The Circus

After being mistaken for a pickpocket and pursued through a carnival, the tramp winds up front and center at the travelling circus, stealing the show and offered a job. There he romances an acrobat, the abused daughter of the circus manager, gets locked in the lion cage, and must step in to perform the tight rope act for his romantic rival when he no-shows for the gig. The Circus is a perfect little Chaplin short feature, funny and poignant, with the Hall of Mirrors scene, the automaton gallery, and the stunning finale all standing out.

**** out of ****

The Man Who Laughs

A rival of King Edward II is executed, his son permanently disfigured with his faced surgically reworked to always bear a smile. As an adult (played by Conrad Veidt), employed by a travelling circus, he finds a nonjudgmental partner in a blind girl (Mary Philbin) and finds his destiny again intertwined with the royals who butchered him and his family. Paul Leni's silent American treatment of the Victor Hugo novel offers Veidt (who served as an inspiration for The Joker) and along with a sea of many other memorable faces not to mention outstanding sets, cinematography, and editing.

*** 1/2 out of ****

The Fall of the House of Usher

Jean Epstein's early, silent take on Edgar Allan Poe's popular short story, with the head of title house receiving a visitor and, along with his sister, giving way to melancholia and madness, is a surrealistic,  unsettling, and nightmarish experience. Unconcerned with narrative continuity or traditional storytelling approaches, The Fall of the House of Usher is an atmospheric triumph abetted with the aid of many incredibly effective and what have to be (at least in a few cases) introductory camera techniques.

*** 1/2 out of ****

The Passion of Joan of Arc

The Passion of Joan of Arc strictly details the inquisition, trial, and execution of the poor peasant girl from Orleans who took up the Lord's calling, lead a French brigade during the Hundred Year's War, and ultimately liberated her people following her martyrdom. Carl Theodore Dreyer's silent film is an extremely simple work, filmed exclusively on one set and featuring an unrelenting succession of close-ups, that stands among the most powerful and intimate movies ever made. Maria Falconetti, a stage actress who shows zero successive screen credits and two obscure prior ones, delivers a haunting, unforgettable, deeply affecting performance, saying more with her eyes than most performers could with fifty pages of dialogue. The Passion of Joan of Arc makes the case for silent movies, movies as art, and movies as a power to move.

The Cameraman

A man who sells tinted photographs on a New York City street corner comes across a young woman during a ticker tape and is immediately smitten. After learning she works as a secretary for MGM's newsreel department, he trades his camera for a moving one and begins shooting footage in an attempt to woo her. The Cameraman was the first studio film for the great silent clown Buster Keaton who worked independently up until this point. It is considered his last great film before studio interference, and probably foremost the talkies, stifled his career. It is not his finest work, but it is still a delightful film containing much of the great Stoneface's grace and wit. I really liked particular segments involving Keaton's attempts to open a piggy bank, his difficulties during a date on a packed double decker bus, and his exploits involving a dead monkey he is forced into buying that miraculously comes back to life. A friend recently said that Keaton was superior to Chaplin, and it is a popular sentiment among more than a few critics, but I feel that without taking anything away from Charlie, both men deserve to sit on the same pedestal as two of the foremost comics, not only of the silent era, but of the history of the cinema.

Steamboat Bill, Jr.

For being one of the titans of the silent comic era, Buster Keaton never looked like he was having much fun. Known as the great Stone Face, Keaton never changed expression in his films while performing dangerous stunts, all without a double. In Steamboat Bill, Jr., he borrowed elements from his previous films, replacing the train from The General with a steamboat and using his family feud storyline from Our Hospitality. Add to this a spectacular hurricane finale and the result is classic silent comedy from one of the masters. The story involves a gruff riverboat captain whose business is dying thanks to his hated rival's majestic new ship. Now his sissy college educated son (Keaton) has come to see him for the first time and the captain must turn him into a man. Yet this proves to be a difficult task and to make matters worse the son has fallen for the daughter of the captain's rival! As things go from bad to worse and it appears nothing can be done for his son, the aforementioned storm strikes the river giving the lad the opportunity to prove his worth after all. Steamboat Bill, Jr. is not the greatest of Keaton's work, but due to some wonderfully inspired gags and some eye-popping visual effects during the storm scene, this film gladly ranks towards the top of the great comic silent films canon.