Hi-yo, Dinosaur! Sir Arthur Conan Doyle may be famous for Sherlock but what he really loved writing were rousing adventure tales. The most famous of these concerned Professor Challenger and his intrepid band of explorers who discover dinosaurs in a lost world atop a plateau. Cutting edge stop-motion made the film adaptation one of the … Continue reading
A nose by any other name… The famous tale of Cyrano de Bergerac is lavishly adapted for the silent screen, complete with stencil color. The story has been lifted so many times for romantic comedies that it almost needs no introduction: Cyrano, brilliant but marred by an outlandishly large nose, loves the beautiful Roxane. She, … Continue reading
How bad could it be? Famous last words. The Wizard of Oz. A wonderful tale for children. It has everything a parent could wish for. Animal cruelty. Vomit. Sexual harassment. Racial stereotypes. What’s that? You think Oz shouldn’t have any of those things? Well, don’t tell Larry Semon, writer-director-producer-star of this version. Bonus: I will also … Continue reading
Gangster Clara! Clara Bow is an Apache whose boyfriend is taken away by a do-gooder. Determined to show the goody-two-shoes a lesson, she decides to marry him. Yes, that is the plot they decided to go with. Better things were coming. Clara Bow was one of the hardest workers in Hollywood. Need proof? Well, this … Continue reading
Madam, control yourself! Rudolph Valentino finally came up with the perfect movie formula in this 1925 hit: Action Lover. Valentino is a fun-loving Cossack who turns down the advances of the Czarina. Forced on the run, he takes the opportunity to seek revenge against his father’s enemy. And wouldntcha know it, that enemy just happens to have … Continue reading
The Trouble with Raffles E.W. Hornung’s A.J. Raffles was the favored antihero of late Victorian adventure. He is a gentleman crook that robs from the rich and gives to the poor. No too unusual? Well, you see, the “poor” in this case are Raffles himself and his hapless best friend, nicknamed Bunny. In the 1899 … Continue reading
She’s my sweetheart, I’m her beau; She’s my Annie, I’m her Joe, Soon we’ll marry, never to part, Little Annie Rooney is my sweetheart! Mary Pickford is a tenement kid with a cop father and a brother who wants to be a gangster. Mary falls for her brother’s best friend, another would-be gangster, and must clear him … Continue reading
Whipping the Midwest into Shape A glamorous European countess meets small town America and it’s a novel experience for both. Tongues wag, the gentlemen preen and the town’s moral crusader finds himself unpleasantly in love. Pretend for a moment that you are a motion picture producer of the 1920’s. You have secured the talents of … Continue reading
Movies Silently 
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