This site is dedicated to the preservation of memory of silent films. Although they were quite important in the evolution of cinema, they remain virtually forgotten nowadays. Since the best way to understand the present is taking an attentive look at the past, here you have some movies, pictures, interviews, etc. on silent cinema. Some occasional material on sound films will also be presented. I hope you enjoy getting to know a bit more about the beauty and sheer fun of these golden oldies.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Sky High - 1922
Country: USA
Language: English
Director: Lynn Reynolds
Writers: Lynn Reynolds (screenplay), Lynn Reynolds (story)
Stars: Tom Mix, J. Farrell MacDonald and Eva Novak
Release Date: 22 January 1922 (USA)
Filming Locations: Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, USA
Production Co: Fox Film Corporation
Sound Mix: Silent
Color: Black and White
Plot Keywords: Smuggling | Chinese | Illegal Alien
Taglines: A hurricane of thrills, adventure and action.
Genres: Western
A government agent investigates a ring that is smuggling Chinese aliens across the border from Mexico. His investigation takes him to the Grand Canyon. He finds a dazed girl wandering around who has become separated from her companions and is lost. He and the girl are soon found by her companions - the smuggling ring!
The Masquerader - 1914
Country: USA
Language: English
Release Date: 27 August 1914 (USA)
Also Known As: Putting One Over
Charlie is an actor in a film studio. He messes up several scenes and is tossed out. Returning dressed as a lady, he charms the director. Even so, Charlie never makes it into film, winding up at the bottom of a well.
Face on the Barroom Floor - 1914
Country: USA
Language: English
Release Date: 10 August 1914 (USA)
Also Known As: The Ham Actor
The plot is a satire derived from Hugh Antoine D'Arcy's poem of the same title. The painter courts Madeleine but loses to the wealthy client who sits for his portrait. The despairing artist draws the girl's portrait on the barroom floor and gets tossed out. Years later he sees her, her husband and their horde of children. Unrecognized by her, Charlie shakes off his troubles and walks off into the futureGentlemen of Nerve -1914
American movie. Charlie Chaplin's 30th Film Released Oct. 30 1914
Mabel and her beau go to an auto race and are joined by Charlie and his friend. As Charlie's friend is attempting to enter the raceway through a hole, the friend gets stuck and a policeman shows up. Charlie sprays the policeman with soda until he friends makes it through the hole. In the grandstand, Mabel abandons her beau for Charlie. Both Charlie's friend and Mabel's are arrested and hauled away.
A Night in the Show - 1915
Director: Charles Chaplin
Writer: Charles Chaplin
Stars: Charles Chaplin, Edna Purviance and Charlotte Mineau Country: USA Language: English
Release Date: 20 November 1915 (USA)
Based on a famous comedy act called "Mummingbirds" in which Charles Chaplin starred when he was a player with The Karno Company in England. Mr. Pest tries several theatre seats before winding up in front in a fight with the conductor. He is thrown out. In the lobby he pushes a fat lady into a fountain and returns to sit down by Edna. Mr. Rowdy, in the gallery, pours beer down on Mr. Pest and Edna. He attacks patrons, a harem dancer, the singers Dot and Dash, and a fire-eater.
Ringkampfrekord - 1906
Greco-Roman wrestling exhibitions from 1906
Carpini et Raoul Le Bordelais;
Raoul Le Boucher et Simon Antonitch
Le Boucher was an important name in professional greco-roman wrestling scene in early 900s
He has faced legendary wrestlers like Georg Hackenschmidt and Ivan Poddubny
Copyright: Gaumont-Pathe
Raoul Le Boucher et Simon Antonitch
Le Boucher was an important name in professional greco-roman wrestling scene in early 900s
He has faced legendary wrestlers like Georg Hackenschmidt and Ivan Poddubny
Copyright: Gaumont-Pathe
Bigorno fume l'opium - 1914
Country: France
Language: French
Bigorno is by the seashore with his wife and mother in law when a friend returns from a trip to the Orient with gifts -- including a hookah and supply of Opium, which Bigorno tries, with disastrous results to the furniture.This is the first of the Bigorno series I have encountered and although it is well directed by Romeo Bosetti, better remembered for directing the Patouillard series of breakneck slapstick. This attempt to meld pure destructive slapstick with a more human, Max Linder style character does not really work. Perhaps the failure lies in not having seen others in the series and so not having a chance to develop a familiarity with the character. Perhaps one reel is not enough to permit more than some scene-setting (which takes up more than half the film and one gag.
Or, more likely, this one is not really very good and with Max Linder as competition, as well as Keystone imports from the US, the days for this style of screen comedy were numbered
Queen Elizabeth - 1912
This is a brief clip from the silent Sarah Bernhardt film "Queen Elizabeth" (1912).
In this sequence, Robert Devereux, the 2nd Earl of Essex is executed. Queen Elizabeth (Bernhardt) visits his corpse, and mourns for him.
There's a subplot involving a missing ring, which (in the context of the story) demonstrates Essex's fidelity to Elizabeth.
"Queen Elizabeth" was by far Bernhardt's most successful film.
Audio recordings of Sarah's voice can be found at the Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project website
Fricot beve la Medicina - 1910
Country: Italy
Language: Italian
Release Date: 3 August 1910 (USA)
Also Known As: Fricot Drinks a Bottle of Horse Embrocation
Robinet Aviatore - 1911
Country: Italy
Language: Italian
Robinet, the lead in this Italian slapstick comedy, wants to be an aviator in the worst way, and this being an Italian slapstick, that's how he does it. Italian slapstick in this period was absolutely bone-breaking, so much so that it makes Keystone slapstick look like drawing-room comedy by contrast.
Although the course of this comedy is not terribly surprising -- Robinet gets in the air and causes general destruction, mostly by knocking the tops off tall buildings -- the design of his aircraft is particularly amusing. It resembles a giant sturgeon with a forward propeller and one on top -- an auto-gyro of some sort -- with wings and, of course, a jaw hinged to open and close constantly, suggesting, perhaps a crocodile. At five minutes it is no long enough to get tiresome and you should find it tolerably amusing for that length of time.
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