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Latest Updates
Added review of
the Kino Classics edition of Seven Chances (1925)

Added review of
the Kino Classics Blu-ray Disc edition of Sherlock Holmes (1922)

Added review of
the Kino Classics edition of The Cigarette Girl of Mosselprom (1924)

Added review of
the Kino Classics edition of the Giorgio Moroder version of Metropolis (1927)

Added review of
Silent Lives: 100 Biographies of the Silent Film Era
by Lon Davis

Added review of
the Edition Filmmuseum
and Grapevine Video
editions of
By the Law (1926)

Added review of
the Kino International
Blu-ray Disc edition of
The Black Pirate (1926)

Added review of
the Grapevine Video edition of
Hawthorne of the U.S.A. (1919)

Added review of
Pola Negri: Life is a Dream in Cinema (2006)

Added review of
the Flicker Alley collection
Chaplin at Keystone (1914)

Added review of
the Flicker Alley edition of
Tillie’s Punctured Romance
(1914)

Added review of
the Flicker Alley edition of
Making a Living (1914)

Added review of
the Flicker Alley edition of
A Film Johnnie (1914)

Added review of
the Flicker Alley edition of
Cruel, Cruel Love (1914)

Added review of
the Sunrise Silents and Grapevine Video editions of
Soul of the Beast (1923)

Added review of the
Warner Archive Collection
edition of Love (1927)

Added review of the
Warner Archive Collection
edition of West Point (1928)

Added review of the
Edition Filmmuseum edition of A Sixth Part of the World (1926)

Added An Interview with Silent Film Composer Ekkehard Wölk by Ehsan Khoshbakht

Added review of the
Eureka Entertainment
Blu-ray Disc edition of
City Girl (1929)

Added review of the
Reel Classic DVD edition of
The Phantom of the Opera (1925)

Added reviews of the
Reel Classic DVD and
Triton Multimedia editions of
The Birth of a Nation (1915)

Added review of the
BC Records edition of
My Grandmother (1929)

Lokke Heiss reviews
the 28th Annual Pordenone
Festival of Silent Film

Added review of the
Flicker Alley edition of
Chicago (1927)

Added review of the
Hale Video Services and
Grapevine Video edition of
Körkarlen [The Phantom Carriage / The Stroke of Midnight] (1921)

Added review of the
Park Circus DVD edition of
The Kid (1921)

Added reviews of
the Warner Blu-ray editions of
The Wizard of Oz (1925),
The Patchwork Girl of Oz (1914), The Magic Cloak of Oz (1914) and His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz (1914).

Added review of
the Grapevine Video edition of
The Power of the Press (1928)

Added review of
The Van Beuren Studio
Animated Shorts
(1929-1933)

Added review of
the Grapevine Video edition of
She Goes to War (1929)

Added review of
the Grapevine Video edition of
Backstairs (1921)

Added review of
the Flicker Alley edition of
The Italian Straw Hat (1928)

Added review of
the Grapevine edition of
The Burning Soil (1922)

Added review of
the Grapevine collection
Biograph Productions,
Volume 2
(1904-1908)

Added review of
the Grapevine edition of
The Drop Kick (1927)

Added review of
the Eureka Blu-ray Disc edition of Sunrise (1927)

Added review of
the Harpodeon edition of
A Florida Enchantment
(1914)

Added review of
the Flicker Alley edition of
Monte Cristo (1922)

Added review of
the Mont Alto edition of
The General (1926)

Added review of
the Sunrise Silents
remastered edition of
Hula (1927)

Paramount Home Entertainment (USA) has released their high-definition remastered edition of William A. Wellman’s Wings (1927) on Blu-ray Disc and on DVD. The high-definition remastering was undertaken from a duplicate 35mm negative held by Paramount and involved a frame-by-frame digital restoration of the picture, removing emulsion scratches and nitrate decomposition. The discs will feature a new recording of the orchestral music score by J.S. Zamecnik presented in DTS-HD 5.1 surround sound and the beloved theatre organ music score performed by Gaylord Carter in Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo (or mono?) sound. Special color effects and color tints, replicating the original release prints, will be a feature of the new home video release, and period sound effects will be added to the soundtrack by Academy Award winning sound designer Ben Burtt to evoke a silent era viewing experience.
 
