Tweet All The Silents I've Seen (What next?)

Just for kicks, I thought I might list all the silents I've seen (It's not that many ). Ones I didn't like so much will have a face beside them, and ones I loved get a . Once you've read my list, give me some recommendations! Here goes, in random order:
(Also, I'm only counting feature-length unless it's a monumental film)
- A Trip to the Moon (1902)
- The Great Train Robbery (1903)
- Bangville Police (1913)
- Mickey (1918)
- The Poor Little Rich Girl (1917)
- The Blue-Bird (1918)
- West Point (1928)
- Metropolis (1927)
- A Modern Musketeer (1917)
- Wild Oranges (1924)
- The Wind (1928)
- Our Modern Maidens (1929)
- The Mark of Zorro (1920)
- The Hands of Orlac (1924)
- One Week (1920)
- A Sailor Made-Man (1921)
- J'Accuse (1919)
- Broken Blossoms (1919)
- It (1927)
- The Scarlet Letter (1926)
- La Boheme (1926)
- Sunrise (1927)
- Pandora's Box (1927)
- The Racket (1928) It was so-so
- Wild Orchids (1928)
I'm sure I'm forgetting some, but there's most!

Recommendation? Watch some comedy. There's a paucity of it in your list.

What, no Charlie Chaplin? (Or did you forget to mention him?) I can definitely recommend all of his silent features, as well as most of his short comedies.

The only Harold Lloyd film on your list isn't one of his best. Most of his features are terrific, and I recommend The Kid Brother in particular. It may not be the funniest thing he ever did, but it's a beautiful film.

It looks like you enjoy silent dramas. I think you'd appreciate Hotel Imperial (1927) with Pola Negri, Sparrows (1926) with Mary Pickford, and a first-rate comedy-drama that's just come out in a Criterion edition, Lonesome (1928). I've seen it twice in recent weeks, and it's become one of my favorites.

Not a Chaney title in the bunch...!!!

Try HE WHO GETS SLAPPED, THE SHOCK, WEST OF ZANZIBAR, LAUGH CLOWN LAUGH,
TELL IT TO THE MARINES, and of course THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA or THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME.

DIE SPINNEN, THE LODGER, SHERLOCK JR., and THE CROWD are definite recommendations from me.

Seek out the short comedies of Laurel and Hardy, Charlie Chaplin (Keystone/Essanay/Mutual/FirstNational), Harold Lloyd, Harry Langdon, Roscoe Arbuckle, Billy Bevan, Lupino Lane, Chester Conklin, BillyWest (as Chaplin or himself), Raymond Griffith, Stan Laurel solos, Ben Turpin, Jimmy Adams, Snub Pollard, Lloyd Hamilton, Monte Banks, Ford Sterling, Louise Fazenda, Sydney Chaplin. So many more.

Studios:
Keystone/Mack Sennett comedies, Educational Comedies, Mermaid Comedies (Jack White Productions), Al Christie Comedies, Weiss Brothers.

Random titles: FAST AND FURIOUS, DIZZY DAISY, SHOULD MARRIED MEN GO HOME?, TWO TARS, BIG BUSINESS, GYMNASIUM JIM, THE SURF GIRL, THE CANNON BALL, BUMPING INTO BROADWAY, FOR HEAVENS SAKE, THE CLOUDHOPPER, THE BAKERY, THE BELLHOP, SAWDUST BABY, A MUDDY ROMANCE, MABELS NEW HERO, DIRTY WORK IN A LAUNDRY, FAMILY LIFE, THE DAREDEVIL, CIRCUS TODAY, CHASING CHOO-CHOOS, WANDERING WILLIES. Can go on forever.

I'm jealous. You have so many great movies to see.

Bob

mndean, I've seen plenty short comedies, so I didn't list them
Wm., I've never seen a Chaplin I've seen a couple other Lloyds, and a few Keatons, though. And, Ah! Mary! I love Mary Pickford just from her Biograph shorts and Coquette.
Scoundrel, I've seen "Tell It to the Marines", actually, just forgot to mention it
Monsieur X, Nice! I'll try to watch those.
And Gloria, like I toId mdean, I've seen A LOT of shorts, I just didn't list them

Did I mention short comedies? I read you fine, and suggested exactly what I meant. To think a feature comedy is like an extended short is a big mistake. Also, too, you may have confused others by listing a short in your titles.

I am a relative newbie, and tend to lean towards the drama films. Might I suggest Underworld, The Last Command, and The Man Who Laughed. So many more films yet to see.

