I saw these silent films some days ago.
Sparrows (William Beaudine: 1926). A wonderful films. Nicely paced, well written inter titles, funny and exciting. I also liked the theological issues and the fact that Jesus had black hair.
I’m not so sure how moral it was letting the children do these things around real alligators and Mary Pickford jumping and swinging with a real baby on her back. What where the parents thinking? But it sure was nerve racking. Probably one of the best films to get people interested in silent movies.
The Phantom of the Opera (Rupert Julian: 1925). I bought the double disk Milestone collection that was supposed to have the best transfer. O, boy, was I disappointed. The 1929 restored version has motion blurs/ghosting that totally ruined the experience for me. Why go through all this work to make a first rate transfer and then fail on such a simple thing? It really made the film almost unwatchable. And why not use the better stock to recreate the 1925 version. They could have used the 16mm reduction print in scenes that are missing from the 1929 restored print. I should have bought the R2 version.
The Man Who Laughs (Paul Leni: 1928). I really have to see this film again. It looked nice, had some excellent cinematography, nice acting and a beautiful set. But there was also something very unsettling about it. But still I really liked it and it is most likely a film that gets better after repeated viewing. I would have loved to see Lon Chaney in the main role and how that would have changed the film. But I still thought that Conrad Veidt was excellent.
The Mender of Nets (D.W. Griffith: 1912) and Wilful Peggy (D.W. Griffith: 1910) where extras on Sparrows. Two short films with Mary Pickford, directed by Griffith. Nothing to report about here. Nether film has aged well. They are mainly interesting historically.
