It might reasonably be contended that Humphrey Jennings is the only real poet the British cinema has yet produced. - Lindsay Anderson, Director These astonishing films show and explain essential news... more
In The Toll Gate (William S. Hart. Directed by Lambert Hillyer. 1920/73 min), a highwayman's gang is sold out by a traitor and ambushed during a robbery, and the leader of the gang seeks out revenge... more
Employing state-of-the-art restoration techniques, it is far easier than ever before to see the real genius of Charlie Chaplin as it was seen by fans decades ago. This must-have,... more
Alla Nazimova, the Russian-born, theater-trained actress decided, on the occasion of her contract release from Metro Goldwyn Mayer in 1921, to make films with merit. The second - and last - of these... more
This early wizard of modern filmmaking set a tempo for things to come. This collection celebrates 173 rare, original silent films by Georges Mèliés, painstakingly gathered by Eric Lange and David... more
While he's noted for his string of swashbuckling roles, here are 11 ancient film treasures from before Fairbanks' pirate days including The Mystery of the Leaping Fish (1916), Reaching for the Moon... more
Both pioneering films on this DVD depict well known incidents in the life of Jesus Christ. In quite different ways, both were also ambitious milestones of the young, relatively untried cinema; both... more
Aelita, The Queen Of Mars is a Socialist science fiction spectacle and in 1924 was the first big-budget movie from Soviet Russia. A year and a half in the making, it was intended as ideologically... more
Paul Horbiger, Magda Schneider, Luise Ullrich. An upper-class man and a middle-class woman fall madly in love in 19th century Vienna. But the man's past affair with a beautiful baroness intrudes on... more
Boris Barnet, Vladimir Fogel, Natalya Glan. This 1926 Soviet classic had an interesting "Westernized" perspective with a popular cliffhanger premise. Three reporters and a secretary try to thwart a... more
Gloria Swanson, Thomas Meighan, Raymond Hatten. After a wealthy British women and her house staff are shipwrecked on a desert island, a hidden attraction to her butler blossoms and class lines... more
Women are not in love with me but with the picture of me on the screen. I am merely the canvas upon which the women paint their dreams. - Rudolph Valentino, 1923 Women fainted in the aisles when The... more
Made on location in Germany during the period of the Great Inflation, Isn't Life Wonderful is a tender ode to the resilience of the human spirit and the all-conquering power of love. Carol Dempster... more
Long before he became known as the Man of a Thousand Faces, Lon Chaney quickly gained attention for being one of Hollywoods prominent character actors as these outstanding early examples of Chaneys... more
Tolable David is a magnificent film, carefully transferred from the best available elements, and starring the great Richard Barthelmess (Broken Blossoms) in the title role. This rural adaptation of... more
Described by Dziga Vertov, it's director, as an experiment in the language of pure cinema, The Man With the Movie Camera is perhaps the most dazzling and sophisticated work not only of Soviet, but of... more
Joan the Woman (Cardinal Film Corporation, 1916) was Cecil B. DeMilles first great spectacle. In keeping with theatrical tradition, DeMille sought a more formal and stylized mode of acting from stars... more
Mona Martenson, Tryggve Larssen, Harald Schwenzen. The exotic essence of Scandinavia comes oozing onto the screen in this beautifully filmed, completely restored melodrama. Laila, separated from her... more
Director Cecil B. DeMille's The Clinging Vine (Leatrice Joy, Tom Moore. Silent with musical score. 1926/b&w/71 min.) tells the whimsical tale of a female president's assistant who's tough as nails... more
From 1913 to 1916, Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle rose from the ranks of bit player to writer, director and star of comedies for Mack Sennetts Keystone Film Company. Because of Sennetts belief that actors... more
More that three sides of any room), and the need to establish character immediately resulted in a kind of cinematic shorthand which gave these shorts terrific compression. The limitations of time and... more
Carmen (Lasky-Paramount, 1915) stars famed Metropolitan Opera soprano Geraldine Farrar in her most famous role on stage and screen. Her high-spirited and erotic performance dominates this vibrant... more
For the five years between 1908 and 1913, D.W. Griffith directed some 450 films for the Biograph Company, delivering at a rate of two or three films per week. These films, one and two reels in... more
The first full-length gangster picture ever made, according to it's director, Raoul Walsh, who would later make The Roaring Twenties, High Sierra, The Bowery and White Heat, Regeneration is a... more
D.W. Griffith is properly esteemed as the Father of Film from his years of discovery making short films at the pioneer Biograph Company and for such pioneering features as The Birth of a Nation,... more