The Silent Oscars: 1922 (Unofficial)

With all due respect to Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee, Buffy, and the Twilight series, Nosferatu is the best vampire movie ever made and belongs on any list of the best horror films of all time.

Looking back from the vantage point of the 21st century, you might be inclined to lump the look and style of Nosferatu in with every other silent film, but the fact is, at least in terms of its camera work, Nosferatu was a distinct throwback to the previous decade. Viewing it in context, one gets the impression director F.W. Murnau was saying to his audience "Here is a tale told long ago; the footage has only recently been rediscovered." The modern equivalent might be The Blair Witch Project—if you're old enough to remember all the way back to the dark ages of 1999 and how that film's low-budget, shot-on-video technique added an air of authenticity to the proceedings.

Picture: Nosferatu (prod. Enrico Dieckmann and Albin Grau)

Actor: Erich von Stroheim (Foolish Wives)

Actress: Anna May Wong (The Toll Of The Sea)

Director: F.W. Murnau (Nosferatu)

Supporting Actor: Ramon Novarro (The Prisoner of Zenda)

Supporting Actress: Mae Busch (Foolish Wives)

Screenplay: Henrik Galeen, adapted without credit from the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker (Nosferatu)

The Silent Oscars: 1921 (Unofficial)

Hollywood pretty boys are a dime a dozen—the list runs in an unbroken line from Robert Taylor to Orlando Bloom. On the other hand, pretty boys who can dominate the screen, turn a nation's female population on its collective ear and in the space of six years put together a career that still defines big screen sex appeal are a rare commodity. That Rudolph Valentino could consistently make pot-boiler hokum like The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse and The Sheik must-see movie watching is why he was one of the greatest stars of the silent era.

Would I want to watch Valentino play Hamlet? No, of course not. But then neither would I want to watch Laurence Olivier fondle Agnes Ayres in a tent in the middle of the Arabian desert.

Generally speaking, when it comes to sitting in a dark theater watching flickering images on a screen, what I want to see is something that both moves me and lodges itself permanently in my memory, whether or not it has any socially redeeming value. Otherwise I'd skip movies altogether and while away the hours with a textbook.

Watch The Sheik here for yourself:



Picture: The Kid (prod. Charles Chaplin)

Actor: Rudolph Valentino (The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse and The Sheik)

Actress: Alla Nazimova (Camille)

Director: Victor Sjöström (The Phantom Carriage)

Supporting Actor: Jackie Coogan (The Kid)

Supporting Actress: Bebe Daniels (The Affairs Of Anatol)

Screenplay: June Mathis (The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse)

The Silent Oscars: 1920 (Unofficial)

It's easy to see in retrospect that 1920 was a pivotal year in film history. Buster Keaton began directing his own movies, Douglas Fairbanks invented the modern movie action hero and the Germans introduced the world to Expressionism, a style that would influence the look and feel of movies for at least a decade.

Picture: The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari (prod. Rudolf Meinert and Erich Pommer)

Actor: Douglas Fairbanks (The Mark Of Zorro)

Actress: Lillian Gish (Way Down East)

Director: Robert Wiene (The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari)

Supporting Actor: Lowell Sherman (Way Down East)

Supporting Actress: Nita Naldi (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde)

Screenplay: Oscar Micheaux (Within Our Gates)

The Dark, Silent Beauty, Miriam Cooper

The other day, FlickChick noted in a comment that she'd hoped to see a mention of Miriam Cooper somewhere in my write-up of D.W. Griffith's epic masterpiece Intolerance, but alas, it was a short review and I was destined to disappoint her.

Like most silent performers whose careers didn't stretch into the sound era, Cooper is nearly forgotten today, with her reputation resting on the handful of surviving films, most made for Griffith. She was born in Baltimore in 1891 to affluent parents, but slid into poverty and then an orphanage after her father abandoned the family and her mother took ill.

