seen - 1920s

standard Mary Pickford sop fest. Girl gets orphaned and has to go live with her grumpy aunt.

Decent but I think I prefer the 1930 version, although it was a while ago that I saw that one.

pretty dull, not funny. The story goes Keaton did this just so he could star in a feature length film but wasn't allowed any say on the content, story, his acting or character. therefore there's none of the genius of his physic or visual comedy. Lost attention so not sure of the plot something about a rich man's lazy son, a mine, a love interest and the stock exchange. zzzz

Another over-rated (8.2? come on, really?) Swanson & Demille film overvoted by Sunset Boulevard fans and the christians are probably helping this one too. Plot is about a girl who chooses an able bodied man after promising to marry a crippled friend who has helped her financially to go to finishing school. When the man she runs off with is killed in a New York tunneling accident while she's carrying her child she considers suicide before reluctantly going back to the cripple but can he forgive her. The ending is a horrid miracles will happen if you pray type thing. Yuk

pretty poor, not much plot, ropey acting. A preacher man (a sky pilot), comes to a small western town to do some converting but the locals don't want to know. After having a fight with one of the local hard men they make up and become ranchers tegether and fall for a girl, theres some baddie cattle rustlers along the way. Another crippling being cured after some hard praying. Some of the scenery was nice but over-all dull, dull, dull for a western. Highish score probably from God-botherers. - ETA another thging was WTF happened at the end, they set fire the church then in return set fire to their bar then cuts to them getting married and a happy ever after ending. Huh what happened about the fires?

Only 30 mins available. One of the master of "Mountain films" first attempts. For sure it looks very pretty and must of seemed spectacular to the public who had never seen people skiing before, rather like the modern day extreme snowboarding films like Art Of Flight". however without any narration or reference to modern eyes it all gets a bit boring after 10 mins, there's some brief possibility of excitement when someone falls down a crevasse and you think there might be a lengthy attempt to rescue him (or her , you can't tell) but a few seconds later some skis appear and he climbs out. Some slow motion sections & backwards running footage of people going over jumps makes it a little more arty but not enough to stop me fast-forwarding. Interesting as Arnold Fanck's first but apart from that too dull without inter-titles or some attempt to make it into a documentary.

pt 2 of Seastroms adaptation of Selma Lagerlöf novel Jerusalem 1 "pt 21 was sons of Ingmar and here we have daughter of Ingmar, the film picks up a few years after Sons of Ingmer, Little Ingmar has now become big ingmar as he and Brita had a son, who is now about 10, and a daughter, Karin, who is now a young woman, Brita died during the inter some years ago and big Imgmar still morns her. A man asks big Ingmar if he can marry his daughter but he worries that the man's father is an alcoholic and it might be a family trait. Both involve a wedding proposal, the bride being unhappy with the choice of groom and rejecting him only to regret her decision later. I enjoyed Sons Of ingmar [pt1) and the first half of this with seastrom back felt like an extension of that but after he died I lost intest a bit. Maybe as the print for pt2 wasn't as good you couldn't see the detailed acting as well so I didn't have empathy with the new characters. 6.7/10

An absolutely mint restoration with suitable score added. As it's 1920's Nordic art-house it's no surprise that the plot moves quite slowly. It's power is in the quality of the acting and the Norwegian scenery, you're not going to enjoy it if you see a blurry bleached dirty copy. Is it a good film or just poor to average film made good by the high quality of the print & score. I think it's good but not exceptional. Acting for 1920 particularly good and the plot is slow but interesting. There are some plot problems too, the potential romance between Jon & Anne is rather paedoish, they do touch on this when Anne says she thinks of him as a father figure. The ages between Jon & Holdor don't add up - Jon knew Anne from when she was a baby & she is older than Holdor yet later on Holdor & Jon seem similar ages. Ending was disappointing, all too quick and with no emotion and with the moral doginerss of their relationship, the whole Anne & Holdor friendship/romance which had been the main theme through the film just seems to get forgotten about at the end. Shame - was good up to then 7.0/10

Some beautiful shots of 1920s New York but at 10 minutes too short to be a classic.

Buster as a bank clerk unknowingly working for an owner dishing out counterfeit notes. Things get sticky when he spills glue on the money and is held up by bank robbers. After being wrongly accused of the theft he runs away to to the dodgy bank owners"haunted house" along with a troupe of actors performing Faust who are hiding from their disgruntled audience. OK Buster but not his best.

