1921-1930

  • Jack Conway – The Unholy Three (1930)

    1921-1930CrimeDramaJack ConwayUSA

    In his last film – and only Talkie – Lon Chaney recreates one of his famed Silent roles: the scheming ventriloquist Prof. Echo. Disguised as Grandma O’Grady, Echo heads a robbery ring that includes a feeble-minded strongman and a cigar-chomping little person, the latter masquerading as Grandma’s grandbaby. Known as the Man of a Thousand Faces, Chaney here displays a different kind of virtuosity as well, creating five different voices to portray Echo, Grandma, a parrot, a girl and Echo’s dummy. A big hit directed by Jack Conway, The Unholy Three promised to launch Chaney as a major Sound Era star. He was slated to play the title role in Tod Browning’s Dracula, but it was not to be. Chaney died only weeks after The Unholy Three premiered.Read More »

  • Tod Browning – The Blackbird (1926)

    1921-1930CrimeSilentTod BrowningUSA

    Two thieves, the Blackbird and West End Bertie, fall in love with the same girl, a French nightclub performer named Fifi. Each man tries to outdo the other to win her heart.Read More »

  • Various – The Phantom of the Opera (1925)

    1921-1930HorrorSilentUSAVarious

    At the Opera of Paris, a mysterious phantom threatens a famous lyric singer, Carlotta and thus forces her to give up her role (Marguerite in Faust) for unknown Christine Daae. Christine meets this phantom (a masked man) in the catacombs, where he lives. What’s his goal? What’s his secret?Read More »

  • King Vidor – The Crowd (1928)

    1921-1930ClassicsKing VidorSilentUSA

    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 John is but a lad. Like many before him, John sets out to make his mark in New York City, but ends up a faceless worker (#137) in a large office of a large business. Still he is happy with his fate and soon meets a young woman named Mary on a blind double date. Things take their course and they soon marry and live in a small apartment. Soon John is bickering with Mary and finds that he has no love for the in-laws. When the marriage looks like a bust, he finds that Mary is with child and he stays. After 5 years, he has a son and a daughter and the same dead end job. When tragedy strikes, John must find the conviction to continue or lose what little he has left.Read More »

  • Phil Jutzi – Mutter Krausens Fahrt ins Glück AKA Mother Krause’s Journey to Happiness (1929)

    1921-1930DramaGermanyPhil JutziSilentWeimar Republic cinema

    Quote:
    In the middle of an economic crisis, the workers are living in poverty and struggling to find a little happiness and get a warm meal. Mother Krause lives with her two grown-up children, as well as a shady “bed lodger” and his lover – a prostitute with a child – on just a few square metres. In next to no time, tensions build up, and soon crime is involved too. Mother Krausen’s painstakingly preserved order collapses. This story has lost hardly any of its relevance. In those days, columns of marching workers calling out “Join the ranks!” indicated a possible way out. But the older generation went to the dogs.Read More »

  • Kôkichi Tsukiyama – Shibukawa Bangorô (1922)

    1921-1930AsianJapanKôkichi TsukiyamaSilent

    A film on the life of Bangorō Shibukawa, the founder of the Shibukawa-ryū school of jūjutsu. To paraphrase Tadao Satō’s blurb on the back cover of the video, this is an important film for three reasons.
    1. It is an almost perfectly well preserved copy of one of only few full-length movies still available of the first superstar in Japanese cinema history, the very famous Onoe Matsunosuke.Read More »

  • Curtis Bernhardt – Die letzte Kompagnie AKA The Last Company (1930)

    1921-1930Curtis BernhardtDramaGermanyWar

    13 German soldiers have to fight off a French regiment.Read More »

  • Victor Sjöström – Körkarlen AKA The Phantom Carriage (1921)

    1921-1930HorrorScandinavian Silent CinemaSilentSwedenVictor Sjöström

    The last person to die on New Year’s Eve before the clock strikes twelve is doomed to take the reins of Death’s chariot and work tirelessly collecting fresh souls for the next year. So says the legend that drives The Phantom Carriage (Körkarlen), directed by the father of Swedish cinema, Victor Sjöström (The Wind), about an alcoholic, abusive ne’er-do-well (Sjöström himself) who is shown the error of his ways and the pure-of-heart Salvation Army sister who believes in his redemption. Based on a novel by Nobel Prize winner Selma Lagerlöf, this extraordinarily rich and innovative silent classic (which inspired Ingmar Bergman to make movies) is a Dickensian ghost story and a deeply moving morality tale, as well as a showcase for groundbreaking special effects.Read More »

  • Tod Browning – West of Zanzibar (1928)

    1921-1930AdventureSilentTod BrowningUSA

    For 18 years Phroso, known as Dead Legs by his cronies, plots his revenge, becoming a pseudo-king in East Africa, nearby where Crane has set up an ivory business. When the daughter is grown, having lived in a brothel in Zanzibar thanks to Dead Legs, Phroso put his plan into action, resulting in revenge and retribution all around.Read More »

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