President Coolidge Taken On The White House Lawn (1924)

In Honor of the political season finally drawing to a close!  Sometimes things around here are not so silent.  This is an early "Talkie" from Deforest Phonofilms, taken, ironically of then President Calvin Coolidge, who was known as "Silent Cal."

Tepeyac (1917) Clip

Pacqui Miccaihuitl!

El Puno de hierro (1927)

Posting this in honor of Dias de los Muertos (Days of the Dead).  It is one of a few surviving Mexican silent films.

Haxan (1922)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Haunted Spooks (1920)

A classic Harold Lloyd spoof from 1920, but with spooks!  This is considered to be the very first horror comedy even made (though I think that some of Méliés might actually qualify as earlier).  Still this is Harold Lloyd!!  Some even contend that not even Charlie Chaplin could touch his comedic genius.  Happy Halloween Eve!

A Theda Bara Tribute

I ran across this on the web and thought it would make a fitting Halloween post.  It is well done, and Bara has been a favorite of mine since childhood as well!

The Girl And His Trust (1912)

Doing a day of crime films over on my Scare Me site today for the Countdown, which is almost over (saaadd....), thought I'd post a crime melodrama from the king of melodrama himself:  D. W. Griffith.

The Student Of Prague (1913)

Regarded by many to be the very first full length horror film.  It is certainly one of the very earliest that has actually survived (for example, the original Der Golem, has not) 

Waxworks (1924)

Directed by Paul Leni, the other influential German Horror/Expressionist director.

Silly Symphonies; Egyptian Melodies (1931)

Disney animation from the early 30's directed by Wilfred Jackson, who is responsible for two segments of Fantasia (1949), one of which is my favorite, Night On Bald Mountain.

Wolf Blood (1925)

Spooks, Flip The Frog (1932)

Ub Iwerks cartoon from the early 30's after leaving Disney.  He was the original creator of the Skeleton Symphony for Disney, for which he got scant credit.  This is his personal furtherance of that project.  This is for my kid, who is having a whole day of Halloween stuff at his whim today....including going to see Frankenweenie in the theater!  So Happy Halloween to all the little ones out there, and happy animation!!

The Man Who Laughs (1928)

This is perhaps German director Paul Len's masterpiece!!

Stratos-Fear (1933)

An Ub Iwerks cartoon from the early 30's for the Halloween season!!  Happy Spooks!

The Monster (1925)

This is a Lon Chaney Sr. silent horror that doesn't get as much attention as his other horror films from the 1920's.

Midnight Faces (1926)

This is an early silent old dark house affair from the mid-twenties.

Dreams Of A Rarebit Fiend: The Pet (1921)

If anyone has been on Google today, then you know that today celebrates the 107th anniversary of cartoonist Winsor McCay's famous Little Nemo In Slumberland; well here is another McCay gem for the Halloween season!

The Fall Of The House Of Usher (1928)

The Talion Punishment (1906)

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1905)--Stills

Stills of The Hunchback of Notre Dame 1905

The Lost World (1925)

The Bat (1926)

The Sealed Room (1909)

This has been described as the only horror short that D.W. Griffith made, or at least the only one that survives (I you take a look at his IMDb page, you see that he is credited with 535 titles as director and owed to some early Biograph Co. archives being lost, that number may well be light).  The fact that it is called a horror film at all is owed to the fact that the story comes from Poe's "A Cask of Amontillado," there are those, like those over at IMDb for example, that keep removing and then replacing the "horror" genre (yeah, I know that it's "user driven").  Whether you consider it a horror film or not, it certainly has a building creepiness to it.  To my knowledge, it is the only time Griffith directed a Poe project.  It is certainly among the very earliest films every based on Poe's work.  Please excuse the outsized embed. it is from the good folks over at Internet Archive, please check them out this pumpkin season, they have a lot of creepy stuff.  Happy Halloween!

