Subgenre Sampler

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Silent Britain (2006): An intriguing journey into the 'Lost Atlantis' of the British silent film industry, which prior to 1929 generated thousands of films, as much through…
Méliès the Magician (The Magic of Méliès, Méliès Magic Show) (1997): Dir. Georges Melies, Jacques Meny; George Méliès was a unique pioneer of cinema, who virtually invented the 'trick shot' and created an astonishing 1000 short films using special…
Days of Thrills and Laughter (1961): Dir. Various
Feat. Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Charles Chaplin…; The third in Robert Youngson's trilogy of definitive compilations of silent comedy, this time with swashbuckling action to match the outrageous…
When Comedy Was King (1960): Dir. Various
Feat. Charles Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Stan Laurel…; Second anthology of priceless silent comedy from complier Robert Youngson features excerpts from the likes of Chaplin, Keaton, Laurel & Hardy,…
Golden Age of Comedy, The (1957): Dir. Various
Feat. Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Ben Turpin…; Perfect introduction to the world of silent comedy, this is the first of three celebrated compilations from cinephile Robert Youngson. Hailed as…
Modern Times (1936): Dir. Charles Chaplin
Feat. Charles Chaplin, Paulette Goddard; A last hurrah for the Little Tramp, who finds himself a casualty of industrial turmoil. Chaplin's produced this silent classic in spite of the sound…
Harold Lloyd Collection - Disc 2 (The Cat's Paw, The Milky Way) (1934-1936): Dir. Sam Taylor, Leo McCarey
Feat. Harold Lloyd; Two classic Harold Lloyd features. Includes THE CAT'S PAW, with Lloyd entangled in local body politics; and THE MILKY WAY, in which the silent…
Harold Lloyd Collection - Disc 8 (Movie Crazy, Welcome Danger) (1932): Dir. Clyde Bruckman
Feat. Harold Lloyd; Two classic Harold Lloyd features. Includes MOVIE CRAZY, arguably the comedian's best sound film, about making it in Hollywood; and WELCOME DANGER,…
Vampyr (1932): Dir. Carl Dreyer
Feat. Julian West, Henriette Gerard; Seminal psychological horror film makes up for in atmosphere what it lacks in technical sophistication. Dream–like plot concerns a young man…
City Lights (1931): Dir. Charles Chaplin
Feat. Charles Chaplin, Hank Mann, Jean Harlow; Chaplin's most melancholy and beautiful film revolves around his love for a blind flower girl and his on–off relationship with a drunkard…
Tabu (1931): Dir. F.W. Murnau
Feat. Anna Chevalier; A beautifully filmed romantic tragedy based on a simple Pacific island folk tale. Poetry and sensuality is startlingly evoked through the play of…
City Girl (1930): Dir. F.W. Murnau
Feat. Charles Farrell, David Torrence; Murnau's lost pastoral beauty about a Minnesota boy who marries a tough city girl and brings her home at harvest time, where their love is…
Earth (Zemlya) (1930): Dir. Alexander Dovzhenko; One of the poetic highpoints of Soviet cinema, this sets its simple tale amid the life of a Ukrainian peasant village undergoing modernization after…
Asphalt (1929): Dir. Joe May
Feat. Gustav Frohlich, Betty Amann; Bravura melodrama from the German Expressionist era wrangles with the divided loyalites of a love–struck police officer who falls for a sultry…
Blackmail (1929): Dir. Alfred Hitchcock
Feat. Anny Ondra, John Longden, Sara Allgood…; Notable early thriller from Hitch, with Ondra being blackmailed by someone who knows she accidentally killed a rapist. Features good London…
Diary of a Lost Girl (1929): Dir. G.W. Pabst
Feat. Louise Brooks; Exceptional follow–up to the eye–opening PANDORA’S BOX, with Louise Brooks again provoking disorder with her unrestrained vitality and…
Man with a Movie Camera (1929): Dir. Dziga Vertov; Breath–taking moving snapshot of life in Leninist Moscow uses dissolves, split screen, slo–mo, and freeze frames to dazzlingly illustrate…
Alfred Hitchcock Silent Double (The Manxman, The Ring) (1928-1929): Dir. Alfred Hitchcock; Two silent films from Hitchcock's early career.
