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Book Reviews | Regular Feature A useful corrective to this state of affairs in cinema studies is supplied by motion picture historian Robert K. Klepper's guide to over 600 silent films. Klepper asserts that the video revolution has made silent movies more available for home screening. While making no claims that his volume is any sense a complete survey of this genre, Klepper does, nevertheless , provide a representative sampling, internationally and from different genres, of accessible silent titles. Klepper states that he intends for his guide to "provide information on what films are around, which of them are not as widely available as they should be, and which ones are not worthy of video release, while presenting a relatively comprehensive history of silent films" (4). Silent Films spans 119 years—from the early experimental work ofEadweard Muybridge in 1877 to the Belgian drama The Taxi Driver (1996)—and is divided into three chronological sections: The ExperimentalYears (1877-1885); Early Films: The 1890s; and The 20th Century, which is subdivided into The Nickelodeon Age (1902-1911), The Golden Era of Silents (1912-1931), and The Post-Era Silents (1936-1996). Each section is arranged chronologically, and films for each year are listed alphabetically. For each film, Klepper presents production credits, a brief discussion, and a rating system ranging from one star (abysmal) to four stars (a masterpiece, not to be missed). Due to their shortrunning time, the experimental films are not rated and receive only a sparse description. Klepper's commentaries tend to include a plot synopsis, evaluation, and guide to availability. And the silent film scholar is certainly not hesitant to share his opinions. For example, Klepper is quick to assert that The Jazz Singer (1927) was not the first film to experiment with sound, rather the Al Jolson feature was the first film with "talking sequences to really become a box office hit, causing the public to clamor for and demand more talking pictures" (412). Even Charlie Chaplin comes in for criticism. While many Chaplin scholars and fans lavish praise on The Gold Rush (1925), Klepper argues that the picture is "far overrated, and only a mediocre Chaplin vehicle at best" (310). The careers of Chaplin and other classic performers of the silent era, such as Mary Pickford, Lillian Gish, Rudolph Valentino, Buster Keaton, and Douglas Fairbanks, are chronicled in Silent Films, but perhaps Klepper's greatest contribution lies in the resurrection of titles and stars of whom the general public is less aware, such as the work of directors Rex Ingram and Oscar Micheaux and silent Hollywood's fascination with the Russian Revolution as exemplified by such films as Cecil B. DeMille's The Volga Boatman (1926). However, Klepper's summaries are also intensely personal. In discussing the fact that Paramount Pictures has failed to release on video one of his favorite films A Kiss for Cinderella (1925), the author relates he was fortunate enough to have screened the film at a festival when he was fourteen. While Klepper is a devoted historian of the silent screen, some of his comments indicate a lack of understanding or appreciation for history in a larger societal and cultural context. For example, he concludes his discussion of D. W. Griffith's notorious masterpiece Birth ofa Nation (1915) by observing, "If one can put the racial overtones aside, this is quite probably the most accurate celluloid representations of Civil War times to exist" (79). Klepper seems unaware of the last half century of scholarship on the Civil War and Reconstruction. The author is also impatient with the slow moving history in Vsevolod Pudovkin's Storm OverAsia (1928), remarking, "Of interest only to scholars and professors of Russian/Asian history , this film will be a waste of time for most others" (490). In conclusion, while Silent Films is often an idiosyncratic volume, it is, nonetheless, an important contribution to cinematic scholarship. It deserves a place on the bookshelves of serious film scholars. In our investigation into the cinema of the last seventy years, it is essential that we not lose sight of the silent era that preceded the "talkie" revolution. The labors of Robert Klepper make it more difficult to ignore this legacy...

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