University Press of Kentucky (USA) has released their new biography of producer and production innovator Thomas H. Ince, Thomas Ince: Hollywood’s Independent Pioneer by Brian Taves. The biography focuses on Ince’s contributions to the motion picture industry and less on the circumstances of his untimely death.
 
Kino Lorber (USA) has released their remastered edition of Buster Keaton’s Seven Chances (1925) on Blu-ray Disc and on DVD. The edition has been remastered in high-definition from a 35mm print held by the Library of Congress. A Keaton cause for celebration!
 
Kino Lorber (USA) has released their Blu-ray Disc edition of Sherlock Holmes (1922) starring John Barrymore, with William Powell in his motion picture debut. The edition has been mastered from the 35mm restoration print produced by the George Eastman House.
 
Kino Lorber (USA) has released their remastered edition of D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation (1915) on Blu-ray Disc. The three-disc edition features the 1080p high-definition remaster from 35mm materials, with the 1930 rerelease synchronized sound introduction by Griffith and Walter Huston, plus the rediscovered intermission sequence. Music performed by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra is presented in DTS-HD 5.1 surround sound and in 2.0 stereo sound. Two other DVD discs contain the contents of Kino’s previous two-disc DVD edition from 2002, with a complete presentation of the David Shepard produced edition with Joseph Breil’s original music score and a collections of Civil War short films directed by Griffith.
 
Kino Lorber (USA) has released their remastered edition of D.W. Griffith’s Way Down East (1920) on Blu-ray Disc. The edition has been remastered in high-definition from the restored 1985 print held by the Museum of Modern Art.
 
Grapevine Video (USA) has released four new NTSC DVD-Rs for November 2011, His Majesty, the American (1919) starring Douglas Fairbanks, Monsieur Beaucaire (1924) starring Rudolph Valentino, Charley’s Aunt (1925) starring Sydney Chaplin, and No Man’s Law (1927) starring Rex the Wonder Horse.
 
Kino Lorber (USA) has released their Blu-ray Disc and DVD editions of the Giorgio Moroder presentation of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927). The eighties rock music score featuring Freddie Mercury, Jon Anderson, Loverboy, Pat Benatar, Adam Ant, Billy Squier and others, has been remixed for 5.1 surround sound, with the original 2.0 stereo mix included optionally.
 
Image Entertainment (USA) has released their Blu-ray Disc edition of The Phantom of the Opera (1925) starring Lon Chaney. The new edition has been transferred in high-definition from a 35mm print of the 1929 rerelease version. The Technicolor footage will be included. A standard-definition transfer of the rough surviving 8mm reduction print of the 1925 release version is also presented in this new edition, which has been produced by David Shepard of Film Preservation Associates.
 
National Film Preservation Foundation (USA) has released their fifth DVD home video collection of films, Treasures 5: The West (1898-1938), preserved through their ongoing efforts to assist film archives, libraries and historical societies restore and preserve their endangered film holdings. The three-disc collection presents forty films depicting the American West, many of them appearing on home video for the first time. Among the nearly 600 minutes of films collected for this release are Mantrap (1926) starring Clara Bow and Ernest Torrence, The Lady of the Dugout (1918) starring real-life western outlaw Al Jennings, and Salomy Jane (1914) starring Beatriz Michelena and House Peters. The boxset collection will contain a softbound book with information on the films. Sales of the boxset support the NFPF’s film preservation efforts.
 
Kino Lorber (USA) has released their remastered edition of Buster Keaton’s Go West (1925) with Battling Butler (1926) on Blu-ray Disc and on DVD. This new edition has been transferred in high-definition from 35mm prints held by the Library of Congress. Among the supplemental material is a presentation of Hal Roach’s short comedy Go West (1923).
 
Criterion Collection (USA) has released their home video edition of Victor Sjöström’s The Phantom Carriage (1920), which is available on Blu-ray Disc and DVD. The edition has been transferred in high-definition from a 35mm print materials in collaboration with the Swedish Film Institute. There are two optional musical scores, one by Matti Bye and one by avant-garde musical duo KTL.
 