Circus, The (1928): Dir. Charles Chaplin
Feat. Charles Chaplin; Chaplin's Little Tramp stumbles into a travelling circus where he falls in love and finds work as a circus clown and high–wire artist. Hasn't…
Man Who Laughs, The (1928): Dir. Paul Leni
Feat. Conrad Veidt, Mary Philbin, Olga Baclanova; One of the most spectacular (and sophisticated) of the silent epics adapts a historical story by Victor Hugo concerning the destiny of a disfigured…
October : 10 Days That Shook the World (1928): Dir. Sergei Eisenstein
Feat. Nikandrov , N. Popov, Boris Livanov; A brilliant reconstruction of the momentous events of 1917, when revolutionary soldiers overthrew the provisional Government bringing Lenin and the…
Pandora's Box (1928): Dir. G.W. Pabst
Feat. Louise Brooks, Fritz Kortner, Francis Lederer; Louise Brooks become a star and influenced a million haircuts as the voluptuous call–girl, Lulu, whose misdeeds meet with an appropriate fate.
Phantom of the Opera (1928): Dir. Rupert Julian
Feat. Lon Chaney, Mary Philbin, Gibson Gowland; First screen version of the Gaston Leroux novel with Lon Chaney grimacing through his greatest hour as the phantom. The atmosphere is creepy and the…
Spies (Spione) (1928): Dir. Fritz Lang
Feat. Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Willy Fritsch; Post WWI Europe provides a volatile backdrop for this silent spy–saga, whose brilliant visual flourishes and 'house–of–mirrors'…
Steamboat Bill Jr (1928): Dir. Charles Riesner
Feat. Buster Keaton, Ernest Torrence, Tom McGuire; One of Buster Keaton's best films begins as sly farce, with his wimpish city–slicker meekly tussling with a thuggish steamboat–captain…
Storm Over Asia (Potomok Chingis-Khana) (1928): Dir. Vsevolod Pudovkin; An epic of silent Russian cinema to rival Eisenstein, this is set around a young Mongol fur–trapper who is swindled by traders and develops a…
Street Angel (1928): Dir. Frank Borzage
Feat. Janet Gaynor, Charles Farrell; Janet Gaynor radiates as a streetwalker whose love for an Italian painter is jeopardized by her past brushes with the law. As with 7th HEAVEN, dir.…
Un Chien Andalou (1928): Dir. Luis Bunuel
Feat. Salvador Dali; Bunuel and Salvador Dali collaborated for this sensational short film that blew the lid off convention in a way history could never repeat. A…
7th Heaven (Seventh Heaven) (1927): Dir. Frank Borzage
Feat. Janet Gaynor, Charles Farrell; Eternal lovers Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell endure spiritual turmoil and the ravages of war in this beautiful silent era classic, remarkable for…
Cat and the Canary, The (1927): Dir. Paul Leni
Feat. Laura La Plante, Tully Marshall; Seminal haunted house flick centres around the gathering of greedy contestants to the will of a rich relative. Imaginative thrills are executed with…
College (1927): Dir. James W. Horne
Feat. Buster Keaton; Buster Keaton goes to college where he tries to win the girl of his dreams by proving himself in the sports arena. An ideal set up for 'Stoneface' to…
End of St. Petersburg (1927): Dir. Vsevolod Pudovkin
Feat. Vera Baranovskaya, Aleksandr Chistyakov; The tensions that exploded with the 'October Revolution' in Russia, 1917 are schematised here using understated characterisations (of workers and…
It (1927): Dir. Clarence Badger
Feat. Clara Bow, Antonio Moreno, Gary Cooper; Clara Bow sprang to stardom in this silent comedy, using ‘it’ to gold–dig department–store boss Antonio Moreno. Memorable for its…
Silent Films Of Alfred Hitchcock, The (1927-1929): Dir. Alfred Hitchcock; Two of Hitchcock's early films showcasing the best from the Master Of Suspense during his silent era. THE RING: A boxer must compete with a rival…
Sunrise (1927): Dir. F.W. Murnau
