Your favorite silent movies.

[Atterbury Dodd]

Hello,
I looked in The Moving Picture section of the Forum, and I have not seen a post devoted to this yet. I would like to hear about peoples favorite silent movies. For me they would be:The General with Buster Keaton and His New Profession(Charlie Chaplin). Oh yes, and Rounders, Charlie Chaplin also. So let’s have them. I may even find lots more I need to buy.

 

[Matt Deckard]

There are several posts, thuogh you have to dig. I was a regular at the local Hollywood Silent movie theatre until the owner stopped opening up daily. Wings would have to be one of my favorites... They are just not the same without a live piano or organ in the background.

 

[Atterbury Dodd]

There are several posts, thuogh you have to dig

I guess it could be time for another one!:eusa_clap Well I am sorry if everybody is already tired of this subject but I can’t resist.

I was a regular at the local Hollywood Silent movie theatre until the owner stopped opening up daily. Wings would have to be one of my favorites... They are just not the same without a live piano or organ in the background.

I am definitely going to have to watch that one. It has the "It" girl in it doesn’t it?

 

[Cobden]

Bronenosiets Potyemkin; a masterpiece

 

[Atterbury Dodd]

Bronenosiets Potyemkin?

 

[scotrace]

Both from 1927

It.

and


Napoleon

I want to see Wings.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The Navigator (1924) Buster Keaton -- Not Keaton's most sophisticated film, but the most solid laugh-producer

Girl Shy (1925) Harold Lloyd -- An exquisitely made comedy, wonderfully acted, and very very funny.

My Best Girl (1927) Mary Pickford -- Who knew she could play a grownup so well?

The Strong Man (1926) Harry Langdon -- Weird and wonderful.

Broken Blossoms (1919) Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess --- I've seen it twice in thirty-five years of viewing silent films, and I've never forgotten a single image

 

[Atterbury Dodd]

I have been wonting to watch a Mary Pickford silent for along time (haven't even seen one!). Have heard of the Strong Man as well, weird and wonderful, that’s my style!

 

[Absinthe_1900]

Micky (1918) Starring Mabel Normand.

The Nickle Hopper (1926) starring Mabel Normand. It has a great scene where five foot tall Mabel dances a much taller Boris Karloff.

His Trysting Place (1914) Mabel Normand appears with Chaplin, and does a better version of Chaplin than Charlie.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

GREED.

PANDORA'S BOX.

DIARY OF A YOUNG GIRL.

VAMPYRE (surrealist 1931 Danish silent by Carl Dreyer).

.

 

[Atterbury Dodd]

GREED.

PANDORA'S BOX.

DIARY OF A YOUNG GIRL.

VAMPYRE (surrealist 1931 Danish silent by Carl Dreyer).

.

I didn't know they kept making silents into 1931. Of course Charlie Chaplin held on as long as he could.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Intolerance, Orphans of the Storm - 1916, 1922, D.W. Griffith

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari - 1919, Robert Weine

The Last Laugh, Sunrise - 1926, 1927, F.W. Murnau

The Three Ages, Our Hospitality, Sherlock Jr. - 1923, 1924 x 2, Buster Keaton

The Mark of Zorro, The Thief of Bagdad - 1920, 1924, Douglas Fairanks

Man With A Movie Camera - 1930?, Dziga Vertov

Phantom of the Opera - 1925, Lon Chaney

The Kid, The Gold Rush, The Circus, City Lights - 1920, 1925, 1928, 1931, Charlie Chaplin

And that's not to mention *shorts*!

 

[imoldfashioned]

It's not one of the greats but I once saw Ella Cinders with Colleen Moore and really enjoyed it. Small town girl dreams of being a star, goes to Hollywood but played for comedy. I actually have a poster from the movie (it was acting as insulation for someone's kitchen in Australia).

I love City Lights too; makes me cry at the end no matter how many times I've seen it. I keep meaning to see The Kid but I don't know if I could take it.

 

[jdjs]

Intolerance, Orphans of the Storm - 1916, 1922, D.W. Griffith

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari - 1919, Robert Weine

The Last Laugh, Sunrise - 1926, 1927, F.W. Murnau

The Three Ages, Our Hospitality, Sherlock Jr. - 1923, 1924 x 2, Buster Keaton

The Mark of Zorro, The Thief of Bagdad - 1920, 1924, Douglas Fairanks

Man With A Movie Camera - 1930?, Dziga Vertov

Phantom of the Opera - 1925, Lon Chaney

The Kid, The Gold Rush, The Circus, City Lights - 1920, 1925, 1928, 1931, Charlie Chaplin

And that's not to mention *shorts*!

