Classic Film : Favorite silent films

Favorite silent films

I've seen many over the years and have recently been playing catch-up on those I've missed. My list would be very long, if I listed all that I love, so for now I'll limit myself to ten.

La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc (1928) - Carl Theodore Dreyer
Sunrise (1927) - F.W. Murnau
Napoleon (1927) - Abel Gance
Metropolis (1927) - Fritz Lang
The General (1926) - Buster Keaton
City Lights (1931) - Charles Chaplin
Nanook of the North - Robert Flaherty (1922)
Strike (1925) - Sergei Eisenstein
The Phantom Carriage (1921) - Victor Sjöström
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) - Robert Weine

Re: Favorite silent films

The Wages of Fear. Release date: 22 April 1953 (France)
Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot.

Wrings every emotion out of you.

Re: Wages of Fear

Hey NZer –

I love WAGES OF FEAR, too. It's very powerful stuff, beautifully acted and directed. But I was looking for silent film favorites. Do you have any thoughts on that?

(We could have a whole thread devoted to films like WAGES OF FEAR – and maybe we should. Gotta think about that.)

Re: Wages of Fear

Oops! Sorry. You've already named most of those I'd post in the silent category. The Great White Silence (1924) is unique though.

Re: The Great White Silence

Wow! I've never even heard of this one, but it looks like it will be wonderful. I'm going to see if I can find it somewhere (may not be easy). As I said, I've been watching a lot of silent films these days, ones that I missed or didn't have access to before, and I'm loving it. So thanks for the recommendation.

EDIT: Found it on YouTube – colorized, but a BFI restoration, so it should be good. Thanks again, so much. I love the subject and the locales, too.

Re: The Great White Silence

You can watch it here on the site as it was in its original state.

https://filmboards.com/board/11764657/

Re: The Great White Silence

Thanks.👍

Re: Favorite silent films

Nosferatu (1922)
October: Ten Days That Shook the World (1927)
Haxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages (1922)
The Phantom Carriage (1921)
The Phantom of the Opera (1925)
The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927)
The Birth of a Nation (1915)
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
The Manxman (1929)
Wolf Blood (1925)

Re: Favorite silent films

Well, we share some favorites, but some of yours I have yet to see (I am working on it!). Still have to see Haxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages, The Phantom of the Opera, The Manxman, and Wolf Blood. Thanks for the recommendations.

And I share your enthusiasm for all the others, especially for October: Ten Days That Shook the World (1927), which is one of my Eisenstein favorites, if not my most favorite – it's sort of a toss-up for me between it and Strike (1925), which I listed above (although I do love the Odessa Steps sequence in Battleship Potempkin).

Thanks for the contributions. I'm so glad to know that people still watch silent films.

Re: Favorite silent films

I second most of those already mentioned and will throw in The Unknown (1927) and West of Zanzibar (1928), two seldom mentioned Lon Chaney films, and two of his grimmest.

In both, the actor successfully accomplishes a character epiphany that is still remarkably potent today.

Burt Lancaster opined that Chaney's high moment in The Unknown was the greatest acting he had ever seen in a movie.

Seeing these two films in the twenties must have shocked audiences as much as anything we have today.

And This, Too, Shall Pass Away

Re: Favorite silent films

Have not seen these, but I look forward to seeing them now. I've been trying to catch up on silent films these days, so thanks for the recommendations. I love your comments about them. And I see that Tod Browning directed both films, which for me is in their favor. Thanks again for two more titles to add to my ever expanding list!

(Interesting comment from Burt Lancaster, too!)

Re: Favorite silent films

The Phantom of the Opera
The Crowd
Ben-Hur

Three great ones, pglyn

I have seen and do love Vidor's THE CROWD. But, alas, I have not yet seen the silent versions of BEN-HUR and THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, both of which I'm sure, based upon all reports, I would also love. Thanks for the recommendations. I am way behind in so many things. 🙄

Re: Favorite silent films

I've seen lots and lots of silents, many of them really great. Unfortunately I'm not too good at remembering titles, or even who the actors or directors were, so it's hard for me to make lists. But here are a few very good ones I saw recently - and recently enough to have their titles handy (*all of these are available for viewing either here on Filmboards or on YouTube):

Foolish Wives (1922) - directed by, as well as starring, Erich von Stroheim. Excellent film. It features a mind-boggling re-creation of the Monte Carlo casino.
A Woman of the World (1925) - featuring a very seductive-looking Pola Negri in a great performance.
Mantrap (1926) - with Clara Bow and Ernest Torrence - and, get this: with Eugene Pallette, looking almost "slim," lol. Plus, being a silent, we don't get to hear his frog-like voice at all.
Wine of Youth (1924) - very good comedy-drama directed by King Vidor.
Mare Nostrum (1926) - excellent WWI war-espionage film directed by Rex Ingram.

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Re: Favorite silent films

Oh, Zolotoy, I have not seen even one of your choices – and some of my favorite directors, too! I'm ashamed and really have a lot of catching up to do. Thanks so much for the recommendations. They sound like very good ones that I really need to see. Now if I can only find them – and the time to watch them. 🙂

Re: Favorite silent films

Now if I can only find them
You should be able to find the ones I listed pretty easily - - as I say, they are either uploaded here on Filmboards or on YouTube or sometimes both. Granted, some uploads are better quality than others, so you'll have to pick and choose to find the best one. Often you'll find that the ones uploaded to YouTube have a fair number of user comments, too, which can be interesting to read.

And hey, you know what? I finished another silent just last night, one that was easily good enough to wholeheartedly recommend: A Lady of Chance (1928), with Norma Shearer and Johnny Mack Brown. This was Shearer's last silent film before transitioning to the then-new "talkies" - and was one of MGM's last silents before they too made the transition to sound.

https://filmboards.com/board/10019067/

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Re: Favorite silent films

👍 😊

Re: Favorite silent films

I can second many of those already named, to which I'd add:

The Lodger (1926): the first film truly demonstrating what made Hitchcock Hitchcock
A Woman of Affairs (1928): one of many demonstrations of what made Garbo Garbo
The Prisoner of Zenda (1922) and The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (1927): two demonstrating the range of Ramon Novarro (and the second, the charming delicacy of early U.S. Lubitsch)
Cabiria (1914): astonishing, ahead-of-its-time craftsmanship from Italy

EDIT: Oops, I see cryptoflovecraft has already submitted The Lodger. Consider my redundancy yet another seconding, then.

Poe! You are…avenged!

Re: Favorite silent films

Well, yet another list (except for The Lodger, which was impressive) that I haven't seen! I'm embarrassed, because I should have seen them already – and @Zolotoy's list, too. I think I saw some clips from Cabiria once long ago and was astounded by it, but never got around to watching the whole film. I will add all your titles to my list, and hope that I can find them – and the time to view them. Thanks for the reminders
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