Movies Silently Posted by Fritzi Kramer on August 3, 2014

By Fritzi Kramer on August 3, 2014 in Blog, Theme Month I do so love a good mystery! This month, I am going to be celebrating a very specific sub-genre, plus some added gems of atmospheric murder. The Old Dark House movie has fallen out of favor but I still...   read more

Movies Silently Posted by Fritzi Kramer on August 3, 2014

By Fritzi Kramer on August 3, 2014 in Blog, Feature, Silent Movie Review The tale of an emotionally unstable barber who allows his romantic jealousy to consume him and… Advice to fellas: Don’t let the weird guy who is pining after your girlfriend give you a shave with a straight...   read more

Movies Silently Posted by Fritzi Kramer on August 2, 2014

By Fritzi Kramer on August 2, 2014 in Blog, GIF, Humor Tantrums are highly underrated. A correctly timed one can put your point across rather nicely. Of course, a badly timed one will make you look like a nut. Know the difference Rosemary Theby is teaching Elinor Fair a lesson...   read more

Movies Silently Posted by Fritzi Kramer on August 1, 2014

By Fritzi Kramer on August 1, 2014 in Blog, Fun Size Review Pioneering animator Lotte Reiniger creates an elaborate shadow world based on the Arabian Nights. A pastiche of fairy tales, the story is told using silhouette animation, most of it done by Reiniger herself in a small home studio....   read more

Movies Silently Posted by Fritzi Kramer on July 31, 2014

Well, not Frances Marion herself. That would be weird. No, I mean her films. Frances Marion is best remembered today as a pioneering screenwriter but she was also a director during the silent era. While The Love Light has been released on home media, her other directorial efforts, Just Around...   read more

Movies Silently Posted by Fritzi Kramer on July 30, 2014

By Fritzi Kramer on July 30, 2014 in Blog, GIF, Humor I am sometimes tempted to do this when people get melodramatic. Not that I would ever do anything like that, no sirree. I mean, I do but it’s about important things like silent movies and candy and not about...   read more

Movies Silently Posted by Fritzi Kramer on July 29, 2014

How’s about we play a little game of Silent Movie Bingo? Take this handy card with you and mark every time someone says a variation of one of these phrases. First one to get a Bingo wins a prize! (There is no prize.) I am not responsible for any odd...   read more

Movies Silently Posted by Fritzi Kramer on July 28, 2014

By Fritzi Kramer on July 28, 2014 in Blog, Fritzi's Scrapbook Silent movie memorabilia is a fairly new thing for me. I swore I would never do it and yet here I am. I would like to say that I was one of those people who kept a carefully curated...   read more

Movies Silently Posted by Fritzi Kramer on July 27, 2014

By Fritzi Kramer on July 27, 2014 in Blog, Feature, Silent Movie Review, Silents vs Talkies One of the finest, best-acted and most beautiful mega-epics ever made, Michael Strogoff has catapulted to the top of my favorites list. The compliment is not given lightly. Jules Verne’s red-blooded Siberian   read more

Movies Silently Posted by Fritzi Kramer on July 26, 2014

By Fritzi Kramer on July 26, 2014 in About Silent Movies, Article, Blog, Feature Never let the truth get in the way of a good story. History is jam-packed with examples of this truism. From George Washington to Phineas Gage, a whole lot of what we know about the past...   read more

Movies Silently Posted by Fritzi Kramer on July 25, 2014

When talking about ‘teens fashion, I am always struck by the sheer amount of stuff that was involved in getting dressed. Layers upon layers upon layers. I can see why the sleek, simplified fashions and hairstyles of the twenties must have seemed like absolute freedom in comparison. While ther   read more

Movies Silently Posted by Fritzi Kramer on July 24, 2014

By Fritzi Kramer on July 24, 2014 in Blog, Fun Size Review Gloria Swanson sheds glamor for a stick of chewing gum. She plays a shop girl who feels neglected by her inventor boyfriend so she gets her kicks posing as a Russian countess. Unsavory men start sniffing around and...   read more

Movies Silently Posted by Fritzi Kramer on July 23, 2014

Separated at Birth features are an ever-popular pop culture trope. “Why, these two celebrities DO look alike, when you squint and turn your head sideways.” Well, it seems Photoplay Magazine felt that it was its duty to point out certain celebrity resemblances in 1925 and here is the res   read more

Movies Silently Posted by Fritzi Kramer on July 22, 2014

By Fritzi Kramer on July 22, 2014 in Article, Blog, Feature, Photoplay Cookbook Welcome back! I am cooking my way through the 1929 Photoplay cookbook (recipes of the stars!) and you are invited to tag along. (I have listed all the recipes that I have tested on this dedicated page....   read more

Movies Silently Posted by Fritzi Kramer on July 21, 2014

By Fritzi Kramer on July 21, 2014 in Blog, GIF, Humor I wish I had weird little picture frame windows so I can do this to people who annoy me. “Oh, I love old movies! Like, from 2010 even!” Shove! Slam! Ha! “I haven’t ever seen a silent movie, nor...   read more

Movies Silently Posted by Fritzi Kramer on July 20, 2014

By Fritzi Kramer on July 20, 2014 in Blog, Feature, Silent Movie Review Sessue Hayakawa heads up this tale of Chinatown, opium smuggling and the Tong. He is a gangland assassin who is sent to kill a rival drug dealer. But wouldn’t you know it? His target has a beautiful...   read more

Movies Silently Posted by Fritzi Kramer on July 19, 2014

By Fritzi Kramer on July 19, 2014 in Blog, GIF, Humor After I posted my Silent Movie Star personality quiz, the #1 question I received was this: Who is Milton Sills? You can read my mini biography of Sills but I think that in order to appreciate him, you need...   read more

Movies Silently Posted by Fritzi Kramer on July 18, 2014

World War One. It is the centennial year of what is, in my opinion, one of the most significant events in all of human history and the general reaction has been… meh. Look, I know that WWII gets all the attention, especially in the film department. Fighting Nazis is never...   read more

Movies Silently Posted by Fritzi Kramer on July 18, 2014

  I am in a historical mood today (for reasons which will soon be apparent) and so I was digging through a July 1914 issue of Motion Picture Magazine. See what I found? Mother Goose poems extolling the virtues of the movies. Some historical context: While movies did not have...   read more

Movies Silently Posted by Fritzi Kramer on July 17, 2014

Stella Maris (1925) Status: A complete 16mm print exists in the UCLA archive. The 1918 version of Stella Maris featured some virtuoso acting from its star, Mary Pickford. She played two roles and basically knocked both of them out of the park. Universal obtained the rights to the original novel...   read more