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.
Monday, November 28, 2011
Madame Mystery - 1926
Country: USA
Language: English
Directors: Richard Wallace, Stan Laurel
Writers: Carl Harbaugh, Krag Johnson, Grover Jones, Stan Laurel, Hal Roach, H.M. Walker (titles), Hal Yates
Stars: Theda Bara, Oliver Hardy and Tyler Brooke
Release Date: 12 March 1926 (USA)
Production Co: Hal Roach Studios
Sound Mix: Silent
Color: Black and White
Plot Keywords: Farce | Spy
Genres: Short | Comedy
There exists a one-reel version of this film running approximately ten minutes, making it one of the very few Theda Bara films to survive the silent era, even in fragmented form.
A female secret agent has gotten ahold of a new type of explosive gas. She has to avoid the efforts of two men who are trying to steal it. They succeed in doing so, but the gas turns out to be not quite what they expected.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Loading the Ice on Cars, Conveying It Across the Mountains and Loading It Into Boats - 1902
Country: USA
Release Date: February 1902 (USA)
Filming Locations: Groton, Connecticut, USA
Production Co: Edison Manufacturing Company
Sound Mix: Silent
Color: Black and White
Genres: Documentary | Short
Shows how the ice is picked up from the canal and loaded on cars which are hauled across the mountain by cable. After letting the cars down on the opposite side it is unloaded from the cars and stored in ice boats and transported to market.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Flying the Foam and Some Fancy Diving - 1906
Country: United Kingdom
Language: English
Director: James Williamson
Stars: 'Professor' Reddish
Filming Locations: Palace Pier, Brighton, East Sussex, England, UK
Production Co: Williamson Kinematograph Company
Genres: Short
A stunt cyclist is seen jumping off Brighton Pier, from multiple angles and in multiple directions(!) Some more mundane high-diving footage follows, in the same style.
James Williamson, one of the pioneers of the British film industry, produced this shot of Professor Reddish, a water clown that used to be called a 'tumeler' in the Catskills -- he rides a bicycle hither and yon and does some basic dives, albeit from a great height -- one of them looks to be from a good twenty meters into the water.
Williamson attempts to enliven a rather straightforward performance by running some of the sequences backwards, so that the Professor seems to leap from the water back to the several times, but by 1906, that was rather old hat. The record is a bit sketchy, but he would seem to have largely gone out of production within a year of this work, with one or two later efforts.
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