Your favorite silent movies.

[Zombie_61]

Since this thread has been resurrected (sort of)...

Anything with Buster Keaton or Lon Chaney Sr.; also Nosferatu (1922), and Vampyr (1932). Always best with live, period-correct musical accompaniment.

 

[Pompidou]

I like the experimental movies of the dawn of film - Georges Mieles' La Voyage de la Lune, the Lumiere Brothers' People coming out of a factory and the arrival of a train, etc, and Phantasmagorie, the earliest cartoon animation they know of, but I forgot who made it. Of the silent films of the era when studios turned it into an industry, I can't really bring myself to finish a whole film anymore. I've seen the whole Metropolis, and would've told you how much I loved it at the time, but in truth I was bored for most of it. I like scenes from Nosferatu, but most of it is boring. I like scenes from Frankenstein. I suppose the I like Phantom of the Opera best from that era.

 

[martinsantos]

Two german movies. "Dk Caligari" (1919) and "Variety" (1924), both expressionists.

 

[Widebrim]

Regarding the silents, it seems to be true that horror films do better with sound than not (the use sound effects, a controlled musical score, etc.). For all that can be said about the epic quality of many silent films compared to talkies, I think that there are few silent horror films that actually hold up well.

 

[CopperNY]

"The Golem" always entertains.

 

[Widebrim]

^^Very true...

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Without a doubt my favorite is Erich von Stroheim's 1924 classic Greed.

Of all the Laurel and Hardy silent comedies my favorite is Liberty (1929). The climactic scene on top of the high rise under construction, offering a panoramic view of Broadway and Olympic in Downtown L.A., was filmed on the roof of the Western Costume Company Building which is still standing.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Harry Langdon's "Three's A Crowd" is a work of genius. An imperfect work, but genius just the same.

 

[Widebrim]

Without a doubt my favorite is Erich von Stroheim's 1924 classic Greed.

Of all the Laurel and Hardy silent comedies my favorite is Liberty (1929). The climactic scene on top of the high rise under construction, offering a panoramic view of Broadway and Olympic in Downtown L.A., was filmed on the roof of the Western Costume Company Building which is still standing.

I need to see that. Broadway and Olympic...

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

I need to see that. Broadway and Olympic...

Harold Lloyd's Safety Last (1923) also has a view of Broadway with either the old Hamburger's Department Store building or the Orpheum Theatre in the background.

My favorite scene in Safety Last is at the beginning where we see what appears to be the Harold Lloyd character on Death Row saying a final goodbye to his grieving mother and sweetheart. There's a uniformed guard and a clergyman in attendance and a noose ominously in the background. Then we discover that the scene is actually a train station and Harold Lloyd is leaving for the big city. The "guard" is in actuality the train conductor and the "noose" is the wire loop used to pass orders to the train crew.

 

[Widebrim]

Harold Lloyd's Safety Last (1923) also has a view of Broadway with either the old Hamburger's Department Store building or the Orpheum Theatre in the background.

Likely Hamburger's, since the Orpheum didn't open until 1926.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Likely Hamburger's, since the Orpheum didn't open until 1926.

Also some of the interior scenes of Safety Last were filmed at what was then the Ville de Paris Department Store (built in 1916) located at 712 South Olive (Olive and 7th Street).

http://you-are-here.com/downtown/ville_de_paris.html

 

[Widebrim]

Also some of the interior scenes of Safety Last were filmed at what was then the Ville de Paris Department Store (built in 1916) located at 712 South Olive (Olive and 7th Street).

http://you-are-here.com/downtown/ville_de_paris.html

I was just walking in that area Sunday evening. I do need to see Safety Last again...

 

[Marla]

I really like the Soviet-made silent Третья Мещанская (1927) known in English as Bed and Sofa. It was directed by Abram Room, and is perhaps the only Soviet-era silent movie of its kind. It's about a ménage à trois between a married man, his wife, and the man's friend who takes up temporary residence in their cramped Moscow house. It deals frankly with themes of sex, abortion, and women's freedom. The musical score is exceptionally beautiful, too.


