Your favorite silent movies.

[78_Maestro]

Phantom Of THE Opera

I recently saw the 1925 film "Phantom Of The Opera" with Lon Cheney and Mary Philbin. The restored DVD version has color sequences and tinted sequences.

Viewing this film, I marvel at Lon Cheney's ability to become a character. He was truly the man of a thousand faces.

 

[HadleyH]

My favorite silent films are: "Greed," "Show People", "It" and last in my list, but far from least "The Crowd".

 

[Spitfire]

Must be Abel Gance: "NAPOLEON".
But also the danish director Carl Th. Dreyer's masterpiece "Joan of Arc" from 1928 comes in close!

 

[Amy Jeanne]

A Girl's Folly (1917)
Stella Maris (1918)
True Heart Susie (1919)
The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse (1921)
The Affairs Of Anatol (1921)
Safety Last! (1923)
Hot Water (1924)
Wine Of Youth (1924)
Seven Chances (1925)
The Big Parade (1925)
Blonde For A Night (1926)
Dancing Mothers (1926)
Ella Cinders (1926)
It (1927)
Walking Back (1928)
Show People (1928)
Bare Knees (1928)

 

[BegintheBeguine]

Some favorites off the top of my head:
Nosferatu
The Unholy Three

I'll probably have more after attending this: http://www.picking.com/cinefest2007.html

 

[Girl Friday]

Bronenosiets Potyemkin?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0015648/

The original baby carriage going down stair steps, in this case the Odessa Steps. In the Untouchables...Chicago's Union Station.

 

[Novella]

I'm going to watch Battleship Potemkin for a class I'm taking - I can't wait to see it! We're going to watch one called The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks too, which sounds like a good one.

Since the last time I posted I've seen a few silents and I'd add The Affairs of Anatol (1921) to my list.

 

[Brian Sheridan]

Anything with Harold Lloyd. The box set that came out a few years ago is the cat's pajamas!

BRS

 

[Girl Friday]

Another good one, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

http://imdb.com/title/tt0010323/

 

[HadleyH]

If it's silent, it's my favorite. It opens the door to the twenties, it's like travelling back in time, it's reliving a past that's no more. I don't care much for the plot or acting or banalities like that I watch them because I want to go back and that's a good way to do it.
(well, of course if the movie is good, then the watching is double good,that goes without saying...)

 

[Amy Jeanne]

One for every year of the dominant silent era 1915ish-1929:

Kidnapped In New York (1914)
The Social Secretary (1916)
A Girl's Folly (1917)
Stella Maris (1918)
True Heart Susie (1919)
The Flapper (1920)
The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse (1921)
Toll Of The Sea (1922)
Safety Last! (1923)
Wine Of Youth (1924)
Seven Chances (1925)
Ella Cinders (1926)
It (1927)
Bare Knees (1928)
Show People (1928)
Diary Of A Lost Girl (1929)

Silent movies and pre-Code movies are a serious addiction with me
Just think of what I could have been doing with all of this time....

 

[Marc Chevalier]

.


And don't forget Danish director Carl Dreyer's superb VAMPYRE (1932), which was first shot (and is best viewed) as a silent film.


---------------------http://www.moria.co.nz/horror/vampyr.htm


.

 

[Atterbury Dodd]

I see a few people saying Safety Last! is good, so O.K., O.K.! I'll buy it! I'll buy it! I have been wanting to watch that one for at least two years. Just keep forgetting to look it up. I love the way intellectuals were portrayed in those days with the thick glasses.
So you see.... I have convinced myself already that I am a Harold Lloyd fan.

 

[ClayBob]

I agree with Brian Sheridan, anything with Harold LLoyd makes my list.
So do most of D. W. Griffth's films ecspecially "The Birth Of A Nation". I also liked "Sparrows" starring a very young Mary Pickford. Some Russian stuff like "Man With the Movie Camera" by Dziga Vertov and "Aelita - Queen of Mars" by Yakov Protazanov. I love silent films. My wife's Grandmother played piano and organ at a theater in a small town in Kansas. Is there any place left where a person can go and watch silents on a big screen with live music?

 

[jazzzbaby]

German director G.W. Pabst's Pandora's Box is my all time favorite ~
and I do have to say that most of my favorites were filmed by German
directors..... The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The Golem, Nosferatu, the Vampire,
Faust , The Diary of a Lost Girl, Metropolis

 

[Flivver]

I'm a real fan of silent movies...I began watching them on PBS back in the 1970s. My favorite stars of the era are Harold Lloyd, Colleen Moore, Douglas Fairbanks and Clara Bow. I tend to prefer movies that depict everyday life in the 1920s...particularly those having to do with the high school or college scene.

My absolute favorites would include:
Safety Last - 1923, with Harold Lloyd
Skinner's Dress Suit - 1926, with Laura La Plante
Orchids and Ermine - 1926, with Colleen Moore
It - 1927, with Clara Bow
Speedy - 1928, with Harold Lloyd
Walking Back - 1928, with Sue Caroll

The release of the Harold Lloyd box set last year was something I had been awaiting for a long time!

 

[LizzieMaine]

Is there any place left where a person can go and watch silents on a big screen with live music?

We have them occasionally at the theatre where I work, with original live music scores. This past fall we had a very successful showing of Harold Lloyd's "The Kid Brother," in a lovely 35mm print from UCLA, and later this year we're hoping to show Nosferatu, with a live orchestral accompaniment. I'd like to see us do even more of this sort of show, but it's expensive!

 

[Amy Jeanne]

Several years ago The Prince Music Theatre in Philadelphia would show silent films with live music. I was introduced to the infamous Alloy Orchestra when they did the score for a showing of The Black Pirate (1926).

I'd heard a lot of negative about the Alloy boys, but I loved them. The Black Pirate really wasn't my type of movie plot-wise, but with the Alloy Orchestra it had me on the edge of my seat. The movie really came to life with them.

 

[Doctor Strange]

My local restored 1930 movie palace (the Peekskill Paramount) just showed Keaton's "Sherlock, Jr." with live music by a chamber-jazz group a couple of weeks ago, so it does occasionally happen.

Alas, I must sheepishly admit that I didn't go - because I've seen this film dozens of times (starting at NYC's long-gone Elgin revial house in 1975!), as it's my favorite Keaton feature, and I have a very nice VHS tape of it from AMC (back when they were a useful station and had no commercials!) who ran a full day of Keaton films on his 100th birthday anniversary back in the 90s.

(BTW, I have a very nice selection of silent comedies on Super 8 and 16mm film - Keaton, Lloyd, Chaplin, Chase, Laurel & Hardy - yeah, I'm one of those old-school film collectors who was into it long before home video existed...)

 

[Hondo]

German director G.W. Pabst's Pandora's Box is my all time favorite ~
and I do have to say that most of my favorites were filmed by German
directors..... The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The Golem, Nosferatu, the Vampire,
Faust , The Diary of a Lost Girl, Metropolis

That a girl! Pandora's Box, which I own, but haven't seen the others except Nosferatu, the Vampire

I enjoy comedy, just haven't had the time, its been years since I've seen a good Keaton, Lloyd, Chaplin film, good selection Doc.