Snow is inherently cinematic. It forms a white screen, like a Chinese scroll, on which dark forms have the spare eloquence of calligraphy. And while it may suggest peace, it also evokes the burn and sting of cold, giving bite to scenes of extremity and struggle: Lillian Gish, a frail wisp battered … [Read more...] about Sir Arne’s Treasure
Silly Symphonies, 1929–1935
The Skeleton Dance (directed by Walt Disney, 1929), Hell’s Bells (directed by Ub Iwerks, 1929), Night (directed by Walt Disney, 1930), The China Plate (directed by Wilfred Jackson, 1931), Egyptian Melodies (directed by Wilfred Jackson, 1931), The Ugly Duckling (directed by Wilfred Jackson, … [Read more...] about Silly Symphonies, 1929–1935
The Silent Enemy
Like most so-called ethnographic films, The Silent Enemy owed as much to museum exhibits as to Hollywood studios. Early ethnographic films were shown as companions to natural history lectures concerned with exotic corners of the world, but quickly grew into self-contained film exhibits shot on … [Read more...] about The Silent Enemy
Silent Avant-Garde
Selections from the touring retrospective Unseen Cinema: Early American Avant-Garde Film 1894–1941, a collaborative film preservation and restoration project by Anthology Film Archives, New York; and Deutsches Filmmuseum, Frankfurt am Main; in collaboration with sixty of the world’s leading film … [Read more...] about Silent Avant-Garde
Silence
The 1920s were booming times for the American theater, with more than 200 new plays being produced on Broadway each year, peaking at 264 in the 1927–1928 season. Among the top playwrights of the time, Max Marcin, the author of the 1924 hit Broadway crime drama Silence, is largely forgotten today. … [Read more...] about Silence
The Signal Tower
Universal Pictures was the sausage factory of Hollywood, churning out westerns and melodramas for rural audiences in the Midwest. But once in a while, they came out with a Special—they called them Universal-Jewels. Clarence Brown made three of the best, Smouldering Fires, The Goose Woman, and The … [Read more...] about The Signal Tower
The Sign of Four
Each generation has its own screen Sherlock Holmes. Today it is Benedict Cumberbatch; in the ’80s Jeremy Brett; in the ’40s (and for all time) Basil Rathbone—Holmeses who define the look and manner of the master detective. For the silent era, the great cinematic Holmes was Eille Norwood. Although by … [Read more...] about The Sign of Four
The Sideshow
Even before the term “B-movie” was coined, theaters relied on a steady stream of cheaply produced films like The Sideshow. While city movie palaces could bank on a Charlie Chaplin feature filling its seats for a month or more, neighborhood theaters would change “programmers” three or more times … [Read more...] about The Sideshow