One Of My Favorite Horror Stills!

From the very first filmed production of Frankenstein dating from 1910, produced by the Edison Company and directed by J. Searle Dawley ans starring Charles Ogle as the above pictured Monster.  

A Trip To Mars (1910)

Space Flight In The Silent Movie Era

From Russia: Aelita (1924)

This is one the most famous silent science fiction films from the silent era.  It is also one of the most innovative silent films produced in The Soviet Union, most Soviet era silents are heavy on propaganda--so much so that there exists a whole sub-genre of silent movies for just that subject.  This is based on the Tolstoy novel of the same name.

From France: A Trip To The Moon (1902)

It is United Nations Day, and over at the Scare Me On Fridays blog spot we are celebrating with a Countdown To Halloween theme of scary films from different countries, so I thought it would be fun to track that here.  First up is France, and more Melies.  The is perhaps his most famous film!  I've even seen tattoos of the moon are arms and backs!  At over 10 minutes long, this was considered a wonder of modern cinema when it debuted.  Happy Halloween!  Happy UN Day.

Stanley Kubrick's Favorite Silent Film: Metropolis

Amongst the many, many films listed by the late great director Stanley Kubrick as being favorites of his, influential on his work, Metropolis was the only silent film that he consistently talked about.  This is the 2001 restored version with the original music.  

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

An Excursion To The Moon (1908)

Over at my Scare Me On Fridays blog we are celebrating the second day of the Countdown to Halloween with a  Science Fiction theme, so here is an early Sci-Fi from Spain.  This is yet another Segundo de Chomon remake of the an earlier Melies original in English A Trip To The Moon (1902).

The Lost World (1925)

Countdown To Christmas Day 5

Classic early stop motion animation from pre-revolutionary Russia!!  

The Insect's Christmas (1913)

Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde (1920)

The Lost World (1925)

The Hilarious Posters (1907)

The Impossible Voyage (1904)

This embed if from the good folks over at Internet Archive.  It looks strangely out sized in the post, but it does play; it's probably best viewed in full screen.  This is another one Melies trick movies.  He really had a strange obsession with Jules Vern and H. G. Wells!

A Trip To The Moon (1902)

This is the original Le voyage dans la lune or The Trip to the Moon fro 1902 by cinematic pioneer of the "trick film" Georges Melies.  Happy Halloween!

Today's Film: An Excursion To The Moon (1908)

While I am still having Internet troubles here, with serious run around's with the cable company over services call, it has at least stabilized enough to get some extra stuff finished.  And I found my source material on the restoration of this little film.

This is a famous early remake, in fact, it is almost a frame for from remake of the famous Meliese "trick" film of 1902 (in English) A Trip To The Moon.  Though this was produced by the famous French film company Pathe Freres, it was actually directed by one of Spain's earliest film directors, Segundo de Chomon.  Though the remake is almost frame for frame, this version is richly hand stenciled--the stencil in the preserved copy of the film is the original stencilling done by Pathe.

This film is part of the Lobster Film  collection.  And is part of a collection of important early films put out on DVD by Flicker Alley LLC entitled Saved from the Flames:  54 Rare and Restored Films 1896-1944.  Music by Frederick Hodges.