Silent Movies

"Our invention can be exploited for a certain time as a scientific curiosity, but apart from that, it has no commercial future whatsoever."

- Auguste Lumière, early film maker who, with his brother Louis, organized the first public performance of motion pictures in December 1895

Have you ever been frustrated over the lack of places showing silent films? Check out this page of Silent Film Screenings.

Silent film interest groups and related resources.

Stars/Film Makers of the Silent Era

Silent Star of the Month. Each month featuring a star from the silent era. January's star is the actress Clara Bow.

One of the greatest film comedians of all times is Charlie Chaplin whose character, The Tramp, is instantly recognizable by people the world over.

The Picture Palace has videos and other information about Buster Keaton to celebrate the centenary of his birth. They also have a selection of Clara Bow videos.

HotWired has a feature entitled Buster Keaton: The Man Who Fell to Earth and another, Horror on the Silent Screen.

The Lillian Gish Home Page has a lot of inline images, plus lots of information about Lillian Gish!

The Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford Home Page has had quite a bit of development and is looking really good. At the same site you will find a page on D.W. Griffith.

The Louise Brooks Society is an excellent page on Louise Brooks.
The Louise Brooks Home Page is a good starting point, however it doesn't have a lot of information.

Steve Ramsey has pages devoted to Laurel and Hardy and The Little Rascals.
The Hog Wild Tent of the Internet! is another Laurel and Hardy page.

Taylorology is a newsletter which examines the life of William Desmond Taylor and his contemporaries, and his unsolved murder. There is a large amount of information on both Taylor and other members of the silent movie industry in this newsletter.

Stars of the silent movies

Films of the Silent Era

The Internet Movie Database has information on many silent films.

The Great Train Robbery, made in 1903, was a 9 minute film which introduced many concepts of film construction and editing. It was virtually a one-man show, with Edwin S. Porter writing, producing/directing and photographing it. This film earned Porter instant fame and is still his best known film.

American Memory Collection (Early Motion Pictures 1897-1916)

The Loss of Silent Films

Many of the early films produced have been completely lost. There are many reasons for this. Due to the high cost of film and the fact that one print can be shown to thousands of people, films prints are produced in small quantities.

films produced in small quantities
after initial success, prints were destroyed to save on storage costs
prints were often worn out
with the talkie era, silent films were considered worthless
silent film companies go out of business
cost of archiving films is too high
chemical decomposition

Chemical Decomposition

During the silent era, cellulose nitrate film was used for the majority of films. It is a highly flammable and unstable compound, with a life of between thirty and eighty years. The decomposition of nitrate film cannot be halted, although in the right conditions, it can be slowed.

Silent Film Preservation

An effort is underway by the United States Library of Congress, Motion Picture Preservation Laboratory to preserve the Paper Print Collection of 1894 to 1915(?) motion pictures. Frank Wylie, who is involved in the project, has details available on his home page.

The Thanhouser Company Film Preservation, Inc. home page has information about the efforts to preserve and distribute material related to the Thanhouser Company, and its successor company, Thanhouser Film Corporation.

The National Film Preservation Board in the Motion Picture, Broadcasting & Recorded Sound Reading Room has very limited information available.

Trivia

In Silent Movie, made in 1976, the only word spoken is "No!", which is said by Marcel Marceau.

Usenet Newsgroups and Mailing Lists

alt.movies.silent Discussion of Silent Films, silent stars and related issues.
alt.movies.chaplin Charlie Chaplin newsgroup.
alt.comedy.laurel-hardy Laurel and Hardy newsgroup.
Marx Brothers mailing list
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GLen Pringle / pringle@cs.monash.edu.au