Feat. George O'Brien, Janet Gaynor, Bodil Rosing; The first American outing from the master of German Expressionism turned out to be perhaps his best film of all. He instils an electric charge on a…
Wings (1927): Dir. William A. Wellman
Feat. Clara Bow, Charles Rogers, Gary Cooper; Renowned silent film represents the epic struggles of the allied airforces in WWI, with brilliant aerial sequences, battle recreations and several…
Adventures of Prince Achmed, The (1926): Dir. Lotte Reiniger; The dashing Prince Achmed saves a lovely damsel from evil witches and mythical beasts, as well as discovering Aladdin's lamp, all in the primitive…
Der Heilige Berg (The Holy Mountain) (1926): Dir. Arnold Fanck
Feat. Leni Riefenstahl, Luis Trenker; One of the landmark films of German Cinema, this is chiefly remembered as the awesome debut of Leni Riefenstahl who later became chief filmmaker for…
Faust (1926): Dir. F.W. Murnau
Feat. Emil Jannings; Innovative camera tricks and production design distinguish this rendering of the literary staple about a man who sells his soul to the devil.…
General, The (1926): Dir. Buster Keaton, Clyde Bruckman
Feat. Buster Keaton; Buster Keaton risks life and limb to pursue his beloved rail engine, hijacked by Union spies at the time of the U.S. Civil War. Hilarious…
Lodger, The (1926): Dir. Alfred Hitchcock
Feat. Malcolm Keen, Marie Ault, Arthur Chesney…; The first notable Hitchcock, this silent variant of the 'Jack the Ripper' features a memorable turn from Ivor Novello and some spine–tingling…
Metropolis (1926): Dir. Fritz Lang
Feat. Alfred Abel, Gustav Frohlich, Rudolf Klein-Rogge…; Fritz Lang's masterpiece is a magnificent marriage of pure cinema innovation and startlingly ambitious set design. Set around the year 2000, a…
Mother (1926): Dir. Vsevolod Pudovkin
Feat. Vera Baranovskaya, Nikolai Batalov; In one of the masterpieces of early Russian cinema, a fable of pre–revolutionary worker–resistance and Tsarist oppression is heightened…
Son of the Sheik (1926): Dir. George Fitzmaurice
Feat. Rudolph Valentino; Rudolf Valentino's most famous and best outing is a high camp romp in the desert in which he plays the dual role of father and son, no doubt to…
Tartuffe (Herr Tartuff) (1926): Dir. F.W. Murnau
Feat. Hermann Picha; This neglected Murnau masterpiece innovatively precedes FAUST by presenting its adaptation of a Molière’s satire as a…
Tramp, Tramp, Tramp (1926): Dir. Harry Edwards
Feat. Harry Langdon, Joan Crawford; An overlooked silent oddity from Harry Langdon, whose boyish innocence contrasted sharply against the likes of contemporaries Chaplin and Keaton.…
Battleship Potemkin (1925): Dir. Sergei Eisenstein
Feat. Alexander Antonov, Vladimir Blasky, Grigori Alexandrov; This landmark Soviet propaganda film about the 1905 revolution is one of the greatest classics of all time. The smart use of visual metaphor and that…
Gold Rush, The (1925): Dir. Charles Chaplin
Feat. Charles Chaplin, Georgia Hale, Mack Swain; Immortal comedy with Charlie Chaplin at his clownish best. The Little Tramp is a lone gold prospector who through a series of adventures, strikes it…
Greed (1925): Dir. Erich von Stroheim
Feat. ZaSu Pitts, Gibson Gowland, Jean Hersholt; One of the great silent masterpieces paints a savagely ironical portrait of a mismatched marriage in oldtime San Francisco, ruined through greed of…
Kriemhilde's Revenge (1925): Dir. Fritz Lang
Feat. Margarete Schon, Gertrud Arnold, Theodor Loos; Second part of Lang's Die Nibelungen saga (Part One – SIEGFRIED) has the aggrieved Kriemhilde joining forces with Attila the Hun against her…
Last Laugh, The (Letzte Mann, Der) (1925): Dir. F.W. Murnau
Feat. Emil Jannings; One of the classics of silent German cinema, this puts visual expressionism to use for a penetrating psychological study of a man's systematic…
