbuckler and adventure/fantasy films, starting with
The Mark of Zorro (1920), soon followed with his expensively-financed adventure film, Robin
Hood (1922), and the first of four versions of the classic Arabian nights tale by director Raoul
Walsh, The Thief of Bagdad (1924), with magical "flying carpet" special effects. Another first
occurred in 1926 - a Hollywood film premiere double-featured two films together: Fairbanks' The
Black Pirate (1926) with early two-color Technicolor (and the superstar's most famous stunt of
riding down a ship's sail on a knife) and Mary Pickford's melodramatic film Sparrows (1926).
Fairbanks scored again at the close of the decade with The Iron Mask (1929). The first and only
film that co-featured both stars was a talkie version of The Taming of the Shrew (1929). Pickford's
Coquette (1929), her first all-talking film, won her an Academy Award, but she retired prematurely
four years later.

Other 1920s Box-Office Stars:

The top box-office stars in the 1920s included Harold Lloyd, Gloria Swanson, Tom Mix, Norma
Talmadge, Rudolph Valentino, Douglas Fairbanks Sr., Colleen Moore, Norma Shearer, John
Barrymore, Greta Garbo, Lon Chaney, Sr., Clara Bow, and "Little Mary" Pickford.

Hauntingly mysterious and divine, Greta Garbo's first American film was The Torrent (1926),
followed quickly by The Temptress (1926). Her first major starring vehicle was as a sultry
temptress in torrid, prone love scenes with off-screen lover John Gilbert in Flesh and the Devil
(1926). MGM renamed Broadway actress Lucille Le Sueur and christened her "Joan Crawford" in
1925. And Louise Brooks made her debut film in mid-decade with Street of Forgotten Men (1925).
Glamorous MGM star Norma Shearer insured her future success as "The First Lady of the Screen"
by marrying genius MGM production supervisor Irving Thalberg in 1927.

Clara Bow, a red-haired, lower-class Brooklyn girl was subjected to a major publicity campaign by
B. P. Schulberg (of Preferred Pictures (1920-1926) and then Paramount's head of production in the
late 20s and early 30s). He promoted his up-and-coming, vivacious future star as his own personal
star, after grooming and molding her for her star-making hit film The Plastic Age (1925) as a
flirtatious flapper - the "hottest Jazz Baby in Film." Bow was also exceptional in Dancing Mothers
(1926) and in her smash hit Mantrap (1926), and was further promoted with teaser campaigns for It
(1927). She soon became known as "The It (sex appeal) Girl" (in the high-living age of flappers)
after its February 1927 release. She was boosted to Paramount Studios' super-stardom in the late
1920s by more publicity campaigns, fan magazine glamorization, and rumor-spreading. Bow also
starred in the epic WWI film Wings (1927), and in 1928 became the highest paid movie star (at
$35,000/week). But by 1933, after years of victimizing exploitation, she had gone into serious
decline and retired due to hard-drinking, exhaustion, gambling, emotional problems, a poor choice of
roles, the revelation of a heavy working-class Brooklyn accent in the talkies, and a burgeoning
weight problem.

Lon Chaney, Sr., the "man of a thousand faces," starred in the earliest version of The Hunchback of
Notre Dame (1923), and then poignantly portrayed the title character of the Paris Opera House in
The Phantom of the Opera (1925) in his signature role. The unveiling of the phantom's face, when
Christine (Mary Philbin) rips off his mask - was (and still is) a startling sequence.

Young screen actress, platinum blonde starlet Jean Harlow was also 'discovered' and soon contracted
with aviation millionaire/movie mogul Howard Hughes to replace the female lead in his soon-to-be-
released, re-made sound version of Hell's Angels (1930), another exciting WWI film about British
flying aces.

Janet Gaynor:

Another famous screen couple, dubbed "America's Lovebirds" or "America's Sweethearts" were
romantic film stars Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell who were eventually paired together in twelve
films. [The fact that Farrell was homosexual was kept from the public.] Their first film was Seventh
Heaven (1927), a classic romantic melodrama. For their work in Seventh Heaven, Janet Gaynor
received the first "Best Actress" Academy Award and director Frank Borzage received the first "Best
Director" Academy Award.

Janet Gaynor was also honored in the same year with an Academy Award for her exquisite acting in
German director F. W. Murnau's first American film - the beautiful Fox-produced Sunrise: A Song
of Two Humans (1927), often considered the finest silent film ever made by a Hollywood studio.
Murnau's succeeding films were The Four Devils (1928) and Our Daily Bread (1930), with his last
film the sensual semi-travelogue documentary Tabu: A Story of the South Seas (1931) shot with
documentarist Robert Flaherty. (A week before Tabu's premiere in early March 1931, Murnau died
in a car accident.)