30-Second Review: Pandora's Box

Top Star  Louise Brooks     Date 1929      Category  Suspense Drama

The Story
Lulu’s anything a man desires, but she belongs to no one.

The Verdict
Ms. Brooks, you make sex complex. A damn fine piece of art.

Best Scene
His wedding night is the last night of Dr. Schön’s life. Alcohol, and one encounter too many with Lulu’s party guests, convince him the marriage is a mad pursuit. Alone in their bedroom, he forces a gun into her hands, telling her to kill herself before she drives him to murder. Their bodies press the gun between them, and as Lulu shifts, it is Schön who is shot.

For the full-length Silent Volume article, click HERE.

'The Complete Metropolis' trailer

In case you've missed it, the silent film community's version of a blockbuster is back. Follow this link to a trailer (!) for Kino International's newly restored, 'Complete Metropolis.'

Metropolis holds a special place in my heart, because it was my introduction, as a teen, to the world of silent cinema. I wrote about that experience here.


I don't see a Canadian theatre-date for this thing, but if there is one, it'll be in Toronto. One of the advanatges of living in this city.

~Chris

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari isn’t scary. Silent horrors rarely are. But it is incomparably weird; it diffuses strangeness like a bloom does pollen. It clings to you. Watch this film, then take a walk. Why are the buildings you pass all so vertical? Ask yourself how that makes you feel. Before long, you’ll be scaring yourself.

30-Second Review: The Lost World

Top Star Wallace Beery        Date 1925        Category Adventure

The Story
Beefcake, babe, and boorish prof battle an island full of stop-motion prehistoric monsters.

The Verdict
Slower than a triceratops in a tar-pit, but essential viewing for F/X purists.

Best Scene
Captured Brontosaurus Rampaging Through London Streets!

At first, this scene falters like the others before it—we are told, rather than shown, how the huge animal’s cage broke loose over the dock and set it free. But things pick up as the Brontosaurus plows through the urban landscape. While the film still fails to integrate footage of the crowds with footage of the beast, life-scale modelling now brings the two elements together. We see a mother and infant trapped in the dinosaur’s path... then director Harry O. Hoyt cuts from the stop-motion animal to the cowering humans and inserts a shot of a giant, clawed foot bearing down upon them. This technique is used liberally in King Kong, but nowhere else in The Lost World.

For the full-length Silent Volume article, click HERE.

A Tip of the Hat to Gujarat

Great talent knows no bounds of age, language or nationality. As proof, we present the Charlie Chaplin Society: a club more than 200-members strong, most of them based in Adipur, a town in western India.

From the 'beeb (and courtesy of Jess Todd--thanks pal):

'India's Chaplin-loving town'