Cleaning Up

It's no surprise, I guess, that Jesse Walker doesn't have a top ten film list for 1925.  There aren't as many silent films out there to see, and they're shown less. Still, 1925 might be the biggest year ever for silent film, and Jesse lists a few favorites.

His favorite is The Battleship Potemkin, which often makes all time top ten lists.  While I don't rate it that high, it is a special film, and central in cinema history.

He mentions a few others that are quite good--The Freshman (Harold Lloyd's most popular silent feature), Seven Chances and The Phantom Of The Opera.  They would certainly make my top ten for the year.

What else is there?  Well, there's The Big Parade, a memorable film that was not only the biggest hit of the year, but the biggest hit of the decade and perhaps of the whole silent era.

There's the second biggest hit of the year, the original Ben-Hur, which still holds up quite well--maybe better than the Charlton Heston remake.

There's Strike--which Jesse hasn't seen--another film by Eisenstein, and almost as famous as Potemkin.

You've got Lubitsch, doing fine sophisticated comedy with Lady Windermere's Fan.

You have Erich von Stroheim, before his directing career blew up, having a huge hit in The Merry Widow.

You've got another fine film from Buster Keaton (though one of his weaker features), Go West.

There are a lot of major stars out there.  There's Lon Chaney in The Unholy Three.   There's Douglas Fairbank in Don. Q, Son Of Zorro.  There's Mary Pickford in Little Annie Rooney.  There's W.C. Fields (not a major movie star yet, but fun to see) in D.W. Griffith's Sally Of The Sawdust. 

On top of that, there are titles like Stella Dallas, The Lost World and East Lynne.  And I'm not even getting into shorts.

Then there's the best film of the year--Chaplin's The Gold Rush.  It was the biggest hit comedy of the silent era and the film Charlie wanted to be remembered for.  It may be his greatest work, and might make my top ten of all time.  Jesse doesn't mention it, but then, he's always had a thing about Chaplin.

There's also 1915, which Jesse notes has some instalments of his favorite, Les Vampires.  He doesn't mention what he thinks of perhaps the most significant film of the silent era, 1915's Birth Of A Nation.