Matthew

In terms of some silent comedy features I have seen, I would recommend (at the moment) -

Speedy - Harold Lloyd (1929)

The Kid Brother - Harold Lloyd, Jobyna Ralston (1927)

The Freshman - Harold Lloyd (1925)

Kid Boots - Eddie Cantor, Billie Dove, Clara Bow (1926)

College - Buster Keaton (1927)

Sherlock Jr. - Buster Keaton (1924)

Our Hospitality - Buster Keaton, Natalie Talmadge (1925)

City Lights - Charlie Chaplin (1931)

Hot Water - Harold Lloyd, Jobyna Ralston (1924)

Mantrap - Clara Bow, Percy Marmont, Ernest Torrence (1926)

Kiki - Norma Talmadge, Ronald Colman (1926)

The Gold Rush - Charlie Chaplin (1925)

The Kid - Charlie Chaplin, Jackie Coogan (1921)

The General - Buster Keaton (1927)

Did I mention short comedies? I read you fine, and suggested exactly what I meant. To think a feature comedy is like an extended short is a big mistake. Also, too, you may have confused others by listing a short in your titles.

And as do I know exactly what you meant. I was simply stating that I have seen many shorts, not implying that they were the same as features. I listed that short, which, yes, may have confused others, and I will fix that. I also said that I would only list features, unless it was a particularly monumental short.
bob,
mwalls, me too! The Man Who Laughs is on top for me to watch, I love German Expressionism!
Martie, Ooh! Some of those are on Netflix!

Agree on the Keatons mentioned and to me Steamboat Bill, Jr. is an absolute must. Agree with Martie on Mantrap. Some more: Lady Windemere's Fan and The Marriage Circle, both by Lubitsch (don't know if they are on DVD, I saw them at MoMA). Since you seem to like silent drama: The Docks of New York (Sternberg), The Crowd. Oh and if you can see it, Lucky Star by Borzage (you may need a PAL compatible player, I got my copy from Amazon UK). Have you seen any other Lang silents? They are all pretty wild.
I will think of more soon I am sure.

It's unclear where you saw these films, but just having come of a rather exhilarating performance of Wings at the Denver Silent Film Festival, I recommend seeking out screenings in auditoriums with live music, regardless of what the film may be. You may not think it will affect you that much, but it really brings film watching to a higher level.

To update my recommendation list with more than just comedy features -

My Best Girl - Mary Pickford, Buddy Rogers (1927)

Wings - Richard Arlen, Buddy Rogers, Jobyna Ralston, Clara Bow (1927)

Sadie Thompson - Gloria Swanson, Raoul Walsh (1928)

Orphans of the Storm - Lillian and Dorothy Gish (1922)

Hoodoo Ann - Bobby Harron, Mae Marsh (1916)

True Heart Susie - Lillian Gish, Bobby Harron, Clarine Seymour (1919)

The Flapper - Olive Thomas (1920)

The Black Pirate - Doug Fairbanks, Billie Dove (1926)

The Thief of Bagdad - Doug Fairbanks, Julanne Johnston (1924)

The Temptress - Greta Garbo, Antonio Moreno (1926)

The Mysterious Lady - Greta Garbo, Conrad Nagel (1928)

Ben-Hur - Ramon Navarro, Francis X. Bushman, May McAvoy (1925)

You might want to try some other countries' outputs. Don't be dicouraged by J'ACCUSE and sample some other French directors like Feyder, Bernard, Duvivier or Renoir. I would also recommend some Scandinavian cinema: Sjöström, Stiller, Dreyer and Christensen. And Russian silent cinema is surprisingly varied, too.

All of Garbo's silent features but especially Flesh and the Devil and A Woman of Affairs.

It's really nice to see some newcomers (and relative newcomers) to silent films here!

And I, too, am jealous... imagine discovering Chapin and Keaton for the first time!

(long sigh)

I recommend these:

Greed (pictured)-Erich Von Stroheim director

Birth of a Nation

Intolerance

Kriemhild's Revenge

Siegfried

Orphans of the Storm

Nosferatu

Vampyr-Carl T. Dreyer director

Short films by DW Griffith-'Unseen Enemy' Lost Watch, Battle of Elderbush, etc etc

Russians- Eisenstien-Ten Days that Shook the World, Potemkin

Man With a Movie Camera

The Crazy Ray-Rene Clair

It's unclear where you saw these films, but just having come of a rather exhilarating performance of Wings at the Denver Silent Film Festival, I recommend seeking out screenings in auditoriums with live music, regardless of what the film may be. You may not think it will affect you that much, but it really brings film watching to a higher level.

What he said, and this goes triple for Harold Lloyd.

Just as an aside, if you find you haven't liked something very much, you might try putting it aside and giving it another chance later on. Sometimes I find I'm just not in the right mood for a certain film and that can adversely affect my reaction to it. If I try it again later in a different frame of mind, I sometimes find I get more out of it.

Or not, sometimes I just dislike the film and that's that.

Give Valentino a try. Four Horsemen, The Eagle, and Son of the Sheik are all good. Oh well, Four Horsemen is a great film.

I just got FIAKER NBR. 13 (1926), directed by Michael Curtiz in French with Spanish subtitles; although I didn't need them, I created English subtitles as well so a friend I can watch it too.

I wish Manes and Peña could repeat a week of Rin-Tin-Tin films, there were several that I couldn't capture because I constantly lost the Internet stream; and of those film I did capture the signal was rather bad.

any island picture:
*MOANA(1926)
*WHITE SHADOWS IN THE SOUTH SEAS(1928)
*TABU(1931)

I myself havent' seen THE PAGAN(1929) and M. Tourneur's ALOMA OF THE SOUTH SEAS(1926) is a lost film.

