Category Archives: Uncategorized

Flicker Alley’s latest offering is called IN THE SHADOW OF HOLLYWOOD: HIGHLIGHTS FROM POVERTY ROW. Of the four movies in the set, I was familiar with only one, 1935’s THE CRIME OF DR CRESPI, which I purchased back in the early 1990s in a terrible public domain VHS copy. The other three are MIDNIGHT (CALLContinue reading “IN THE SHADOW OF HOLLYWOOD: HIGHLIGHTS FROM POVERTY ROW”

PERILS OF THE NEW LAND is a remarkable double feature from the early days of cinema that represents America’s two oldest surviving movie companies, Paramount and Universal (both founded 1912). The Universal offering, TRAFFIC IN SOULS was once available on VHS. The version here is essentially the same just buffed up a little for itsContinue reading “PERILS OF THE NEW LAND Is Another Winner From Flicker Alley”

I have been reading books on silent movies since 1967 and collecting them on home VHS/DVD/Blu-ray since 1990 and during that time I have never come across the name of director Irvin Willat or if I have then I certainly don’t recall it. This is even more surprising as one of the many bonus supplementsContinue reading “BEHIND THE DOOR (1919): Outrageous WWI Melodrama Is Given A 5 Star Treatment”

Once again Flicker Alley has done silent film fans a huge favor by compiling and releasing this DVD of two John Gilbert movies from different stages of his career. BARDELYS THE MAGNIFICENT dates from 1926 and reunites Gilbert with his THE BIG PARADE director, King Vidor. It’s a typical MGM picture of the day withContinue reading “BARDELEYS / COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO: Exciting John Gilbert Double Feature A Must See”

…and I mean that in a double sense. First there is the scenario which is a traditional love triangle. Two young girls meet in a “divorce colony” in Paris and become childhood friends. It’s a place run by nuns where children of well-to-do divorced parents are left so that the parents can get on withContinue reading “CHILDREN OF DIVORCE (1927): Better Than It Has Any Right To Be…”

“Those who forget History are condemned to repeat it” is the famous quote and perhaps that explains the current movie climate where remakes predominate. As we continue to evolve into a culture of short term gratification and long term memory loss, it’s important to rediscover forgotten parts of our cinematic history especially when it’s presentedContinue reading “CHICAGO (1927): Magnificent Restoration Of The Original Version”

It may sound a bit odd to call a 1927 film a salute to early cinema but as silent film enthusiasts know, movies have been around since before the dawn of the 20th century. The earliest narrative films come from France in the movies of Alice Guy and Georges Melies ca. 1896 and it isContinue reading “THE ITALIAN STRAW HAT Is Rene Clair’s Salute To Early French Cinema”

While he made many earlier films, GARDEN OF EDEN is the earliest of director Lewis Milestone’s works to survive. I have been waiting for a properly restored version of this movie ever since I saw an abridged version of it on VHS as part of Paul Killiam’s SILENTS PLEASE series. Milestone, whose career spanned 40Continue reading “THE GARDEN OF EDEN (1928) Could Be Considered The Birth Of A ” Milestone””

As a theater major in college, I had heard of William Gillette (1853-1937) and his stage performances of Sherlock Holmes. Between 1899 when the play, adapted from a few of the stories by Gillette himself, first opened and the making of this film in 1916, Gillette had portrayed Holmes over 1300 times! Arthur Conan DoyleContinue reading “SHERLOCK HOLMES (1916) Is Full Of Delights”

THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES remains the most popular of the Sherlock Holmes stories and has been the most frequently filmed. There are at least 12 versions out there with the best known being the famous 1939 Basil Rathbone vehicle and the 1959 Peter Cushing/Hammer Films version. There’s also a Peter Cook & Dudley MooreContinue reading “DER HUND VON BASKERVILLE (1914 & 1929) ist Wunderbar!”