Wednesday, September 29, 2021

Happy National Silent Movie Day!

Today marks the first annual Silent Movie Day. I found out about this event from the UCLA Film & Television archive, which presented three restored Harold Lloyd shorts with live music accompaniment, along with a post screening conversation with Harold Lloyd's granddaughter, Suzanne Lloyd. You can check out the presentation here: 

This was the first time I've seen Harold Lloyd, though I will be checking out more of his films on the Criterion Channel. I continue to be impressed by the stunts pulled off in silent films, and the restorations make these films more accessible and enjoyable than they ever have been. 


I am hoping to catch up on more Lon Chaney and Lois Weber films in the near future, and just picked up silent comedies with Edward Everett Horton that I'll be digging into. Here are some silent films I've shared in the past:


It's been hard finding time for movies in my busy schedule these days, which makes it nearly impossible to find time to write about them, but I hope to make some time to pay homage to the Season of Horror soon. I already kicked things off last weekend with Larry Cohen, and will be getting around to watching more John Carpenter and George Romero. While not a horror feature, I am excitedly awaiting delivery of the complete series of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, and am looking forward to spending some delightful fall evenings with the Master. 

2 comments:

Don said...

We are really in synch sometimes. I am watching Lloyd's The Freshman as your post popped up.

Didn't know about Silent Movie Day, though. Thanks!

(really more of a Keaton guy)

Christine said...

The Freshman and Safety Last are some of his more well known films I'll have to see, though I may start with a less well known recommendation, Girl Shy. I still have quite a bit of Keaton to explore, and caught a few Chaplins before they got dropped from CC. I have not really dug into much silent comedy as I tend to favor the dramas, but I have found the comedies fairly impressive.

In the post screening conversation, Suzanne Lloyd describes how Harold lost half his hand and was blinded for months when he was doing a photo shoot and lit a cigarette with what he thought was a fake bomb. If you see him up close in his post 1919 films, you can see that his face is scarred and that he's wearing a prosthetic glove on his right hand. He did some crazy stunts in what I've seen him in so far and seems pretty badass. Thanks for keeping up with my random posts, Don. Always nice to hear from you.