Silent Drama
see all genres ›Shorn of the dialogue that drove stage drama, silent movies had to express romance, tension and conflict via nuance and visual invention, achieving such artistic heights that many lamented the comparative crudity of communication the medium was reduced to in the early sound era.
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Genres / Silent / Silent Drama
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Cowards Bend the Knee
"Cowardice!! The New Sexy!!!" squeals Guy Maddin about his shot-on-Super-8, expanded-to-35mm silent "autobiography" involving beauty salons, cowardice, femmes fatale, a father's severed hands (and the daughter who wants them sewn onto her lover's arms), orgies and the Soviet...Watch Movie
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The Star of Bethlehem
Biblical tale about the birth of Christ told with a cast of 100's. Thanhouser's ambitious STAR OF BETHLEHEM was one of the first steps toward true feature-length films (more than two reels long). It appeared the year before the Italian epic QUO VADIS? was screened in the U....Watch Movie
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Battleship Potemkin
For eight decades, Sergei Eisenstein's 1925 masterpiece has remained one of the most influential silent films of all time. Yet each successive generation has seen BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN subjected to censorship and recutting, its unforgettable power diluted in unauthorized public...Watch Movie
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Just a Shabby Doll
A relatively complex original romantic story is squeezed onto only one reel, but this was the last year that such a constraint was taken for granted. Of special interest here are the 1913 New York City backgrounds. In 1913 the inter-titles became more frequent and, for the...Watch Movie
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Death's Marathon
"Partners in business and rivals in love." Not with each other, of course (not in 1913, anyway). Two gentlemen have an interest in the same woman. One wins, one doesn't. The winner has a few bad habits that create unexpected problems in the relationship. DEATH'S MARATHON is a...Watch Movie
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The Portrait of Lady Anne
In 1770, the beautiful Lady Anne in a jealous fit throws over her lover who goes away to the war and is killed. Fast forward to 1912 where a descendant of Lady Anne is entertaining and much the same happens. A fantasy of romance and jealousy across 200 years. Sets are, in...Watch Movie
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From Show Girl to Burlesque Queen
A pretty young woman steps behind a dressing screen to prepare for the stage in this teasing short from the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company (a competitor of Thomas Edison in the already competitive distribution and exhibition market). - Robert AvilaWatch Movie
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The Wandering Shadow
Rich in symbolic imagery and striking location photography, THE WANDERING SHADOW was the first collaboration of Lang and Thea von Harbou. It follows a woman who, in the wake of a scandal, seeks solitude in the Bavarian Alps. There, she is continually haunted by her past, but...Watch Movie
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Behind the Door
Writer Gouverneur Morris's bizarre tale unfolds in a series of disquieting flashbacks that serve to continually ratchet up suspense and foreboding. Producer Thomas H. Ince and director Irvin Willat showed daring and imagination in their adaptation of the sensational material. U-boat captain...Watch Movie
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The Coffin Ship
A love story filmed in Long Island Sound with a stowaway and a shipwreck. Because of 1911 production convention, a sprawling adventure is truncated to one-reel length. Good location work, a strength of Thanhouser pictures, creates a visually strong seagoing story. Long Island Sound locations were...Watch Movie