The Affairs Of Anatol Another Demille / Swanson film, hopefully the last of these passably enjoyable but overrated films. A newly married woman's husband has a habit of falling for womens sob stories and being made a sucker by them, much to swanson's displeasure. DeMille gets to have an extra 3 leading ladies to vie with Swanson, it's broken up into the 3 separate stories of the women so seems a bit disjointed rather like 3 short films put together. Nice print, gorgeous coloured inter-titles, loved Bebe Daniels (as Satan Synne) octopus cape/ gown/ cloak. Some good lines - "all men worship the same religion - the golden calf" - Swanson's character as she sticks her leg out preparing to put on a new pair of , presumably, tanned stockings. "He Who Would Sup With The Devil Must Have A Golden Spoon" - Satan Synnes entry sign

Chaplin gets to use both of his favourite characters in one short here, the little tramp plus the drunken (not that drunk here) swell, I didn't much care for this one compared to other Chaplin shorts I've seen but still enjoyable.

Great Keaton short on par with One Week. family man Buster tries to take his family for a day out on his home-made boat. Plenty of spectacular stunts here with complex rigged boat sets. Only bad point is there's no real emotional interaction with the few other characters in the plot and the wife and kids are there mainly as gag fodder. 8/10 1001

Shattered - The first example of the german film genre of Kammerspielfilm which where intimate stories of working class life. Here a track inspector & his family live near the railway. A supervisor telegrams to say he is coming to stay with them for a few days but upon his arrival he rapes the inspectors daughter, the mother finds out and so distraught she fwonders outside into a snow storm and is found frozen to death by her husband. after being rejected by the superviser the daughter tells her father he raped her and he stangles the man. when the next train comes through he tells the officials on board he has comitted a murder. Nice acting but the lack of inter-titles meant the plot was hard to follow so i lost interest which made it even harder to keep track. Good but could of been a classic if better titles and full length. 6/10

The Blot - Lois Webber A spolt young man falls for the daughter of his teaher, he romances her and only then realizes how poor shge is and how spoiled him and his rich friends are. the poor family are envious of the food they see being prepared by their neighbours. Theres a love triangle, and something about shoe repairs. the son persudes his trustee dad to pay the teacher more and we gert some politics about hoew disgracefiul it is that teachers are paid so little (A blot on our counciouss). Acting decent enogh, OK but nothing memorable. 6.6/10

A woman who works as a maid waits for a letter from her lover, unbeknownst to her the crippled (war wound) mailman harbours romantic feelings for her. Hints of German expressionism in the sets. the acting is great and although it's a slow paced film that never moves from one building and it's exterior the film is quite gripping. the bespoke score adds to it's watchability. Excellent 7.5/10 1001

The Suram Fortress - some interesting imagery in the first 2 mins meant hoping there might be a slight hint of the beauty of the 1980s version but it was short lived. the plot was hard to follow as it kept jumping forward in time so new actors were playing people. ok but not essential. no score so watched with the new sote lp

First (?) Harold Lloyd feature length film, none of the spectacular stunts from his most famous films but an OK slapstick feel good film about two doctors competing to treat a young female patient. Some of the jokes such as the card game & the escaped convict drag a bit but overall OK if not outstanding comedy.

Not the best of the early 20's silent epics but still great. Despite there being some sections lost, the connecting inter-titles and photos mean the plot is still easy to follow, combined with usual silent era standards of extras numbering in the thousands and some sensationally sized and decorated sets this is worth tracking down. Bad points, it's not very intellectual or emotional, the acting is rather pantomime-ish & the new score, too my ears, was rather too raucous and not delicate enough in the quieter moments, better than lots of other scores though so a minor quibble. Plot is about a love triangle between a Pharaoh, a slave girl he falls for and makes his queen and a slave she was in love with before he was arrested. war breaks out between Ethiopia & Egypt when the Pharaoh, rejects the Ethiopian kings offer of his daughters hand in marriage only to to take the slave girl instead.