Grapevine Video (USA) has released four new NTSC DVD-Rs for September 2011, Isn’t Life Wonderful (1924) directed by D.W. Griffith, Barbara Frietchie (1924) starring Florence Vidor, The Calgary Stampede (1925) starring Hoot Gibson, and Piccadilly (1929) starring Gilda Gray and Anna May Wong.
 
Flicker Alley (USA) and Film Preservation Associates (USA) has released their four-disc NTSC DVD compilation Landmarks of Early Soviet Film (1924-1930). Eight films of the late Soviet silent era are presented in the multidisc set, some for the first time on DVD home video: Lev Kuleshov’s The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks (1924), Lev Kuleshov’s By the Law (1926), Dziga Vertov’s Stride, Soviet! (1926), Esfir Shub’s Fall of the Romanov Dynasty (1927), Boris Barnet’s The House on Trubnaya Square (1928), Sergei Eisenstein’s Old and New (1929), Victor Turin’s Turksib (1929) and Mikhail Kalatozov’s Salt for Svanetia (1930). The films are accompanied by film scores by Robert Israel, Eric Beheim, Alexander Rannie and Zoran Borisavljevic.
 
Kino Lorber (USA) has released their remastered edition of Sergei Eisenstein’s Strike (1924) on Blu-ray Disc and DVD. The new edition has been transferred in high-definition from the 35mm restored version by the Cinémathèque de Toulouse. Musical accompaniment has been arranged from traditional Russian music by Rodney Sauer and performed by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra. Both editions also feature the short film Glumov’s Diary (1923).
Also released is the first DVD edition of The Cigarette Girl of Mosselprom (1924), which has been mastered from a 2007 restoration print.
 
Grapevine Video (USA) has released four new NTSC DVD-Rs for August 2011, Miss Bluebeard (1925) starring Bebe Daniels, The Mad Whirl (1925) starring May McAvoy and Jack Mulhall, The Jack-Knife Man (1920) directed by King Vidor, and Hoodoo Ann (1916) starring Mae Marsh.
 
Kino Lorber (USA) has released their remastered collection of short films starring Buster Keaton, Buster Keaton: The Short Films Collection (1920-1923). The collection is available on Blu-ray Disc and DVD. The three-disc collection contains Buster’s 19 short comedies produced in 1920 through 1923, remastered in high-definition and presented in chronological order at nearly 400 minutes running time. Among the supplementary content created for this collection are 15 visual essays featuring contributions from Jack Dragga, Ken Gordon, David Kalat, Bruce Lawton, Steve Massa, Ben Model, David B. Pearson, R. Emmet Sweeney and Patricia Eliot Tobias, a series of alternate and deleted shots from Keaton shorts, a presentation of exerpts from comedy films influenced by Keaton, Keaton cameos in short films of the late 1920s, and a John Bengtson presentation of Keaton locations then and now.
 
Flicker Alley (USA) and Film Preservation Associates (USA) has released their NTSC DVD compilation The Alloy Orchestra Plays Wild and Weird: 14 Fascinating and Innovative Films (1902-1965). The unconventional Alloy Orchestra accompanies 13 silent era films known for their imaginative quirkiness, ranging from Méliès to Keaton, with one experimental silent film from the 1960s.
 
Criterion Collection (USA) has released the first US DVD edition of People on Sunday (1929), which has been released on Blu-ray Disc and DVD. The film was a directorial collaboration of German directors Robert Siodmak, Edgar G. Ulmer, Billy Wilder and Fred Zinnemann, who all went on to Hollywood prominence in the sound era.
 
Flicker Alley (USA) has released their DVD home video edition of George Schnéevoigt’s Laila (1929). The late silent era Norweigian production has been restored, and is presented with new English, French and Spanish intertitles and a theater organ score performed by Robert Israel.
 
VCI Entertainment (USA) has released their DVD home video edition of After Six Days [La Bibbia] (1920) an Italian biblical epic, and the documentary Yesterday and Today (1953) narrated by George Jessel.
 
Kino Lorber (USA) has released their second DVD collection of films produced in France by Gaumont, Gaumont Treasures, Vol. 2 (1908-1916). The three-disc collection contains nearly 600 minutes of short films by Emile Cohl, Jean Durand, Jacques Feyder, Henri Fescourt, Etienne Arnaud, and others.
 
