Most filmgoers think of John Ford primarily as a director of westerns, with 1939’s Stagecoach as his first important film. However, of Ford’s more than 140 titles, only about a third are westerns and nearly half are silents of which only 15 percent survive. The discovery in 2009 of a complete print … [Read more...] about Upstream
Upstage
When Upstage, originally known as The Mask of Comedy, opened in 1926, it was praised for its behind the scenes look at the life of traveling vaudevillians. “The troupers are shown in their dressing rooms, in the restaurant, and even at the railroad station. You sense the tediousness of the existence … [Read more...] about Upstage
The Unknown
When they made The Unknown in 1927, star Lon Chaney and director Tod Browning were among the biggest names in Hollywood. Joan Crawford was a starlet on the rise, striving for recognition. The Unknown gave it to her, and the following year she got her breakout starring role. Crawford would have … [Read more...] about The Unknown
The Unholy Three
The Unholy Three is the third film by Tod Browning starring Lon Chaney, as well as their first together at MGM and the start of their collaboration as purveyors of the tragic and the bizarre. The two could not have been more different. Chaney was a model of American “bootstraps” discipline—hard work … [Read more...] about The Unholy Three
Underworld
Josef von Sternberg was at the height of his fame in the 1930s, thanks largely to the seven lushly stylized films he directed starring Marlene Dietrich, among them the iconic The Blue Angel (1930). Eventually, critics on both sides of the Atlantic would debate the merits of Sternberg’s loving … [Read more...] about Underworld
Underground
A dot of light appears in the corner of the black screen, swelling and growing. Soon it’s large enough to be identified: it’s a subterranean train station and it’s not moving, we are, perched with the camera at the front of a train, rushing toward the lit platform from the darkness of a … [Read more...] about Underground
Under the Lantern
A study in passion and compassion, filmmaker Gerhard Lamprecht was a prolific pillar of mainstream German cinema from the 1920s through the 1950s. His unique ability to sustain a career before, during, and after the Third Reich can be attributed to an exceptional talent for telling lucid, rousing … [Read more...] about Under the Lantern
Two Days
Soviet silent-era cinema usually conjures images of the perspective-bending stylistics of its most famous maker, Sergei Eisenstein, whose startling camera angles, extreme close-ups, and breakneck rhythms have come to define the entire epoch. But among the Soviet films that survive today several were … [Read more...] about Two Days