Movies Silently Posted by Movies, Silently on August 2, 2013

Stage and screen star Miriam Nesbitt is the lovely amateur sleuth in the 1913 film, The Ambassador’s Daughter, directed by Charles Brabin. I was really impressed by how charming and natural Miss Nesbitt is in this film. We tend to think of films of this era as more stagy and stiff....   read more

Movies Silently Posted by Movies, Silently on August 1, 2013

Just a tiny sample of the Daddy Long Legs queries I have received. With the series, I answer some of the more common, interesting or odd search engine queries that send people to my site. Note: Due to the nature of these queries, I am going to be spoiling the...   read more

Movies Silently Posted by Movies, Silently on August 1, 2013

Poor Dr. Caligari. He goes to all the trouble of finding a sleepwalker, figures out how to control him, sends him out to kill people– But nooooooo, the somnambulist changes his mind at the last second. I mean, Cesare had one job. One! Sigh.   read more

Movies Silently Posted by Movies, Silently on July 31, 2013

It’s baaack! Another modern movie re-imagined as a silent. This time, it’s The Princess Bride and it is taking a little trip back to 1928. If you have only seen Mary Astor and William Powell in the talkies, you may be interested to know that in the silents, she was...   read more

Movies Silently Posted by Movies, Silently on July 31, 2013

Well, I did a test run for the feature and the positive response has convinced me to make it a regular addition to the site. Silent Take. What is it? Basically, it is a modern film re-imagined as a silent. Here are the rules that I laid out for myself:...   read more

Movies Silently Posted by Movies, Silently on July 31, 2013

Bedbugs are back in the news but never fear! Buster Keaton seems to handle the situation quite well in The Play House.   read more

Movies Silently Posted by Movies, Silently on July 30, 2013

Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle’s career has, sadly, been eclipsed by the scandal that destroyed his career. In super brief: Roscoe Arbuckle has a Party. Guest dies. Overreaching prosecution accuses Arbuckle of Very Bad Things. Railroading. Trial. Mistrial. Trial. Mistrial. Trial. Acquitt   read more

Movies Silently Posted by Movies, Silently on July 30, 2013

Cecil B. DeMille was known to use… odd romantic gestures in his films. In this case, Elinor Fair is groovin’ to some boatman music supplied by William Boyd and her fiance, Victor Varconi, is jealous. So what does he do? Make his hands into earmuffs, of course. And she is...   read more

Movies Silently Posted by Movies, Silently on July 29, 2013

She is Mary Pickford, spunky orphan who is being sent to college by a mysterious benefactor. He is the mysterious philanthropist who reads Mary’s letters but never writes back. But just who is Daddy Long Legs? And why is he so interested in Mary’s romances? Mary Pickford is in top...   read more

Movies Silently Posted by Movies, Silently on July 29, 2013

Ossi Oswalda continues her mechanical maiden impersonation in Lubitsch’s comedy classic The Doll. This time, she is introducing herself. Come on, admit this would be really fun to do sometime…   read more

Movies Silently Posted by Movies, Silently on July 29, 2013

To honor the start of the William Castle Blogathon, I made this GIF from The Tingler. The titular nasty is loose in a silent movie theater that just happens to be playing Tol’able David, one of my favorite movies. This is the iconic scene in which the Tingler crawls in...   read more

Movies Silently Posted by Movies, Silently on July 28, 2013

About 73% of the fun in The Volga Boatman comes from the overblown intertitles. In this case, William Boyd (yes, that William Boyd) is leading a Bolshevik uprising (this was back when a Hollywood hero could lead a Bolshevik uprising) and he is calling on his followers to storm the...   read more

Movies Silently Posted by Movies, Silently on July 28, 2013

One thing that I learned from writing this blog is that a lot of people want to get into silent movies but have not been able to for various reasons. Some don’t know where to begin. Some are intimidated by how different silents are from sound films. Some had a...   read more

Movies Silently Posted by Movies, Silently on July 27, 2013

Comedian Lupino Lane plays every last part in this comedy short. The plot? A tipsy, top-hatted fellow and a really horrible child manage to disrupt an evening at the music hall. The material is old but Lane manages to keep things fun. Forgotten funnyman Lupino Lane. Lupino Lane is a...   read more

Movies Silently Posted by Movies, Silently on July 27, 2013

It’s early Lubitsch but his touch is there, right down to the clever intertitles. After all, this is what every father says when he is sending off his only child, right? Background: In The Doll, dollmaker Hilarius has just inadvertently sold his daughter to a customer. She was taking the pla   read more

Movies Silently Posted by Movies, Silently on July 26, 2013

This is just how it is done. No ifs, ands or buts about it. Caligari co-star Lil Dagover later said that Conrad Veidt did not break character during the shoot and lurked through the hallways of the studio startling people. He said he did it for a better performance. but...   read more

Movies Silently Posted by Movies, Silently on July 26, 2013

The Arab (1924) Status: No print existed in American archives until Gosfilmofond (the state film fund of Russia) presented a digital copy to the Library of Congress in 2010. Vintage clipping In the early to mid-1920′s Hollywood was mad to find the next Valentino and the next Sheik. On the su   read more

Movies Silently Posted by Movies, Silently on July 26, 2013

I’ve never made any secret about my love for Charley Chase; he was one of the top-notch talents in the Hal Roach comedy tent. Did you know that he had a part in bringing Our Gang (aka The Little Rascals) into being? Those realistic but rascally kids made their debut...   read more

Movies Silently Posted by Movies, Silently on July 25, 2013

Lupino Lane is at it again! This time, he is a less-than talented operatic soprano. The zoom effect just cracks me up. This is yet another persona he adopted for the comedy short Only Me. Lane made a successful talkie transition but his stage work is supposed to be his...   read more

Movies Silently Posted by Movies, Silently on July 25, 2013

This is the only known movie footage of Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain (1835-1910). The condition is poor but its historical significance makes it worth watching. The footage was taken in 1909 when Thomas Edison visited Twain at his home. Mark Twain is possibly the most impersonated classic America   read more