Silent Films
"Our invention can be exploited for a certain time as a scientific curiosity, but apart from that, it has no commercial future whatsoever."
- Auguste Lumiere, early film maker who, with his brother Louis, organized the first public performance of motion pictures in December 1895.
A silent film is a film which has no accompanying soundtrack. The idea of combining motion pictures with recorded sound is nearly as old as the motion picture itself, but before the late 1920s, most films were silent.
The years before sound came to the movies are known as the "silent era" among film scholars and historians. The art of motion pictures grew into full maturity before silent films were replaced by "talking pictures" or "talkies", and a number of film buffs believe the quality of the cinema actually decreased for a few years, before the new medium of sound was adapted to the movies.
The glorious early days of cinema are represented here in this collection with many titles still acknowledged as classics of the cinema to this day.
"Slapstick Comedy" found as a subhead of "Comedy" may also be worth a browse...
Right: Scene from Fritz Lang's 1927 "Metropolis"
The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (Blu-ray) (1919)
7.6/10
Director: Robert Weine
Starring: Werner Krauss, Conrad Veidt, Lil Dagover
Set in a little village on the Dutch border, fairground hypnotist Dr Caligari puts on show a somnambulist called Cesare who has been asleep for 23 yea... Read more
Master Of The House (1925)
7.2/10
Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer
Starring: Johannes Meyer, Astrid Holm
Since the failure of his small business, Victor has become a household tyrant who constantly complains and criticises his long suffering family until... Read more
The Black Pirate (1926)
7.2/10
Director: Albert Parker
Starring: Douglas Fairbanks Sr, Billie Dove, Anders Randolf
The definitive pirate movie and one of Douglas Fairbanks' most popular films is this silent swashbuckler about a nobleman who vows to avenge the death... Read more
Queen Kelly (1929)
7.8/10
Director: Erich Von Stroheim
Starring: Gloria Swanson, Seena Owen, Walter Byron
A convent girl is swept off her feet by a roguish prince and sent to live in East Africa where her aunt runs a brothel, in this fascinating extravagan... Read more
Lonesome (1928)
7.8/10
Director: Paul Fejos
Two lonely people in the big city meet and enjoy the thrills of an amusement park, only to lose each other in the crowd after spending a great day tog... Read more
Harold Lloyd - The Definitive Collection: Volume 2 (1928)
Starring: Harold Lloyd
Harold Lloyd was one of the greatest and most loved comedians of the early film era. More sympathetic than Keaton, more prolific than Chaplin, Harold... Read more
Charlie Chaplin: A Night Out (1915)
6.1/10
Starring: Charlie Chaplin, Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle, Edna Purviance, Ben Turpin
Compilation includes the classics "A Night Out" (1915) co-starring Ben Turpin, "Kid Auto at the Races" (1914) with Charlie Chaplin in only his second... Read more
The Crowd (Y El Mundo Marcha) (1928)
8.1/10
Director: King Vidor
Starring: James Murray
Born on the fourth of July, 1900, the future holds unlimited potential for newborn John Sims. But dreams soon fade with the death of his father when J... Read more
Tramp, Tramp, Tramp (1926)
5.8/10
Director: Frank Capra, Harry Edwards
Starring: Harry Langdon, Joan Crawford
When baby-faced comedian Harry Langdon left Mack Sennett Studios to make features for First National, he wisely brought along the two Sennett staffers... Read more
The Silent Films of Alfred Hitchcock: The Manxman / The Ring (1927)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Anny Ondra, Lillian Hall-Davis, Carl Brisson, Malcolm Keen
"The Ring" (1927) One of Hitchcock's best silent films, about boxer "Round One" Stander, a circus attraction who fights all comers. When he marries th... Read more