Lost World, The (1925): Dir. Harry Hoyt
Feat. Bessie Love, Wallace Beery, Lewis Stone; An inventive precursor to KING KONG, based on Arthur Conan Doyle's adventure story. Prehistoric monsters abound in this showcase of pioneering…
Variety (1925): Dir. E.A. Dupont
Feat. Emil Jannings; A simple fable of jealousy set in the since–vanished vaudeville world, lent depth through its sophisticated visual style. Emil Janning (BLUE…
Navigator, The (1924): Dir. Buster Keaton, Donald Crisp
Feat. Buster Keaton; One of Buster Keaton's most evocative silent comedies, playing a naive youth who becomes marooned upon a gigantic yacht drifting out to…
Siegfried (1924): Dir. Fritz Lang
Feat. Paul Richter, Margarete Schon, Theodor Loos…; First part of Dir. Lang's recreation of the German Nibelungen myth cycle (that inspired Wagner's 'Ring'), features fire–breathing dragons,…
Strike (1924): Dir. Sergei Eisenstein
Feat. Grigori Alexandrov; Eisenstein's first feature is a depiction of a violent factory strike in Czarist Russia, filmed with a protoform version of his 'montage' theories in…
Thief of Bagdad (1924): Dir. Raoul Walsh
Feat. Douglas Fairbanks, Anna May Wong, Brandon Hurst; Douglas Fairbanks Snr. stars in this original version of the Arabian Nights fable about a young Indian native who out–smarts an evil magician.
A Woman of Paris (1923): Dir. Charles Chaplin
Feat. Edna Purviance, Adolphe Menjou, Charles Chaplin; Chaplin's early attempt at drama is a mostly successful tale of a woman, who despite serious intentions, ends up the mistress of a boozing lecher in…
Hunchback Of Notre Dame,The (1923): Dir. William Worsley
Feat. Lon Chaney; Perhaps the first classic version of Victor Hugo's novel about a hunchback who becomes lovestruck with a gypsy lass in 18th century Paris. Features…
Our Hospitality / Sherlock Jr. (1923): Dir. Buster Keaton
Feat. Buster Keaton; A pair of classic cinematic comedies from deadpan master Buster Keaton. 'Our Hospitality' – Keaton plays the youngest member of a Southern…
Dr. Mabuse, The Gambler (1922): Dir. Fritz Lang
Feat. Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Alfred Abel, Lil Dagover; Lang's first foray into ze evil exploits of Dr. Mabuse is a visually dazzling example of German expressionism, involving the master criminal's plan…
Foolish Wives (1922): Dir. Erich von Stroheim
Feat. Erich von Stroheim; Sophisticated blend of realism and decadence elevates this early silent classic from the notorious Erich Von Stroheim. A con–man masquerading…
Harold Lloyd Collection - Disc 3 (Why Worry?, Dr. Jack, Feet First) (1922-1930): Dir. Fred Newmeyer, Sam Taylor, Clyde Bruckman
Feat. Harold Lloyd; Three classic Harold Lloyd features/shorts. Includes, WHY WORRY?, the tale of a hypochondriac whose retreat to a Paradise island lands him in the…
Lotte Reiniger: The Fairy Tale Films (1922-1961): Dir. Lotte Reiniger; THE FAIRY TALE FILMS is an inspired collection of animated shorts by renowned director Lotte Reiniger, whose signature style incorporated black and…
Nosferatu (1922): Dir. F.W. Murnau
Feat. Max Schreck, Alexander Granach; Max Schreck is unforgettable as the titular vampire in this exquisitely chilling, silent forerunner to Lugosi's Dracula. A milestone of early…
Wizard of Oz, The (1922): Dir. Larry Semon
Feat. Oliver Hardy, Larry Semon; Original adaptation of the L Frank Baum story, conjures up more laughs than the Judy Garland version, with Oliver Hardy as the Tin–Man, and…
Kid, The (1921): Dir. Charles Chaplin
Feat. Charles Chaplin, Jackie Coogan, Edna Purviance; Silent comedian Chaplin's first full–length feature has him teaming with lovable scamp Jackie Coogan for a life of crime.
