Author Archives: chipkaufmann

It has taken a long time for THE DRAGON PAINTER to reach home DVD. Announced well over a year ago, it had to wait for Milestone Films to find a new distributor. Now we can finally see this long unavailable title and see how beautiful it is. The slight story is a variation on theContinue reading “THE DRAGON PAINTER + 1: Remarkable Sessue Hayakawa Double Bill”

The first time I watched THE DUMB (MUTE) GIRL OF PORTICI, I was somewhat taken aback. I have been a big fan of Lois Weber for many years but I had never seen anything like this. I was used to her movies being either 1) issue driven like HYPOCRITES or WHERE ARE MY CHILDREN? or 2)Continue reading “DUMB GIRL OF PORTICI (1915): Lois Weber’s Historical Epic & A Rare Chance to See Anna Pavlova”

I have a been a fan of silent films for over 40 years after seeing HAROLD LLOYD”S WORLD OF COMEDY in 1962 and after reading Kevin Brownlow’s THE PARADE’S GONE BY shortly thereafter. However it was more than 25 years after that before I had the means to get a really good look at mostContinue reading “ELECTRIC EDWARDIANS Shows How Film Is The One True Time Machine”

Back in 1913 the French movie studio Gaumont and director Louis Feuillade created a craze for crime thriller serials with FANTOMAS about a master-of-disguise super criminal and a dogged detective determined to capture him. This was, no doubt, inspired by Sherlock Holmes and his pursuit of Professor James Moriarty but this time around the focusContinue reading “FILIBUS (1915): The Female FANTOMAS”

As a silent film enthusiast, I’m all for the restoration of old movies especially something as old and and as rare as this Edward S. Curtis film. The fact that it is 100 years old is astonishing. The fact that it it isn’t in better condition is, alas, not astonishing at all as that isContinue reading “IN THE LAND OF THE HEAD HUNTERS (1914): One Movie/Two Different Versions”

SHIRAZ (1928) is the second of three silent films that make up a truly remarkable trilogy. The other two are THE LIGHT OF ASIA (1927) and A THROW OF DICE (1929). They were a collaborative effort between an Indian producer/star, British financing, and a German director. All 3 movies were shot on location in IndiaContinue reading “SHIRAZ (1928): Indian Filmmaking Before Bollywood”

I’m sure that most people (myself included) had no idea that an Indian cinema existed before the films of Satyajit Ray. A THROW OF DICE or PRAPANCHA PASH to give the film its Indian title was one of several films made by the team of German film director Franz Osten and Indian actor Himansu RaiContinue reading “A THROW OF DICE (1929): A Silent Indian-German Co-Production”

Every time Halloween rolls around, I’m always on the lookout for something appropriate to watch. I’ve had this DVD for 7 years now and I remember liking it when I first watched it but that was right after I purchased it and I hadn’t seen it since then. Having recently re-read Gogol’s original story THEContinue reading “THE VIY: Wonderful Russian Adaptation Of The Nicolai Gogol Short Story”

The AIP version of BLACK SUNDAY is one of my most vivid memories from watching horror movies on TV. I don’t remember it playing in the theaters in my home town of Greenville, SC but I’m sure it did but it would have been of no consequence as I wasn’t old enough to see it.Continue reading “BLACK SUNDAY (1960) – My Introduction To Euro-Gothic Cinema In The Version I Remember”

Finally DEAD OF NIGHT, which is one of the greatest of all supernatural films, is available in a transfer that does this benchmark film justice. I hesitate to call it a horror film as only two segments out of five would qualify. The rest of the movie features stories that alternate between the fantastic andContinue reading “DEAD OF NIGHT (1945): The Best Transfer Yet Of This Supernatural Classic”