Clips from The Sheik can be found anywhere, it is an iconic Hollywood film from the silent movie era, and it just happens to be the next title I’m watching in Philip Kemp’s Movies book. I can remember the first time I saw clips of this film, alongside Laurel & Hardy shorts, and the occasional…
Tag: silent movie
Battleship Potemkin (1925) – Sergei M. Eisenstein
DK Book’s The Movie Book brings me the next big title they highly recommended, Eisenstein’s seminal Battleship Potemkin. Running at a lean 76 minutes the story follows the crew of the titular ship during the Russian Revolution of 1905. The crew stage a mutiny against the ship’s officers who rule with tyranny, events spin out…
The Crowd (1928) – King Vidor
The first recommendation from the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book following my screening of American Beauty, takes me all the way back to 1928, to this silent film, that follows the tale of Mary (Eleanor Boardman) and John Sims (James Murray), as they struggle to survive and thrive, pursuing their hopes, as…
A HPLHS Double Feature – The Call of Cthulu and The Whisperer in Darkness
The good folks over at Raven Banner, and GAT PR were kind enough to invite Sue and I over to chat with them the other day, and I was lucky enough to go home with two films from the HP Lovecraft Historical Society, which Raven Banner had a hand in distributing here in Canada….
Cabiria (1914) – Giovanni Pastrone
The first recommended title following my screening of Intolerance for the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film is this epic tale set during the Punic Wars. Apparently the director of Intolerance, D.W. Griffith, was highly influenced by this film when he saw it, and created Intolerance to tell his own epic. The film…
The Jazz Singer (1927) – Alan Crosland
The first ‘talkie,’ is also the first title in the musical section of the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book. This was the first time I had seen this one, all I’d known of it before was that at some point, Al Jolson as Jack Robin, previously Jakie Rabinowitz, dons blackface to…
Sunrise – A Tale of Two Humans (1927) – F.W. Murnau
Following on the tail of Pandora’s Box, this recommendation from Great Movies – 100 Years of Film,a splendidly filmed silent movie, is a moving and involving drama, that follows two characters on their rediscovery of their love for one another, and the threat of its loss. Set in a small village, frequented by city dwellers,…
Pandora’s Box (1929) – Georg Wilhelm Pabst
The next dramatic title to be highlighted in the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film is this silent German film, starring Louise Brooks. Unfortunately, this is the first title I’ve come across in this book that didn’t really captivate me, I watched it, but I didn’t love it. I’m not sure what it…
Greed (1924) – Erich von Stroheim
The Great Movies – 100 Year of Film book brings me the first drama title to take a look at. Directed by Erich von Stroheim and based on the novel, McTeague by Frank Norris, Greed is a massive story, that when originally put together by Stroheim for a screening, ran for nine and a half hours!!…