Buster Keaton Shorts (1920-1923): Feat. Buster Keaton; A selection of early Buster Keaton short comedies, dating from just after his period as sidekick to Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle and prior to his classic…
Harold Lloyd Collection - Disc 1 (Safety Last!, An Eastern Westerner, Girl Shy) (1920-1924): Dir. Fred Newmeyer, Sam Taylor
Feat. Harold Lloyd; Three classic Harold Lloyd features/shorts. Includes dazzling comedy SAFETY LAST! (co–written by Hal Roach), with Lloyd's justly famous…
Harold Lloyd Collection - Disc 5 (Hot Water, Now or Never, High and Dizzy, Get Out and Get Under) (1920-1924): Dir. Fred Newmeyer, Hal Roach, Sam Taylor
Feat. Harold Lloyd; Four classic Harold Lloyd features/shorts. Includes the hilarious marriage farce, HOT WATER, and three underseen shorts.
Harold Lloyd Collection - Disc 6 (Speedy, Never Weaken, Haunted Spooks, Grandma's Boy) (1920-1928): Dir. Ted Wilde, Fred Newmeyer, Hal Roach
Feat. Harold Lloyd; Four classic Harold Lloyd features/shorts. Includes Lloyd's last silent film, SPEEDY, about a baseball–obsessed no–hoper (with a cameo…
Harold Lloyd Collection - Disc 7 (Number Please?, A Sailor Made Man, I Do, Among Those Present, For Heaven's Sake) (1920-1926): Dir. Fred Newmeyer, Hal Roach, Sam Taylor
Feat. Harold Lloyd; Five classic Harold Lloyd features/shorts. Includes the comedian's first feature–length film, A SAILOR MADE MAN, about the misadventures of…
Laurel and Hardy's Laughing 20s (1920-1929): Feat. Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy; A Robert Youngson compilation of shorts from the formidable comedy duo.
Mark of Zorro, The (1920): Dir. Fred Niblo
Feat. Douglas Fairbanks; First outing for the Californian masked righter–of–wrongs established Douglas Fairbanks' swashbuckling screen persona in the public eye.…
Way Down East (1920): Dir. D.W. Griffith
Feat. Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess; A prototypical Hollywood melodrama, detailing the innocence, corruption and eventual fate of Lillian Gish in 19th century America. Expertly…
Arbuckle and Keaton - Volume 1 (1919): Dir. Fatty Arbuckle
Feat. Buster Keaton, Fatty Arbuckle; Five rare ‘two–reelers’ from the 1910s display two genius comedians in fine style: the mature routines of Roscoe…
Broken Blossoms (1919): Dir. D.W. Griffith
Feat. Lillian Gish, Donald Crisp, Robert Barthelmess; D.W. Griffiths low–key lyric tragedy, set in 19th century London's docklands, with Lillian Gish at her most otherworldly. As the…
Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919): Dir. Robert Wiene
Feat. Werner Krauss, Conrad Veidt; An evil doctor uses a sleepwalker to carry out his barbarous fantasies in this seminal foray into horror and expressionist cinema. Notable for its…
Der Golem (1919): Dir. Paul Wegener
Feat. Paul Wegener; On the cobbled streets of 16th Century Prague, a Rabbi rescues the Jews from anti–semitic rule by invoking the clay monstrosity from Jewish…
Harold Lloyd Collection - Disc 4 (The Kid Brother, Bumping into Broadway, Billy Blazes Esq.) (1919-1927): Dir. Ted Wilde, J A Howe, Hal Roach
Feat. Harold Lloyd; Three classic Harold Lloyd features/shorts. Includes THE KID BROTHER, one of Lloyd's best comedies; he plays an unappreciated sibling in a family…
Harold Lloyd Collection - Disc 9 (Ask Father, From Hand to Mouth, The Freshman) (1919-1925): Dir. Fred Newmeyer, Sam Taylor, Hal Roach
Feat. Harold Lloyd; Three classic Harold Lloyd features. Includes THE FRESHMAN, one of Lloyd's best films, about the trials of campus life; and two shorts.
