Silent

  • John Ford – The Iron Horse [US Version] (1924)

    1921-1930John FordSilentUSAWestern

    David Brandon (James Gordon) is a surveyor in the Old West who dreams that one day the entire North American continent will be linked by railroads. However, to make this dream a reality, a clear trail must be found through the Rocky Mountains. With his boy Davy (Winston Miller), David sets out to find such a path, but he’s ambushed by a tribe of Indians led by a white savage, Peter Jesson (Cyril Chadwick); while the boy manages to escape, David is killed. Years later, the adult Davy Brandon (George O’Brien) still believes in his father’s dream of a transcontinental railroad, and legislation signed by President Abraham Lincoln has made it an official mandate. Davy is hired on as a railroad surveyor by Thomas Marsh (Will R. Walling), the father of his childhood sweetheart Miriam (Madge Bellamy). While Davy hopes to win Miriam’s heart as he helps to find the trail that led to his father’s death years ago, he’s disappointed to discover that Miriam is already married — and shocked to discover her husband is Peter Jesson, now working with the railroad as a civil engineer. As the Union Pacific crew presses on to their historic meeting at Promitory Point, Davy must find a way to earn Miriam’s love and uncover Peter’s murderous past.Read More »

  • Georges Méliès – Le magicien AKA The Magician (1898)

    Georges Méliès1891-1900FranceSilentThe Birth of Cinema

    Quote:
    In a traditional “magician” attire, the wizard of illusion and jump cuts, Georges Méliès, says the magic words and conjures up wonders from a plain wooden box.

    Quote:
    Directed by Georges Méliès, the film features a wizard, a Pierrot, and a sculptor in a rapid series of substitution splices. The film is described as “another exercise in the art of the jump-cut,” in the tradition of Méliès’ earlier A Nightmare (Le Cauchemar, 1896) and The Haunted Castle (Le Château hanté, 1897).Read More »

  • Gustaf Molander – Till Österland AKA To the Orient (1926)

    Gustaf Molander1921-1930DramaScandinavian Silent CinemaSweden

    Quote:
    Gustaf Molander was the one who primarily would be asked to continue Sjöström’s and Stiller’s work. He was also the film company’s chief negotiator with Lagerlöf, and someone she did not like. “Molander has just left. He is a remarkably dead and uninteresting character, although he is such a fine person. The matter concerned that which you had just told me about, to ask whether I had any good ideas in stock, which I could pass on to them […] He was not very informed about my novels, I must say […].

    Swedish Film: An Introduction And Reader (2014)Read More »

  • Henri d’ Ursel – La perle AKA The Pearl (1929)

    1921-1930BelgiumExperimentalHenri d' UrselSilent

    Quote:
    The count Henri d’Ursel shot La perle (The Pearl) under the pseudonym of Henri d’Arche “in the flush of inexperience”, as he put it. D’Ursel made only one film, based on a screenplay by the poet Georges Hugnet. In a Paris straight out of the serials of Louis Feuillade, the hero goes in search of a pearl which constantly disappears in a string of bizarre encounters – sneak thieves in a hotel wearing body stockings à la Musidora, a beautiful fiancée on a bicycle and a somnambulist walking the rooftops in a night-shirt, amorous fantasies in the undergrowth. Hugnet himself played this waking dreamer, haunted by an unending eroticism reflected in the images.Read More »

  • Georges Méliès – Un homme de têtes AKA The Four Troublesome Heads AKA Four Heads Are Better Than One (1898)

    Georges Méliès1891-1900FranceSilentThe Birth of Cinema

    Quote:
    Much to our amazement, an elegant and masterful illusionist detaches his own head effortlessly from his shoulders for a once-in-a-lifetime performance.Read More »

  • William Worthington – The Dragon Painter (1919)

    1911-1920DramaSilentUSAWilliam Worthington

    A wild man and genius becomes a master painter’s disciple, but loses his divine gift when he finds love.Read More »

  • André Hugon – La grande passion (1928)

    1921-1930André HugonDramaFranceSilent

    This is a love story, a story of rivalry and revenge but, above all, a story about sport. The great passion is about union rugby.Read More »

  • Luis Peredo – Santa (1918)

    1911-1920DramaItalyLuis PeredoShort Film

    The first version of Gamboa’s novel about an innocent young girl who is betrayed by the man she loves and must become a prostitute after her family rejects her.Read More »

  • Georges Méliès – Le Château hanté AKA The Haunted Castle (1897)

    Georges Méliès1891-1900FranceHorrorSilentThe Birth of Cinema

    Quote:
    A man dressed in red is ushered into an antechamber in a Castle and offered a seat. When he tried to sit down the chair moves to the other side of the room causing the man to fall on the floor. Standing up he strides to the chair but on trying to lift it a Spector materializes in the chair, arises and challenges the man. The man pulls out his sword and lunges at the Spector but it changes into a skeleton. Seeing the change the man tried to grab the skeleton but it changes into an armor clad guard. The man attempts to move the guard but a devil appears and waves the man away. The man recoils from the devil and tries to leave but the Spector reappears. Both it and the devil frighten the man from the antechamber.Read More »

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