Category Archives: Silents

Male and Female

Paramount (1919) 116 min.  NR

Director: Cecil B. DeMille

Screenplay: Jeannie Macpherson from play The Admirable Crichton by James M. Barrie

Cinematography: Alvin Wyckoff; Editing: Anne Bauchens; Production Design: WIlfred Buckland; Costumes: Paul Iribe, Mitchell Leisen & Clare West

Stars: Gloria Swanson (Lady Mary), Thomas Meighan (Crichton), Lila Lee (Tweeny), Theodore Roberts (Lord Loam), Raymond Hatton (Hon. Ernest Woolley), Mildred Reardon (Lady Agatha), Robert Cain (Lord Brockelhurst), Edmund Burns (Treherne), Rhy Darby (Lady Eileen), Mayme Kelso (Lady Brockelhurst), Julia Faye (Maid), Henry Woodward (Eileen’s Chauffeur), Bebe Daniels (King’s Favorite), Wesley Barry (Buttons) Continue reading Male and Female

The Sign of the Cross

SotC

Paramount (1914) 67 min. NR

Director: Frederick A. Thomson

Assistant Director: Harry Jay Smith

Screenplay: adapted from play by Wilson Barrett

Cinematography: Herbert J. Siddons

Stars: William Farnum (Marcus Superbus), Rosina Henley (Mercia), Sheridan Block (Nero), Ethel Gray Terry (Berenice), Lila Barclay (Poppaea), Morgan Thorpe (Favius), George Majeroni (Tigellinus), Ogden Child (Stephanus), Ethel Phillips (Dacia), Charles E. Vernon (Glabrio), Rienzi De Cordova (Philodemus), Madge Evans (Little Christian girl in arena), Kittens Reichert (uncredited child)

Continue reading The Sign of the Cross

The Trail of the Lonesome Pine

Picture

For a brief period of time, The George Eastman House in Rochester N.Y. had the good will to swing wide their vaults. The archive made available over their website many silent features and short films it would’ve been impossible for most people to see under normal circumstances. And though the company copyright was branded into the lower corner of every frame, even at the expense of obscuring certain title cards at times, posting these movies online constituted an admirable attempt to make long unseen treasures available again to the general public they were originally intended for.

Continue reading The Trail of the Lonesome Pine

The Artist

The Artist (279)The Weinstein Co. (2011) 100 min. PG-13

Director: Michel Hazanavicius

Screenplay: Michel Hazanavicius

Cinematography: Guillaume Schiffman; Editing: Anne-Sophie Bion & Michel Hazanavicius

Production Design: Laurence Bennett; Set Decoration: Robert Gould; Costumes: Mark Bridges; Score: Ludovic Bource

Stars: Jean Dujardin (George Valentin), Bérénice Bejo (Peppy Miller), John Goodman (Al Zimmer), James Cromwell (Clifton), Penelope Ann Miller (Doris), Missi Pyle (Constance), Uggie (The Dog), Malcolm McDowell (The Butler)

Continue reading The Artist