Kino Lorber (USA) has released their high-definition Blu-ray Disc edition and remastered DVD edition of Buster Keaton’s Our Hospitality (1923). The discs were prepared from a new high-definition video transfer of an archival 35mm print, and feature a 5.1 surround sound music score by Carl Davis and a stereo music score by Donald Hunsberger. Also included is a previously unreleased 49-minute alternate version of the film thought to have been prepared by Keaton to test the noncomedic story elements.
 
Grapevine Video (USA) has released four new NTSC DVD-Rs for March 2011, April Fool (1926) starring Baby Peggy, Oh! Doctor! (1925) starring Reginald Denny and Mary Astor, Which Shall It Be? (1924) with Willis Marks and David Torrence, and White Sin (1924) starring Madge Bellamy and John Bowers.
 
Edition Filmmuseum (Germany) has released their two-disc PAL DVD short film collection Max Davidson Comedies (1927-1931) featuring ten silent era and two sound film comedies starring Max Davidson.
 
Warner Home Video (USA) has released two silent films in their Warner Archive Collection that are new to DVD home video: Lillian Gish and Ronald Colman in The White Sister (1923), and Greta Garbo’s American film debut in The Torrent (1926).
 
Edition Filmmuseum (Germany) has released the PAL DVD collection Hal Roach: Female Comedy Teams (1928-1935) featuring two silent era comedies starring Anita Garvin and Marion Byron. The two-disc set also features ten 1930s Hal Roach short sound comedies also featuring Thelma Todd, ZaSu Pitts and Patsy Kelly. Also available from Edition Filmmuseum is the PAL DVD edition of Po zakonu [By the Law] (1926). This edition of Lev Kulesov’s adaptation of a Jack London story is presented with a new music score by Franz Reisecker.
 
Kino Lorber (USA) has released their Blu-ray Disc edition of the restored two-strip Technicolor version of The Black Pirate (1926). The 35mm restoration print has been transferred to 1080p high-definition AVCHD video, and features music scores by Robert Israel and Lee Erwin. Also included is the synchronized sound reissue of the black & white version with narration.
 
Grapevine Video (USA) has released four new NTSC DVD-Rs for November 2010, Civilization (1916) produced by Thomas H. Ince, My Friend from India (1927) starring Franklin Pangborn and Elinor Fair, the complete Francis Ford and Ben Wilson serial The Power God (1925), and the silent and sound versions of Mr. Robinson Crusoe (1932) starring Douglas Fairbanks.
 
Park Circus (Scotland) has released their dual-format Region B Blu-ray Disc/Region 2 DVD editions of City Lights (1931) and The Circus (1928), produced by MK2, which likely feature new high-definition video transfers. Also released is their Region 2 DVD-only edition of The Chaplin Revue (1918-1923), a compilation of films produced for First National.
 
Kino Lorber (USA) has released their Blu-ray Disc edition of, what is being touted as, the complete Metropolis (1927), including 25-minutes of additional footage from a 16mm reduction negative recovered in Argentina in 2008. Digitally duplicated and cleaned, the new footage reincorporates characters and storylines not seen since the 1920s. The 2010 35mm restoration print will be transferred to 1080p high-definition AVCHD video. The disc is supplemented with a 50-minute documentary on the 2010 restoration version of the film. The Blu-ray Disc edition is packaged in a lenticular 3D box wrap over a BD keep case.
 
Kino Lorber (USA) has released their Blu-ray Disc edition of a Buster Keaton double bill: Sherlock, Jr. (1927) and Three Ages (1923). The 35mm source print has been transferred to 1080p high-definition AVCHD video.
 
Warner Home Video (USA) has released six Lon Chaney DVD editions in their Warner Archive Collection: He Who Gets Slapped (1924), The Monster (1925), the silent version of The Unholy Three (1925), Mr. Wu (1927), Mockery (1927) and the sound version of The Unholy Three (1930) Chaney’s final film.
 