Birth of a Nation - 1915

Fritz Lang's Metropolis - 1927

Wizard of Oz - 1925 (more for curiousity that anything)

 

[magneto]

Another vote for Buster Keaton (Steamboat Bill Jr, The General)...is it just me or is he just handsome as all heck? I also love all the Fatty Arbuckle/Mabel Normand shorts I've seen, particularly anything starring the immensely talented Luke (the canine hero). That is one darned talented dog. "Safety Last" (the Harold Lloyd movie) is comedic genius.
The only non-comedy I can think of right now is "The Cheat" with Sessue Hayakawa (racism of early Hollywood aside, the "cheat" of that movie is *not* the Asian-American star..) I tried to watch "Way Down East" once on TCM and fell asleep.

I didn't know they kept making silents into 1931.
Of course Charlie Chaplin held on as long as he could.

Europe and Japan, especially, made silents into the 1930s--Mizoguchi was making silents in '35.

 

[Novella]

I haven't seen very many silent movies (yet!) but of what I've watched I really enjoyed:

Across to Singapore (1928)

Souls for Sale (1923)

It (1927) - one of the cutest movies ever, Clara Bow is adorable

He Who Gets Slapped (1924) - sort of bizarre, but I'm a Norma Shearer fan and John Gilbert - *sigh*

Picadilly (1929) - mostly because of Anna May Wong. I guess most of my favorite silents have more to do with who's in them than the films themselves which is sort of a shame.

I really need to watch more silents from the 1910s - I haven't seen a single Mary Pickford. I also *really* need to watch some Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton! I've only seen one silent on a big screen with musical accompanyment and that was Purity (1916). Which was interesting to watch but not one I'd call a favorite. They played Wings at my university at the end of the summer Arts and Lectures program and I just missed seeing it - so disappointing. It still bugs me when I think about how close I was to being able to watch it.

 

[The Wolf]

I've been a huge fan of silent comedies for a long time.
Chaplin, Turpin, Chase, Keaton, Lloyd just about all of them.

For adventure, Douglas Fairbanks is the man.
My favorite silent film has to be "The Mark of Zorro". When I watch Fairbanks as Aladdin, the Black Pirate or any other character, I want to be him.

For pathos, and just great characters, Lon Chaney was fantastic. He could make you feel the emotional pain of any character.

I've enjoyed many more but those are my tops.

Sincerely,
The Wolf

 

[decodoll]

Broken Blossoms, The Wind, and I have a new one, On the Rocks. I've never seen Pandora's Box, but it's coming soon to the Silent Film Festival at the Castro, and I really want to make it to see that one.

 

[magneto]

OT: SF Silent Film festival.

Oh yes that is coming up eh! FYI for anyone near the Bay Area...
http://www.silentfilm.org/filmfestival.htm
I've been wanting to see "Show People" for a while, Marion Davies is supposed to give a brilliant comedic performance. And hmm...one called "Girl with The Hatbox"? Sounds like a Fedora Lounge must-see!

 

[Marc Chevalier]

.

THE CROWD (1928)


-- Director King Vidor's masterpiece about cubicle people. (Yes, they existed even back then.) With a novice actor in the lead role, the film was a realistic drama about an Everyman (embodied in a white-collar worker) trying to make it with his wife in the monolithic big city - but without any maudlin sentimentality, extreme passion, exploitation of romance, or escapist melodrama. Reality intrudes as he experiences cramped living conditions, a boring job, and a limited life with regret and bitterness, rather than what he had expected. A character lost in the midst of the faceless masses: the "crowd".

-- Believe it or not, it was the first American film to show a bathroom with a toilet bowl.

-- King Vidor filmed many scenes in New York City streets using real crowds instead of extras, real buses and trains, and even real traffic cops. In one scene, a police officer is looking toward the camera, admonishing someone to "move along". In fact, he was actually addressing Vidor and his disguised film crew. Vidor cleverly incorporated it into the scene.

-- Stylistically, the film, in various places, resembles the German expressionist films of F. W. Murnau and Fritz Lang, although it also uses fluid and natural camera movements.

-- King Vidor shot nine different endings before settling on the one used in the finished film, because MGM did not like to release films without a positive ending.

.