I'm looking forward to seeing it in its original, Russian-language version.

 

[Pompidou]

Regarding the silents, it seems to be true that horror films do better with sound than not (the use sound effects, a controlled musical score, etc.). For all that can be said about the epic quality of many silent films compared to talkies, I think that there are few silent horror films that actually hold up well.

I think the one silent horror that surpasses its successors is probably Nosferatu. Dracula wasn't supposed to be the charismatic lady-killer he became when Lugosi took the role. In Nosferatu, a lady is being attacked by a monster and become one. In the later movies, she's being made love to by a gentleman and is rewarded with eternal youth and beauty. Why, I fail to see why they felt the need to kill Lucy at all. If it were me, I'd just have her bite me too and have fun for eternity. Nosferatu was the only Dracula film to make being a vampire something unpleasant. That deserves some merit in my opinion.

 

[martinsantos]

Agree with you!

Nosferatu is a tragical character, and this is the central point in that movie.

From Murneau films, it is still the best to me (I didn't see all).

I think the one silent horror that surpasses its successors is probably Nosferatu. Dracula wasn't supposed to be the charismatic lady-killer he became when Lugosi took the role. In Nosferatu, a lady is being attacked by a monster and become one. In the later movies, she's being made love to by a gentleman and is rewarded with eternal youth and beauty. Why, I fail to see why they felt the need to kill Lucy at all. If it were me, I'd just have her bite me too and have fun for eternity. Nosferatu was the only Dracula film to make being a vampire something unpleasant. That deserves some merit in my opinion.

 

[StetsonHomburg]

Mine is Probably "The Cure" by Chas. Chaplin:

Chaplin plays a drunkard who checks into a health spa to dry out, but brings along a big suitcase full of alcohol. Along the way he aggravates a large man suffering from gout, evades him and encounters a beautiful young woman who encourages him to stop drinking. However, when the hotel owner learns his employees are getting drunk off Charlie's liquor, he calls an employee and orders him to have the liquor thrown out the window.

The drunk employee hurls the bottles through the window, straight into the spa's health waters. The well becomes spurious with alcohol, sending the spa's inhabitants into a dancing stupor. Chaplin, encouraged by his new love to get sober, drinks from the spurious spa, gets drunk and offends her. She leaves him in anger and walks away. Charlie walks back to the door unsteadily, when he bumps into the large man, tripping him off his wheel chair and landing him into the alcoholic well.

The next morning there are plenty of hangovers, but Chaplin turns sober, walks out and finds the lady. Realizing what had happened, she forgives him. They walk ahead, just then he accidentally steps into the liquor-laden well.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921)

[video=youtube;L7RCRlnsbe0]http://youtube.com/watch?v=L7RCRlnsbe0[/video]

 

[Widebrim]

Mine is Probably "The Cure" by Chas. Chaplin:

Chaplin plays a drunkard who checks into a health spa to dry out, but brings along a big suitcase full of alcohol. Along the way he aggravates a large man suffering from gout, evades him and encounters a beautiful young woman who encourages him to stop drinking. However, when the hotel owner learns his employees are getting drunk off Charlie's liquor, he calls an employee and orders him to have the liquor thrown out the window.

The drunk employee hurls the bottles through the window, straight into the spa's health waters. The well becomes spurious with alcohol, sending the spa's inhabitants into a dancing stupor. Chaplin, encouraged by his new love to get sober, drinks from the spurious spa, gets drunk and offends her. She leaves him in anger and walks away. Charlie walks back to the door unsteadily, when he bumps into the large man, tripping him off his wheel chair and landing him into the alcoholic well.

The next morning there are plenty of hangovers, but Chaplin turns sober, walks out and finds the lady. Realizing what had happened, she forgives him. They walk ahead, just then he accidentally steps into the liquor-laden well.

That is a trip!

 

[LizzieMaine]

For extra fun, think of "The Cure" as a sequel to "One A. M." and watch them back to back.