Cooper made her film debut in the Griffith short The Duke's Plan, but really established herself in a series of short Civil War pictures made at Kalem Studios. "I was a stunt girl; I didn't do any acting."

Her first real picture with Griffith was Home, Sweet, Home, an early attempt to stitch four separate narratives together using a common theme (John Howard Payne's song "Home, Sweet, Home"). Cooper's role wasn't much—just a bit part in the second story as a woman who briefly catches Robert Harron's eye—but Griffith must have seen something because the following year he cast her as Mae Marsh's older sister in The Birth of a Nation.

In his book Silent Players, film historian Anthony Slide praised Cooper's acting as "modern" and "naturalistic."

"I think I must have been some sort of a natural actress," Cooper said later while cheerfully admitting to having no real formal technique or clear idea how to create the effect she wished to achieve.

"I couldn't cry to save my soul," she said of one scene played for Griffith. "He pulled a chair up [and said] 'Miss Cooper, I didn't want to tell you this, but your mother has just died.'" She cried buckets.

Cooper's best surviving performance was as "the Friendless One" in the Modern sequence of Intolerance. After murdering her philandering boyfriend, a slum gangster, Cooper played her grief and guilt so realistically, she bit her lower lip hard enough to draw blood. (In a later film, she permanently damaged her eyes by staring soulfully into a Klieg light.)

During the filming of Intolerance, Cooper and Raoul Walsh (who would later direct such films as White Heat and High Sierra) married—secretly, since Griffith was himself romantically interested in the actress. Not until after Walsh moved over to Fox studios did they make their marriage known.

Cooper made 100 movies in her career, but largely abandoned acting after her marriage, working only for her husband after they left Griffith. She made her last movie in 1923.

Cooper and Walsh had two children together but she divorced the chronically philandering director in 1925 and never remarried. She invested her movie money well, however, and lived comfortably until her death in 1976, touring the country as a golf enthusiast and playing well enough to sink holes-in-one in three different states—no doubt some sort of record among golfing ex-silent film actresses!

The Silent Oscars: 1919 (Unofficial)

I said yesterday—in a post I wrote ten days ago—that I was going to stop with 1918, since that would bring me back to where I started. But I've decided I'm going to press on through to July 31, 1927—I think because I'm having fun.

The choices from here on out are more tentative, and I'm only naming the winners, not all the nominees.

The fun ends in another week when I'll get back to writing long, long essays ...

Picture: Broken Blossoms (prod. D.W. Griffith)

Actor: Richard Barthelmess (Broken Blossoms)

Actress: Gloria Swanson (Don't Change Your Husband and Male And Female)

Director: D.W. Griffith (Broken Blossoms)

Supporting Actor: Donald Crisp (Broken Blossoms)

Supporting Actress: Clarine Seymour (The Girl Who Stayed At Home and True Heart Susie)

Screenplay: D.W. Griffith, from a short story by Thomas Burke (Broken Blossoms)

The Silent Oscars: 1918

And so now we're back to where we left off, 1918. If I've been a good boy, tomorrow I'll have a post for you about one of the era's greatest directors, Cecil B. DeMille. If not, well, I'll burn in hell. But let's face it, I'm going to burn in hell so many times over, I have a free pass for the rest of my life.

"That should take the sting out of being occupied. Does it, Mister Monkey?"

"You said it. Here's looking at you, kid!"

Postscript: Sometime after I first wrote those words, I changed my mind. I'm going to project forward the rest of the Silent Oscars to 1927 and then post about Cecil B. DeMille. My apologies to Cecil B. DeMille fans everywhere.

PICTURE
winner: Stella Maris (prod. Paramount/Artcraft Films)
nominees: Berg-Ejvind och hans hustru (The Outlaw And His Wife) (prod. Charles Magnusson); A Dog's Life (prod. Charles Chaplin); Old Wives For New (prod. Cecil B. DeMille); