San Francisco Silent Film Festival

The San Francisco Silent Film Festival is a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating the public about silent film as an art form and as a culturally valuable historical record.

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Show People

Marion Davies and William Haines were two of the most popular stars of the late 1920s, and Show People, directed by King Vidor and loosely based on the life of Gloria Swanson, spotlights both stars at their creative peak. Yet unknown to their fans, both lived “alternative lifestyles” in a time when … [Read more...] about Show People

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Shooting Stars

Near the beginning of Shooting Stars, Anthony Asquith’s directorial debut, he boldly declares his infatuation with the movies in an astonishing sequence. It begins with a tender love scene between a cowboy on a horse and a golden-haired beauty perched in a blossom-laden tree. As he rides off into … [Read more...] about Shooting Stars

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Shoes

“When the history of the dramatic early development of motion pictures is written,” declared Motion Picture magazine in 1921, “Lois Weber will occupy a unique position.” Lois Weber was not only America’s first major female film director, she was a true pioneer. She began her career when the longest … [Read more...] about Shoes