Chaplin works on a building set where we see the classic catching bricks routine and the lift gag. He goes out and gets sloshed on the little money his intimidating battleaxe of a wife hasn't taken from him then then has to get home before she's up. Classic slapstick stuff - 1001?

wanted to liker it, a british movie. but costumes look like they came from a fancy dress shop where they had a surplus of comedy scotsman outfits, beards and wigs laughable in places, castle obviously made of wood or card, actors didn't look very scottish, actresses too made up and pretty to be believable as living in stone huts in the glens, acting - lots of arm waving in the 1910s style. plot a bit dull. Scotish (if indeed it was filmed in Scotland) scenery nice. One for Scots only. 6/10

Really enjoyed this one, Buster has to prove himself to a girls dad that he can support her before he'll let him marry her so he goes off to the city to make a man of himself. his letters back to his sweetheart don't entirely tell the truth about how well he's doing. Great fun, the different sections means it doesn't get boring, fast paced gags, the centurion dance bit I'm sure Laurel & Hardy nicked for their Foreign Legion jokes and cop chase reminds me of Keaton's classic later film "Seven Chances". Shame some sections are lost of this would a classic too. 7.7/10

Buster is mistaken for an electrician after his diplomas gets mixed with another graduates so when he rewires the University Principle's house things don't go to plan. Lots of scope for multiple trick house sets here, some clever stuff along with some trick photography (the pool) some jokes go on for too long (the stairs). OK Buster but not his best from 1922 - I recon (?)

not the best but far from the worst of Buster's shorts. A Blacksmith's (that includes auto repair) assistant gets his mean boss locked up and takes over the business but leaves his customers (& his boss) pretty mad.

Buster has to move in with a polish ladies rough n tough family after he occidentally marries her due to a misunderstanding about a broken window. - Probably my least favourite of his shorts that I've watched so far. No spectacular stunts, not many prop sets (just the yeast overflowing), stunts & gags you've seen him do before. The acting of the rest of the cast is the best thing in this.

Buster's parody of Erich von Stroheim and mountain movies. Its a weird one as Buster is playing a baddie. Not his best, not that funny and only 17 mins.

This Stan Laurel comedy before he teamed up with Oliver Hardy is OK, the name is of course a pun on the famous Blood And Sand Valentino film that had come out earlier. You can see some of Laurels trademark qualities that would became so well loved with Laurel & Hardy in early form here. this comedy uses some basic slapstick jokes, it's not on Keaton or Chaplin's level but it's an OK little comedy. oh yeah and you get to see Stan Laurel on an Ether binge. A better print with a bespoke soundtrack would improve my score. 5.5/10

Like Gloria Swanson, Marion Davis films are OK but seem over-rated on IMDb. This is a rather dull romance drama about a girl who has been brought up y two frumpy Quaker aunts, hence sahe';s a bit old fashioned in her ways and dress sense and the childhood friend she fancies doesn't see her as a potential mate. A trip away on holiday together and an artist helps her become more out going. A charade pantomime sequence in the middle gives the director a chance to do somne fantassy stuff with costumes, sets & acting but its not enough to save the rest of the film from being dull as dishwater

Nathan The Wise - based on the 1779 play by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, set at the time of the third Crusades with the Knights Templar battling Muslims in Bethlehem, it's a tale asking for religious tolerance. I found the plot hard to follow, as there are three main characters (representing the Jewish, Christian & Muslim faiths you never get any empathy with any of them hence you don't care what happens to them. Battle / crowd / sets sequences were impressive but far from the most spectacular I've seen from the era. the print was bit bleached out and un-crisp which didn't help, nice classical score was good though. 6/10.

A Jewish trader gets caught up in the crusades, his wife & seven children are burnt alive in front of him by the templars. He treats to mourn his loss & curses god, a templar fleeing the muslim army hands the trader a baby girl and tells him to take care of her before riding off. The girl is the daughter of a terminally wounded Templar leader who has also entrusted his baby son to another person with instructions to rename the. The babies grow up adulthood meet and fall in love not knowing they are brother & sister. The Jewish trader knowing this tries to prevent them, the boy takes offence and takes the trader to court through the muslim leader Saladin whgere he is sentenced to death. Then the boy learns the truth.

Later versions might be more wise to watch for entertainment value but this is a very watchable silent era version of the Alexandre Dumas' classic tale. Maybe a bit too much packed into second half, some plot lines seemed to come out of nowhere [where did the arabic princess suddenly come from - is there a part missing here?] and the ending seemed a bit abrupt. Overall very enjoyable 7.6/10

OK keaton not a classic