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I had so much fun at the Sleuthathon that I just had to have another event! Espionage thrillers are as old as the movies themselves and they come in every flavor you can imagine. There are zany spies, sexy spies, realistic spies, adventurous spies… The Snoopathon will celebrate all things sp read more

By Fritzi Kramer on March 21, 2014 in After the Silents, Blog, Talkie Review The 1950′s were the dawn of the television age and this new form of entertainment was so different from silent films that we sometimes forget that barely two decades had passed since the last major American silents w read more

By Fritzi Kramer on March 20, 2014 in Blog, Fun Size Review Not based on any work by Edgar Allan Poe (despite what DVD cases may tell you) but a suspenseful tale of madness and murder. Heavily influenced by German cinema. Lionel Barrymore is a tormented murderer while a pre-fame Boris Karloff is on read more

UPDATE: The polls are closed and the winners have moved on to round 2. Welcome to the fourth and final installment of the Silent Movie Tournament. We have chosen a leading man, a leading lady and a director to feature. Now, it is time to choose a comedian. The silent era was a rich and varied time read more

By Fritzi Kramer on March 19, 2014 in Blog, GIF, Humor I bow to your talents! Please note that I am not wearing a coat like this. They are surprisingly difficult to find these days. In any case, a thousand thank yous to everyone who wrote for the Sleuthathon, who read our posts, who commented, who read more

By Fritzi Kramer on March 18, 2014 in Video 8 Welcome to another new series! As you may know, silent movies have a lot of myths attached to them. Why? One of the main reasons is that some so-called experts talk about them and write about them without actually watching very many of them. The tied t read more

By Fritzi Kramer on March 17, 2014 in Blog, GIF, Humor To put things in context, John Barrymore’s Sherlock Holmes starts out has a college kid chasing after the mysterious Moriarty. Gustav von Seyffertitz the the villainous professor. Von Seyffertitz seemed to have it in for the Barrymore boy read more

By Fritzi Kramer on March 16, 2014 in Blog, Blogathon, Events At last! The Sleuthathon is here and we have lots and lots of amazing posts ready for you to read. Readers: Enjoy! Participants: Send me links to your posts once you get them published. I can’t wait to read your contributions! I fu read more

By Fritzi Kramer on March 16, 2014 in Blog, Feature, Silent Movie Review Professor Moriarty is up to his usual wicked tactics. This looks like a job for Sherlock Holmes! You know, that well-known college student. Wait, what? John Barrymore takes an unorthodox, romantic approach toward the famous sl read more

By Fritzi Kramer on March 15, 2014 in Blog, GIF, Humor What with the popularity of fake language speaking (this week anyway) I thought it would be fun to post a little goodie I have been holding onto for a while. Gloria Swanson is posing as a Russian countess because… Hollywood. Anyway, every read more

By Fritzi Kramer on March 14, 2014 in After the Silents, Blog, Feature I love a good mystery and Dashiell Hammett is one of my very favorite authors in the genre. His twisty plots, crisp prose and colorful casts keep me hungry for more. Hollywood fell for Hammett in a big way and created very succe read more

By Fritzi Kramer on March 13, 2014 in Biography, Blog Elliott Dexter is ready to be rediscovered. Elliott Dexter (1879-1941) Country of Birth: USA Birth Name: Adelbert Elliott Dexter The basics: Elliott Dexter was the epitome of the long tall Texan. He was born in Galveston in 1879 to a German mot read more

Nowadays, you can’t touch a Gibson instrument for less than, oh, a down payment on a nice car. I certainly hope that the folks who saw this ad and purchased a mandolin kept the instruments in good repair. I like this ad for several reasons. First, serenading is often seen as an exclusively ma read more

By Fritzi Kramer on March 11, 2014 in Blog, GIF, Humor The term “trafficking” is now used almost exclusively to describe smuggling of both drugs and humans. Back when Kismet was made, however, it could also mean any interaction between two people. This knowledge does not stop me from fi read more

By Fritzi Kramer on March 10, 2014 in Blog, Fun Size Review John Barrymore rocketed to super-stardom with his bold double performance in this horror classic. Chews scenery and throats with equal relish. Perhaps a bit too much at times. He is ably supported by Martha Mansfield (Jekyll’s fianc read more

By Fritzi Kramer on March 9, 2014 in Blog, Feature, Silent Movie Review A beggar, a caliph and a bandit find themselves enmeshed in a very strange adventure. Secret romances, revenge and murder all play a part. With a scruffy protagonist and the love story pushed to the background, you can think of read more

I found this extremely amusing and am sure you will enjoy it too. Some of the jokes are as funny as ever, some of them are more obscure gags that may seem odd to modern audiences. For example, not everyone will get the references to The Hazards of Helen (famed for its train stunts) and The Million read more

By Fritzi Kramer on March 7, 2014 in Video Poking fun at city folk moving to the suburbs is not a new joke. Here is a 110-year old Biograph film that takes on just that subject. This droll little film starts with the disastrously incompetent moving men and it only gets worse from there. I think mod read more

By Fritzi Kramer on March 6, 2014 in Video Review 4 The Cat and the Canary is a tried and true silent crowdpleaser. An old dark house comedy, it follows the adventures of a very eccentric group of people spending the night in, you guessed it, an old dark house. I am going to review the film but als read more

By Fritzi Kramer on March 5, 2014 in Blog, GIF, Humor Except I don’t have some guy in harem pants there to catch me. On an unrelated note, art may be timeless but “artistic” dancing? That dates very quickly and very badly. If you don’t believe me, check out Leni Riefenstahl& read more