Shh....Quiet Please!

You’ve heard the proverb “Speech is silver, Silence is golden”. In the film industry, the golden age or Silent Film era was approximately between 1894 -1929. Silent films are films that have no spoken dialogues, rather, the actors communicate through muted gestures, mime and title cards. It was rumored that some of the actors at that time did not have pleasant voices, so perhaps it was just as well that they couldn’t be heard. 

Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Laurel and Hardy are the more recognizable silent movie actors who have appeared in mostly comedic films such as Our Hospitality, Modern Times, Gold Rush and The Buster KeatonCollection. Some of the more notable films are The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari,originally produced in German in 1919; The Lodger, from 1927, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, set in London about a serial killer murdering blonde women;

The Birth of a Nation (1915), starring Lilian Gish in a drama about life in the South during and after the Civil War.

Don’t forget the Phantom of the Opera (1925), starring Lon Chaney.

These movies are available for you to checkout from the Library to enjoy at home, but wouldn't it also be nice to be able to watch them as they were originally intended, with live music. I can hear it now.