Harold Lloyd Collection, The (The Definitive Collection) (1919-1936): Feat. Harold Lloyd; Ample remastered collection from the versatile and much–loved silent era comedian. A visual feast for fans of the silent movie era and the…
Sentimental Bloke, The (1919): Dir. Raymond Longford
Feat. Arthur Tauchert; Restored version of the iconic Australian silent drama, adapted from a series of poems by C.J. Dennis, telling the story of a typical bloke meeting…
Chaplin Revue, The (1918-1923): Feat. Charles Chaplin; A collection of comic shorts from Charlie Chaplin, playing his 'Tramp' character. Featured are 'Shoulder Arms', 'The Idle Class', 'The Pilgrim',…
Harold Lloyd Collection, The (1918-1922): Dir. Hal Roach, Fred Newmeyer, Sam Taylor
Feat. Harold Lloyd; An outstanding comedian of the silent era, Harold Lloyd forged a prolific oeuvre in the shadow of Chaplin and Keaton, films that were characterised…
Burlesque On Carmen (1916): Dir. Charles Chaplin
Feat. Charles Chaplin, Edna Purviance, Ben Turpin; A twist ending highlights Chaplin's second 'feature' in which his forlorn soldier is loved and left by a gypsy girl.
Charlie Chaplin - Centennial Collection (1916-1917): Dir. Charles Chaplin
Feat. Charles Chaplin; In 1916, Chaplin signed with 'Mutual' and produced twelve films which have been called his "golden dozen". This compiles four of those films –…
Intolerance (1916): Dir. D.W. Griffith
Feat. Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh; Staggeringly ambitious film has a rightful place in many critic's 'all–time' lists. Its mammoth story unfolds in four parts simultaneously…
Birth of a Nation (1915): Dir. D.W. Griffith
Feat. Lillian Gish; The cinema's first major epic marked the birth of an artform – newly defining the artistic boundaries of the medium. It retains much of its…
Carmen (1915): Dir. Cecil B. De Mille
Feat. Geraldine Farrar, Wallace Reid; From prolific Hollywood pioneer Cecil B. De Mille, this was one of his many early works that brought famous plays and novels to the screen. Opera…
Keystone Komedies (1915-1926): Dir. Mack Sennett
Feat. Fatty Arbuckle, Mack Swain, Al St. John…; A bevy of comic shorts from silent film legends the 'Keystone Production Company' founded by Mack Sennett. Featuring incredibly exaggerated slapstick…
Les Vampires (1915): Dir. Louis Feuillade
Feat. Musidora, Edouard Mathe; The legendary French movie serial created by the enormously prolific silent dir. Feuillade, set around a murderous crime–ring who operate in…
Laffing Gas (1914-1929): Dir. Various
Feat. Charles Chaplin; Prime comic–narcotic from the early days of the movies and the heyday of Chaplin, Fatty Arbuckle, Harold Llyod, Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and…
Story of the Kelly Gang, The (1906): Dir. Charles Tait; Thought to be the world’s first ever feature film, this dramatic recreation of the Ned Kelly outback legend stands as a remarkable artifact of…
Early Cinema - Primitives and Pioneers (1895-1910): A must for cinephiles, historians and the simply curious, this two–volume set of early silent films features rare and important works from…

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Subgenre Sampler