Imminently enjoyable horror-comedy based on one of the most popular haunted house stageplays that were all the rage in the 1920s. German émigré Leni gives the film an effectively expressionistic vibe and plays the scareContinue reading
Category: Silent Film
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (John S. Robertson, 1920)
The best of the many silent-era productions of Robert Louis Stevenson’s deeply influential novella, Robertson’s version benefits greatly from the memorable lead performance by stage legend John Barrymore, who is just as good as theContinue reading
The Penalty (Wallace Worsley, 1920)
The first of the great Lon Chaney’s starring roles, this socially attuned silent thriller is part proto-horror film and part gangster melodrama. Worsley’s direction is effective for its era, although largely static and not terriblyContinue reading
The Student of Prague (Stellan Rye, 1913)
A precursor to cinematic expressionism and the horror film’s mixture of religious superstition and Freudianism, as well as an early example of the Teutonic obsession with the doppelgänger, this variation on the Faust legend featuresContinue reading
Battleship Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein, 1925)
At this point in my life I have seen Sergei Eisenstein’s revolutionary classic Battleship Potemkin more times than I can count, and its ahead-of-its-time visual power never ceases to amaze me. Yet, watching the 2005Continue reading