Category Archives: Silent Film

After watching Lissy Arna in Gerhard Lamprecht’s 1928 film “Under the Lantern,” I looked forward to seeing her in a similar role in “Harbor Drift,” a 1929 film directed by Leo Mittler. Arna again plays a prostitute who sees an … Continue reading →

“The Girl in Tails (Flickan i frack),” a 1927 silent film from Sweden directed by Karin Swanström, deftly separates general society and its strict boundaries from the dreams of a girl, Katja (Magda Holm), who just wants an evening gown … Continue reading →

Any fan of the great Japanese Director Yasujiro Ozu would enjoy “Dragnet Girl (Hijôsen no onna),” an interesting 1933 silent movie that screened at the recent San Francisco Silent Film Festival (SFSFF). The previous Ozu films shown at the festival … Continue reading →

Max Linder, the gifted French comedian who may have ranked among the giants of silent film comedy had he not committed suicide, gives a perfect example of his considerable gifts in “Seven Years Bad Luck,” a film from 1921. Linder … Continue reading →

One of the nice things about seeing the San Francisco Silent Film Festival (SFSFF) and the Pordenone (Italy) Silent Film Festival in is that I’ve seen some very funny and interesting Soviet films. The Pordenone festival showed a funny Anna … Continue reading →

Gerhard Lamprecht, prodigious film director and writer who worked from the silent cinema era to the late 1950s, can be compared to Hollywood’s Allan Dwan. Studios regarded Dwan and Lamprecht as sure-fire directors who could produce effective works in any … Continue reading →

So many interesting things happen in Anthony Asquith’s 1928 silent film “Underground,” that it’s difficult to categorize it as anything but quintessentially British. Most of the movie takes place at a London underground tube station, and the two main male … Continue reading →

While watching “The Epic of Everest,” the 1924 silent film about the attempt by George Mallory and Andrew “Sandy” Irvine to reach the summit of Mount Everest, I became awed by the spectacle of the mountain while wondering about the … Continue reading →

The San Francisco Silent Film Festival (SFSFF) screened “The Good Bad Man” at 10 AM on Saturday morning, May 31, 2014. I don’t know why this crowd-pleasing 1916 film featuring the acting talents of Douglas Fairbanks and Bessie Love played … Continue reading →