The Rest Is Silents
In 1926, silent film was at its height. Little did they know....
Let's see Jesse Walker's top ten from that year (and I think I know what will be #1):
2. Now You Tell One
3. A Page Of Madness
4. The Overcoat
5. Menilmontant
6. Love's Berry
7. Mother
8. The Adventures Of Prince Achmed
9. Mighty Like A Moose
10. Le Voyage Imaginaire
The General should definitely be #1. I like Mother and The Adventures Of Prince Achmed. Mighty Like A Moose is a short (a lot of comedy shorts back then). The rest--a number of which are shorts--I haven't seen.
There are a number of other titles worth mentioning from that year, even if they're not always easy to see.
Other films that would make my top ten:
It's The Old Army Game (for a guy known for his voice, W. C. Fields' silent films aren't bad)
Moana (the original)
So This Is Paris
So's Your Old Man (another decent Fields film)
The Strong Man (probably Langdon's best)
Other films that I like:
For Heaven's Sake (maybe Harold Lloyd's worst silent feature, but still pretty good)
Hands Up!
Sparrows
Tramp Tramp Tramp
Other films Of Note:
Beau Geste, The Black Pirate, The Blackbird, La Boheme, Don Juan, Ella Cinders, Faust, Flesh And The Devil, Kid Boots, Lazybones, Nana, One Sunday Morning, Our Daily Bread, The Road To Glory, The Road To Mandalay, The Show Off, The Son Of The Shiek, Twinkletoes, Upstage, What Price Glory?, A Woman Of The Sea
posted by LAGuy @ 1:12 PM
4 Comments:
Battling Butler, The Strong Man, For Heaven's Sake, and Hands Up! are all good movies. (As is The Wind, but isn't that from 1928?) I think the only one on any of your lists that I've seen is Son of the Sheik, down in the others-of-note section.
You're right about The Wind. I'll remove it. And I just checked the IMDb--it says the Murnau film of that year is Faust, not Tartuffe. Maybe the American release dates were different. In any case, I haven't seen either of those, and perhaps they're the type that would make my top ten.
Most of the titles at the bottom I haven't seen. For instance, I've seen a number of Douglas Fairbanks' swashbucklers, but not The Black Pirate, which is a lesser-known title.
One thing you notice when you watch late silent pictures is how well-established and sophisticated the film vocabulary is by this point. I guess film buffs know this, but so many people who don't see silents imagine they're just a bunch of old flickers.
Nice post title.
I haven't seen much from '26, and of those I've seen about half of them I hardly remember. Still, I can do a top ten:
A Page of Madness
Tramp, Tramp, Tramp
The Adventures of Prince Achmed
The General
Battling Buttler
It's The Old Army Game
The Blackbird
Faust
The Black Pirate
Flesh and the Devil
I'd like to see So's Your Old Man and The Strong Man
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