Flicker Alley (USA) and Film Preservation Associates (USA) have released their multidisc DVD edition Chaplin at Keystone (1914), a comprehensive collection of 34 short comedies that Charles Chaplin appeared in while working for The Keystone Film Company. The collection is the result of an eight-year collaborative effort of the British Film Institute, the Cineteca Bologna and its restoration laboratory L’Immagine Ritrovata in Italy, and Lobster Films in Paris. Many of the films have been transferred from 35mm materials, with others from 16mm reduction prints. The collection also includes the 2004 UCLA Film and Television Archive and British Film Institute restoration of Tillie’s Punctured Romance (1914). Robert Israel. There has been no announcement of a separate Blu-ray Disc edition.
 
The Serial Squadron (USA) has published the novelization by Charles Goddard and Eustace Hale Ball of the presumed lost Wharton supernatural serial The Mysteries of Myra (1916). The 400-page book contains additional information on the production of the serial and is illustrated by more than 200 photographs.
 
Blurb.com (USA) has published Rudolph Valentino: The Silent Idol by Donna L. Hill, who is publisher of the Falcon Lair website. The 240-page book is illustrated with more than 400 photographs.
 
PandorasBox Press (USA) has published The Diary of a Lost Girl (1905) in the original English translation of the German novel by Margarete Böhme, which was the source of G.W. Pabst’s film The Diary of a Lost Girl (1929) starring Louise Brooks. Long out-of-print in America and with a new introduction by Thomas Gladysz, the trade paperback Louise Brooks Edition is also available as a digital download.
 
The New Zealand Film Archive (NZ) and the National Film Preservation Foundation (USA) have announced a major project to repatriate and preserve 75 American feature and short films, which includes the previously presumed lost Upstream (1927) directed by John Ford. Among the other films are an early Clara Bow film Maytime (1923), a previously lost Keystone comedy Won in a Closet (1914) with Mabel Normand, and a Lois Weber feature Idle Wives (1916). READ THE STORY
 
A previously unknown Charles Chaplin performance occurs in the recently recovered Keystone comedy A Thief Catcher (1914). Collector Paul E. Gierucki purchased a 16mm reduction print of the film at a Michigan antique sale and recently identified Chaplin’s appearance as a policeman. READ THE STORY by Scott Eyman.
 
Bruce Long, editor of Taylorology (an examination of the murder of silent film director William Desmond Taylor), has kindly allowed us to add a Taylorology mirror site to the Silent Era website. Explore myriad information regarding the murder, compiled by Long over many years, here.
 
On 1 November 2009, the Silent Era website celebrated its 10th anniversary. Editor and publisher Carl Bennett shares a few thoughts about the website’s history and future goals.
 
 
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Top 100 Silent Era Films
Current Top 10
Silent Era Films

1. The General (1926)
2. Metropolis (1927)
3. Sunrise (1927)
4. City Lights (1931)
5. Nosferatu (1922)
6. The Gold Rush (1925)
7. La Passion et la Mort de Jeanne d’Arc (1928)
8. Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (1920)
9. Bronenosets ‘Potyomkin’ (1925)
10. Greed (1924)

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A biography of actress Anna May Wong by Joseph Worrell.

A filmography of Roscoe Arbuckle silent era films.

A 1913 appraisal of early sound film technologies.

A review of The Keystone Kid: Tales of Early Hollywood by Coy Watson Jr.

A list of German silent era films released on home video.

An article on actress Virginia Bradford by her husband, Cedric Belfrage.

A review of the 28th Annual Pordenone Festival of Silent Film by Lokke Heiss.

A list of silent era theaters in Portland, Oregon.

The latest issue of Taylorology.

A listing of world film archives.

Our listing of some of the silent era fims that are thought to be lost.

A review of the many home video editons of Nosferatu (1922).

 
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Treasures 5 Boxset

Go West on Blu-ray

Go West on DVD

Phantom Carriage on Blu-ray

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Landmarks of Early Soviet Film

Strike Blu-ray Disc

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Cigarette Girl on DVD

Keaton Short FIlms Blu-ray Disc

Keaton Short FIlms Blu-ray Disc

Alloy Orchestra Wild and Weird

People on Sunday on BD

Our Hospitality Blu-ray Disc

Our Hospitality DVD

Black Pirate on Blu-ray Disc

Metropolis on Blu-Ray Disc

Chaplin at Keystone

Josef von Sternberg DVD

Battleship Potemkin on Blu-ray Disc

La Roue on DVD

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