Quick! How many silent movies have you ever watched?

Now compare that total to how many black and white movies you’ve ever watched. I’m assuming that if you’re around my age, you’ve probably seen any number of B&W flicks, but not too many silent ones.  As in, all the way through and everything.  The only one that I can think of that I’ve seen is The Call of Cthulhu, and that was a fan project designed to evoke the silent movie era.

It’s odd, when you think about it. Thirty years’ worth of cinematographic development, and we barely collectively remember anything about it.  Doesn’t help that (at least according to Wikipedia) most of the silent movies made during that period are lost anyway… well, actually, that’s probably one of the major reasons why we don’t collectively remember much about the period.  But I still suspect that the lack of spoken dialogue makes some of these movies less accessible to us than we might consciously imagine…

Moe Lane

PS: I dunno why this was interesting to me, either. Probably because of something I saw in comments.

19 thoughts on “Quick! How many silent movies have you ever watched?”

  1. I’ve seen most of Chaplin’s shorts, Gold Rush, The Kid, City Lights, A couple of Mary Pickford films, a bunch of D.W. Griffith shorts with Lilian Gish, and a few Harold Lloyd movies. I fell asleep during “The General” (which is a Buster Keaton film. For some reason, I have a hard time paying attention to Buster Keaton movies. Not taking anything away from Keaton, though. The man was a genius.) There was this other silent film guy named Harry Langdon who played this really creepy overgrown kid. I watched one or two of his, but I didn’t care for it. Overall, I thought Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, and Mary Pickford were the best. I can understand why Mary Pickford was considered America’s Sweetheart.

  2. Erm, not all that many, if you’re talking about seeing the film all the way through. Seen lots of clips, though, including the stuntwork for the aforementioned version of Ben Hur. The only silent that I own is Metropolis.

  3. A couple, mostly due to challenges in my yearly “Watch a horror movie every day” October film fest. When you get to “watch a film each decade” the pickings get a bit slim in the pre-1930s era.
    .
    Oh, and back in elementary school, one of my teachers showed us “The Sheik.” I have no idea where she got her copy from or why she showed it to us 4th graders.

  4. I’ve seen Metropolis and Mel Brooks’ Silent Movie, but that’s probably not what you meant.

  5. Metropolis, Nosferatu, Mell Brooks Silent Movie. I own the first two on DVD. I think I’ve seen some Chaplin, but can’t name any.

  6. *ponders*
    .
    Around 10 or so. It is hard to say since most of those were when I was a kid and bored and going through PBS on a rainy Sunday.

    I can say I saw some Fatty Arbuckle and Chaplin and Keaton that way.

  7. Strangely enough, the ONLY silent featured film I’ve watched from beginning to the end is Mel Brooks’ Silent Movie.

  8. FLICKERS is a Master Piece Theater about making silent movies.
    Just absolutely the best.

    The Amazon listing is quite pricey. eBay has better bargains.

    A description from eBay: In this PBS miniseries, Bob Hoskins plays Arnold Cole, a peripatetic “moving-picture” producer at the dawn of the cinema age. Desperate to get financing for his one-reel silent films, Arnold finds himself in a marriage of convenience with the sharp-tongued Maude (France de la Tour), and the two embark on a series of show-business misadventures. Imbued with the zany pacing and buffoonery of early silent pictures, FLICKERS is a joyous romp filled with strange situations and stranger people.

  9. Hmmm…Recommendations:
    Chang, Rango, Grass, The Man From Beyond (A Houdini Thriller) The Lost World (1925), The Golem, Nosferatu, Metropolis,
    Frankenstein (1910) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-At8OKa_VA
    20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1916) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPttwFF407A
    The Unknown (1927)
    The Mechanical Man(1913 OR 1921…there is some debate on this): only bits of this seem to exist but in what remains there is a giant robot being used by an underworld figure to commit crimes…a high speed chase and a fight between 2 giant robots…so all it really lacks is dinosaurs and zeppelins.

  10. Let’s see, I’m probably missing some, but:
    .
    Metropolis
    The General
    Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
    Birth of a Nation
    Battleship Potemkin
    Nosferatu
    The Thief of Baghdad
    City Lights
    .
    I’m certain I’ve seen various other Chaplin and Keaton flicks, but I couldn’t name them by name at this point.

  11. Metropolis- saw the redone version in the theater. YouTube has a fair amount of Buster Keaton, and sometimes he’s funny, and sometimes he’s a bit cringe inducing.

  12. The Cabinet of Dr. Calgary didn’t get mentioned?
    .
    I’ve watched a few, but I get bored. Passive entertainment doesn’t do much for me in the first place. Slowing it down further… (Especially when I’ve got a smartphone and tablet with which to fidget…)

    1. I’ve yet to sit down and watch all those Weimar era German horror movies that Pelgrane Press keeps wanting me to watch and I should, yes.

      And I did forget Metropolis: I’ve seen about half of it.

      1. …Well, put me in overshoes and call me a duck. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari comes free online with my Amazon Prime membership.

  13. Um, zero? I’m sure I’ve seen clips, but I can’t think of any silent movie I’ve watched.

  14. Hmm…. adding in “The Call of Cthulhu” up here since it’s an awesomely modern version…

    The General, Gold Rush, Birth of a Nation, Intolerance, What Price Glory?, Battleship Potemkin, Modern Times, Un Chien Andalou, City Lights, Metropolis, The Mark of Zorro, Don Q Son of Zorro, The Saphead, The Playhouse, the various other Keaton films I’m forgetting by name — oh, right, Steamboat Bill Jr., the Railrodder, Safety Last and a bunch of Harold Lloyd stuff but probably most of that was clips or bits and pieces….

    That’s about all I can remember. There’s probably more — our local college library used to have ‘film night’ once a week when I was growing up (growing up on a college campus has its perks) and the librarian loved silent films.

  15. Lot’s of silent movies, but on Saturdays a regularly scheduled silent movie was on the TV’s channel (no s on the end channel either) in the late 50’s, early 60’s back when I was a kid.

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