The Patchwork Girl Of Oz (1914)

This is a very early multi-reel movie.  Up until 1910 the one reeler ruled the movie world as 15 minutes or less.  At first this was simply the limit of the manufacturers and producers; later on multi-reel (mostly 2 reels) films were being produced by not widely marketed, largely because early film producers like Edison thought there was not market for longer film (this lack of insight was decried by many prominent employees, is the major reason Edison exited the film industry in 1918).  In less than five years, however, 5-reel films became the accepted and expected norm.  This is a very early, rather obscure Fantasy picture.  It owes a great deal to the early trick films, and doesn't represent any rear advances in editing for the time--it is pure whimsy.  Though this is not the first film depiction of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz book by L. Frank Baum, it is to my knowledge the first feature length film to do so, at a running time of 48 to near 70 minutes.  The really important fact here is that Baum himself adapted his book for the screenplay!  There are two surviving films produced by the Oz Manufacturing Company, which went out of business in 1915, under this title at the Library of Congress, this is the truncated version.  

The Edison Sioux Ghost Dance Film (1894)

Today is "Columbus Day"--a day or mourning for Natives.  

Un Homme de Tetes (The Four Troublesome Heads) 1898 Melies

Dream Of A Rarebit Fiend (1906)

This is an Edwin S. Porter film produced for the Edison Studio.  It is based on the then famed cartoon by Winsor McCay, whose strip ran with bizarre dreams with no recurring characters...unless you count the Welsh Rarebit as a recurring character!!  (Welsh Rarebit is a kind of cheesy toast, sometimes called Welsh Rabbit).  This film was not produced in 1903, and couldn't have; McCay's strip didn't even begin until 1904. The film actually dates from 1906.  In early film cinema, that might as well be the same thing as comparing a film from 1980 to one of the early CGI 2000's.  I have election poll training tomorrow....I might just be feeling like this 24 hours from now... Happy Election Season!

La Diable Noir (The Black Imp) 1905

A Melies Film.  You might want to think twice about staying in this Hotel!

The Ghost Train (1903)

This is a "real life trick photo film" that was produced by the American Mutoscope & Biograph Co., the filmmakers working for them who shot this were neither never "credited" or those names were lost to history long before the 1920's.  The was made with a simple reverse negative process to turn an "actualities film" into something spooky.  By some standards it represents an example of American avant-garde in early cinema.

La Manoir du Diable (1896)

This is largely considered to the very first horror film, and, of course, it was made by the trickester himself:  George Melies!  I love the bat.

The Haunted House (1908)

If this looks like a Meliésé film...it's not.  It is a film by early Spanish "trick" film maker Segundo de Chomon, who, though is was influenced by Meliésé, was actually innovative in the field of set design all on his own.  And, to give him credit, he was much more narrative in his films than was Meliésé.  Happy Halloween!!

The Haunted House (1929)

Welcome to the first post for the Countdown To Halloween here on Wierdness!  Please take some time to check out other bloggers on the Countdown by clicking the icons to the left!  Happy Spooks!!

Scare Me On Fridays: Random Hitchcock: The Farmer's Wife (1928)

Scare Me On Fridays: Random Hitchcock: The Farmer's Wife (1928): An Oldie to be sure, this was a directorial project handed over to Hitchcock to fix up, it's screenplay was adapted from a popular Lo...

Home schooling and home business has kept me from blogging much at all this year here or over at my Native Food spot New World Food I have kept up with blogging at my Friday Fright spot; this week's theme are random Hitchcock movies from a grab bag.  Hitchcock's silent work that has survived is not well known, aside from, perhaps, The Lodger.  So, we're viewing The Farmer's Wife from 1929 (and my cats, who hate silent film, really want to kill me right now...).  And (!) with the school year winding down, I am absolutely going to be blogging here much more often!  Because I just love writing about silent film!  Happy Spring!  Happy Mother's Day too!

Extra, Extra!: The Artist Wins The Oscar!!

Scare Me On Fridays: Sunrise (1927)

Scare Me On Fridays: Sunrise (1927): OK, this is listed at the very first Best Picture Oscar awarded, but there a little history here that reveals a strange Academy Award fac...

A Silent Takes The Golden Globe!

When I saw that The Artist was nominated for best picture at the Golden Globes I thought it was really cool that a modern full length silent would be up for that category....but no way is it going to win.  The nomination just seemed like a long shot in the first place.  Boy was I soooo wrong!!  Glad to be wrong!  Congrats to everyone involved!