You're about 14 or 15, aren't you? That's about the age I was when I started getting into silents seriously. Here are some titles that I enjoyed then (and still do).
1. More Keaton. I would suggest all of his shorts (not a clunker in the bunch in my opinion), Sherlock Jr., The Navigator, Seven Chances, Steamboat Bill Jr., and The Cameraman. My personal favorite is The General, but I would recommend seeing the others first.
2. Chaplin - see The Gold Rush, The Circus, and City Lights if you can. Try to catch some of the Mutual shorts while you're at it too.
3. Harold Lloyd - I wouldn't judge Lloyd on A Sailor Made Man. It's a good film, but not nearly his best. Check out Safety Last, Girl Shy, The Kid Brother, and Speedy.
4. Douglas Fairbanks - I would try to see "The Thief of Bagdad" and The Iron Mask. The Thief of Bagdad was one of the first non-comedy silents I saw, and I was hooked.
5. Don Juan. One of the greatest silents in my opinion, and very historic too given its status as the first feature released with a Vitaphone soundtrack. If you like John Barrymore in this, also take a look at The Beloved Rogue and The Tempest.
6. Valentino - take a look at The Eagle and The Son of the Sheik.
7. Westerns. You should see a few silent westerns. Tumbleweeds and Hell's Hinges are good titles with William S. Hart. The Iron Horse and The Covered Wagon are good too.
8. Wings - the recently released blu ray/DVD would be a good way to check out this film.
9. Laurel and Hardy - they made many wonderful films (both silent and sound). Keeping it to the silents, you can't lose with Big Business, Two Tars, Liberty, and Angora Love.
10. Concerning Garbo, when I was your age I was bored silly with her films. While I have more of an appreciation for them now, I still think that they haven't aged well at all. Your mileage with them may vary though.
11. Erich von Stroheim. When I was your age, I saw both Foolish Wives and Greed, and I didn't like either them. Much like Garbo, I have rewatched them as I got a little older and knowledgeable and can appreciate them both now, but I still don't particuarly care for them (to show the opposite, I first saw Intolerance when I was your age and thought it the greatest bore ever put on film. Now I like it quite a bit). Greed is one of those titles that I can objectively say is a masterpiece but at the same time say that I don't like it. On the other hand, The Wedding March is one of my favorite silents.

Ah, I didn't realise you were 14 or 15. Maybe, Garbo might not be your cup'o'tea. However, you should make your own mind up. Try Flesh and the Devil. It's readily available.

Keaton and Chaplin both irritate me, generally speaking but I suppose you should check 'em out. They appear to be quite popular. Lloyd, on the other hand, I can watch all day long. Likewise Charley Chase.

Couple of good westerns - The Iron Horse and The Covered Wagon.

Try "The Strong Man" with Langdon for comedy.
"Hunchback of Notre Dame" and "The Shock" with Chaney.
"Woman on the Moon" by Lang for early sci-fi.

Has anyone mentioned the 1927 Chicago with Phyllis Haver? Be sure to see that also!

The silent film I show all my friends when they're watching one for the first time is usually The Mysterious Lady (1928). The version on the Garbo Silents 2 DVD set is awesome--the music is phenomenal and Garbo with Conrad Nagel is sublime. I'm really a bigger fan of that screen relationship of theirs than I am of the much more famous The Kiss (1929).

A lot of the recs are really US-centric. What about The Adventures of Prince Achmed (DE), the Italian Diva films, Spione (DE), some Asta Nielsen (DA/DE), Waxworks (DE), Häxan (DA), Chess Fever (USSR), The Girl with the Hatbox (USSR), silent Ozu (JP), the Lubitsch/Negri films (DE), the French avant-garde, etc.

I guess I'm more interested in non-American silent film these days, heh.

The Phantom Carriage is a good one...and Dr. Caligari's Cabinet is one of my all-time favorites. (But get the KINO restoration, not the Image one.)

My top silent feature recommendations:

THE KID
THE GOLD RUSH
THE CIRCUS
CITY LIGHTS
MODERN TIMES
SAFETY LAST!
GIRL SHY
THE KID BROTHER
SPEEDY
SEVEN CHANCES
STEAMBOAT BILL, JR.
SHERLOCK JR.
THE GENERAL
HULA
WINGS (preferably the new restored version with orchestral score and sound F/X)
ELLA CINDERS
ORCHIDS & ERMINE
EXIT SMILING
OUR DANCING DAUGHTERS
MY BEST GIRL
THE CROWD
SEVENTH HEAVEN
THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI
NOSFERATU (preferably the immaculately restored Kino Ultimate Edition)
DR. JEKYLL & MR. HYDE (Barrymore, preferably the uncut version on the old Image DVD)
THE CAT AND THE CANARY
THE MAN WHO LAUGHS
THE PENALTY
THE UNHOLY THREE
HE WHO GETS SLAPPED
WEST OF ZANZIBAR
THE UNKNOWN