The General

 

Buster Keaton and his rip roaring comedy in The General (1926) one of the finest silent era comedy films of all time. Johnny Gray (Buster Keaton) is a train engineer and loves his engine and his lady love Annabelle (Marion Mack). When war breaks out, time comes to enlist for the Confederates, but he is rejected and his lady love also rejects him without an uniform. In the meanwhile, the Confederates are infiltrated by some spies who steal his train and make off with the supplies. Off goes Johnny after the train and some delightful comic scenes follows. Annabelle is meanwhile kept as captive by the Union soldiers and then Johnny has to rescue her, so some more delectable comic scenes. Buster Keaton's comic timings were superb in the movie somewhat reminiscent of Charlie Chaplin. Fight ensues between Union and Confederate soldiers much to the relief and joy of the Confederates. Brilliant movie to watch especially for Buster Keaton. The direction and camera work were quite superb for that era, especially shots of the moving trains and the wilderness. Who knew a silent movie would prove to be so powerfully comic. Brilliant. 

The Squaw Man

 

A 1914 silent era movie "The Squaw Man" directed by the great Cecil de Mille and the first western ever in Hollywood. It is one of those cult movies in the history of movies. Starring Warner Baxter as Jim, Eleanor Boardman as Diana, Lupe Velez as Naturich, its a story where an Englishman Jim has had to leave England to save his face and family name, following the swindling of the war regiment cash by his cousin Henry. Jim has to take the blame on himself and unfortunately he loves Diana who is Henry's wife. So all sort of tangles there. He escapes to America, where he becomes a wild west man, gets into a conflict with a local goon there Cash Hawkins, who is killed by Naturich. Later Jim and Naturich marry and have a kid. In the meanwhile Henry dies in an alpine fall accident and his dying confession absolves Jim of all the wrongdoings. Diana comes to America to reunite with Jim and ask him to take his rightful place as the Earl. There is no music, unlike in Battleship Potemkin which had great orchestral music. And with no sound, and only the few notes to let us know what is going on in the movie. Cecil de Mille made a 1931 version of the same movie, but with sound and dialogues, but that version is unfortunately not available on youtube.  

Battleship Potemkin

 

Battleship Potemkin, a 1925 silent era film directed by Sergei Eisenstein. It is supposedly one of the greatest films of all time. Its a story of a mutiny on board a battleship Potemkin when the sailors are given poor quality meat and rebel against that. The officers round them up and order the officers to shoot them, but the officers refuse, marking the beginning of the workers' rebellion. One of the sailors Vakulinchuk dies in the melee and when his body is taken to the port of Odessa, the town erupts in anger against the then Tsarist regime. The Cossacks then come down and start randomly shooting many people, including women, children and old people. The battleship Potemkin fires cannons against the Odessa opera house and thereby signals its attention to protect the people of Odessa. Production values for the movie made way back in 1925 is stupendous. Some of the shots especially in the Odessa steps are quite brilliant.  Some of his shots have been copied by other movie directors, such as the baby pram slowly falling down the stairs in "Untouchables", With the orchestral music playing throughout the movie, it must have been a blockbuster movie way back in 1926 when it was released.