Essay

“Our Lady of the Spasms,” was the label critic Nino Frank famously gave to Pina Menichelli for her writhing poses and sudden movements. Her performances, at once dated and strikingly modern, are preserved in the amber tinting and toning characteristic of the so-called “second period” of silent … [Read more...] about Il Fuoco

“I started to make a film about children and ended up with a film about grownups; while I had originally planned to make a fairly bright little story, it changed while I was working on it …. The company hadn’t thought it would turn out this way. They were so unsure of it that they delayed its … [Read more...] about I Was Born, But…

John M. Stahl is remembered as a master of the Hollywood melodrama, but this vague tribute has long stood in place of any precise understanding of the scope and qualities of his work. He has several strikes against him. The Technicolor noir Leave Her to Heaven (1945), probably his most widely seen … [Read more...] about Husbands and Lovers

William Desmond Taylor is remembered today more for his unsolved murder in 1922, and the sordid revelations about his private life that followed, than for his once admired film career. So it might come as a surprise to many that this Irish-born director made three well-received films about Mark … [Read more...] about Huckleberry Finn

Soviet filmmaker Boris Barnet made his entrance into motion pictures via the boxing ring, with an improbable set of skills that ultimately proved necessary. It took a lot of rolling with the punches to maintain and sustain a career that began in the post-revolutionary period all the way through the … [Read more...] about The House on Trubnaya Square

The last silent film to feature Arthur Conan Doyle’s eminent detective has been less a legend than a rumor among cinephiles and Sherlockians. The Hound of the Baskervilles (Der Hund von Baskerville), a seven-reel film with a long German pedigree that even included a movie written while the country … [Read more...] about The Hound of the Baskervilles

Contemporary critics had a hard time describing the appeal of the on-surface simple, yet daringly radical domestic drama, The Home Maker. “A simple little tale” (Evening Journal); “Just a human story … but it’s one of the most gripping things seen on Broadway” (Evening World); “It hasn’t a villain … [Read more...] about The Home Maker

“I was the spark that lit up Flaming Youth, and Colleen Moore was the torch.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald Charming, vivacious and talented, Colleen Moore was one of the most popular stars of the 1920s. She was a true original, yet other stars, better known today, are credited with her innovations. … [Read more...] about Her Wild Oat