A restropective on the great silent actors, movies and themes.A restropective on the great silent actors, movies and themes.A restropective on the great silent actors, movies and themes.
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- Alternate versionsThe video collection runs 270 minutes and is narrated by Paul Killiam with a new musical score.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Boulevard! A Hollywood Story (2021)
Featured review
Another pleasant memory of long ago
I was about six when I saw this show, but it remains very vivid. The other reviews here mention the basic concept of the series - each episode would tackle a celebrated film or personality of the silent movie period.
At the beginning one hears a strident voice saying, "SILENTS PLEASE". It would then mention "the laughters, the tears, the excitement, and the heartbreak of Hollywood's golden era." Laughter they showed Chaplin, tears was Pickford, excitement was Fairbanks, and the heartbreak (ironically) was John Gilbert - a commentary of a great film career that just failed to carry over to sound movies. Episodes dealt with INTOLERANCE, or Keaton (I first saw the scene from COPS! where Buster lights a cigarette with a spluttering "anarchist" bomb on SILENTS PLEASE). I also recall seeing a half-hour version of John Barrymore's 1920 film version of DR. JECKYLL AND MR. HYDE on SILENTS PLEASE.
The series was very fine, but I regret that I cannot recall seeing the series with Ernie Kovacs as host. Possibly I may have been seeing a truncated version on channel 11, re-cut to avoid the sequences with Kovacs after his death in 1962. But that I recall it after nearly half a century shows how good the series really was.
At the beginning one hears a strident voice saying, "SILENTS PLEASE". It would then mention "the laughters, the tears, the excitement, and the heartbreak of Hollywood's golden era." Laughter they showed Chaplin, tears was Pickford, excitement was Fairbanks, and the heartbreak (ironically) was John Gilbert - a commentary of a great film career that just failed to carry over to sound movies. Episodes dealt with INTOLERANCE, or Keaton (I first saw the scene from COPS! where Buster lights a cigarette with a spluttering "anarchist" bomb on SILENTS PLEASE). I also recall seeing a half-hour version of John Barrymore's 1920 film version of DR. JECKYLL AND MR. HYDE on SILENTS PLEASE.
The series was very fine, but I regret that I cannot recall seeing the series with Ernie Kovacs as host. Possibly I may have been seeing a truncated version on channel 11, re-cut to avoid the sequences with Kovacs after his death in 1962. But that I recall it after nearly half a century shows how good the series really was.
- theowinthrop
- May 13, 2006
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- Aus den Kindertagen des Films
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