My First Silent Film

My apologies for a lack of updates this month. I'm eagerly awaiting the completion of the Rudy site, and well its kept me busy! However there will be more updates this week, lets just say I got a Lottie film to review!

A favorite question people ask me is "Oh what got you into silent film?" Usually a movie of some sort is expected, though ironically I cant remember what the first silent film I ever seen was. As a child I was greatly fascinated with history...any and everything about history especially the Civil War and the Civil Rights era. I distinctly remember being about 10 or 11 and catching a silent film on TCM one night...there was a woman by a fence and the memory surely recalls a Griffith styled film. However to this day I'm not sure what it was. The other day I realized one of my favorite shows when I was young, "Histories Mysteries" constantly uses silent film clips even if the story they are telling has nothing to do with the 20s or silents. So that probably exposed me to silents as well.

The first silent film I seen on purpose was "Beyond the Rocks" in 2005. I lived in Orlando at the time and there was a little arts house that had a movie theatre upstairs. I read a review of the film in the weekly and decided I should go...it sounded interesting and for some reason I had quite an urge to see what a silent film was. Of course I put it off forever...I think they ran it for about a week. I ended up catching one of the last screenings on the last day. I haven't thought about this in forever but sitting here awaiting the arrival of my Beyond the Rocks DVD it started running through my mind. And considering how much I now know about silents its kind of funny my first impressions.



It was a tiny theatre with a small screen, and only one other person was in attendance! Mind you I haven't seen this film since that very day but I remember my presumption was (especially after the first few scenes) 'very mellerdrama'. I thought silents must be a little silly, that weird sort of acting and the very old styled clothing. However I was determined to give it a chance, and I wasn't immediately turned off though the antiquity of it definitely jarred me at first.

Then a title card flashed and a very handsome man appeared on screen. "Oh THAT'S that Valentino fellow!" Like everyone else I had heard the name but I don't think I'd ever seen the face before that point. A few scenes of his in I remember thinking, "I don't know who he is...but its a shame he's dead!" There was definitely something about Valentino that drew me in. Much like Louise Brooks he had such a modern look and force...that thing that makes one an icon. And much like Louise he could live up to the reputation, as he is a fantastic actor. I had nothing against Gloria at the time, but she wasn't wowing me. Funny because now I consider her one of the top actresses ever of either talkies or silents. Of course it was a pretty standard fashion film...not like it gave her much room to act.

I do remember being impressed with the scene where they sit there and try to fight their forbidden love. Of course now I just enjoy Valentino's acting in every sort of way, but even then he impressed me beyond being pretty. I remember thinking the ending was a bit contrived, but I left thinking it was quite interesting...and I wanted to see more.

For the longest time I wasn't sure what the first silent I seen on purpose was...was it this or was it "Broken Blossoms"? Now that I think about it, it was after I had seen Beyond the Rocks that I caught Broken Blossoms on TCM one night. The closet scene further convinced me there was something to this. It was around the same time I started researching women in the entertainment business, and the first book that popped up in my search was Pickford: The Woman Who Made Hollywood. Soon I had Dark Lover and by the end of the year I was in Hollywood. It was after a month of Mary Pickford at the Silent Movie Theatre I decided there might be something to starting Forget the Talkies.




And that is the story of my first silent film. Honestly I can not wait to see Beyond the Rocks again. I have no clue why I've waited so long. Its one of the few Valentino films I don't have on DVD, Cobra being the other (for now). If you don't own a copy yet I would highly suggest snatching it up while you can...amazon seems to be hinting its about to go out of print. Click here to purchase it at Half.com.