By 1930, silent films had died out in America and across Europe, as well as other parts of the world. However, while mainstream viewers were enjoying the new sound films, talkies, a small percentage of viewers never lost their love of the silents.
Today, silent films still are celebrated and enjoyed at film festivals – even some festivals that only screen silent films. September 28 of this year was deemed National Silent Film Day. Companies such as Flicker Alley, Kino Lorber, and Criterion make it possible to enjoy digital restorations of silent films via home screenings on disc and streaming.
So many books and article, documentaries and feature films, have been written and presented about the silent film era – 1890s though 1930, that interested viewers can learn which films and filmmakers are worth checking out. It used to be that younger family members could ask parents or grandparents for pointers, but almost 100 years have past since sound films took over so we’re beyond that approach.
Recently the San Francisco Silent Film Festival honored Anita Monga, Artistic Director of the Denver Silent Film Festival as recipient of the David Shepard Award. David was one of the most significant archivists, preservationists, and distributors of silent films. He was my first boss at The American Film Institute, and a great teacher.
In turn, Monga programmed Beggars of Life for the San Francisco audience.
Beggars of Life was made by William A. Wellman Productions for Paramount Famous Lasky Pictures. Wellman was one of the great directors of the silent and sound eras. This feature was released with a musical sound track and talking sequences, as well as a purely silent film, in the fall of 1928. I’ve only seen the silent film released on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber, with a modern orchestral score but no talking sequences.
Beggars of Life is one of the most powerful dramas of its time. The story holds up today as well as it did decades ago. A young hobo, played by popular star Richard Arlen, approaches a country home seeking a meal in exchange for work. There he finds a dead man, killed by a shot to the head. His adopted daughter, played by the great Hollywood star Louise Brooks, is the murderer. She tells the hobo that her so-called father adopted her from an orphanage two years before then, and he couldn’t keep his hands off her. In fact, the attempted rape is shown; it is menacingly scary but there is no nudity. The two young people go on the run, encountering dangerous men who hop freight trains; some are evildoers who live desperate lives. This is an incredible film, and it can be streamed on a number of sites.
The storyline of a sweet orphan girl adopted by a person who means sexual or other bodily harm to the child is common to silent films. Mary Pickford, one of the most powerful and brilliant of silent film stars and producers, played an abused orphan girl in Sparrows and Stella Maris, two of her greatest films. In Stella Maris, her child orphan character is ecstatic to becoming adopted by a woman she believes will mother her, love her. Instead, the woman misuses her as a slavey, even beats her senseless. In Sparrows, she plays the oldest of a brigade of orphan children who are imprisoned and worked to death in a swamp. The early Twentieth Century in the United States had few laws to protect parentless, often called bastard, children.
Silent films cover every genre of filmmaking, with great comedies and melodramas, talented actors and directors. Many have aged well and can provide wonderful entertainment.
Audrey Kupferberg is a film and video archivist and retired appraiser. She is lecturer emeritus and the former director of Film Studies at the University at Albany and co-authored several entertainment biographies with her late husband and creative partner, Rob Edelman.
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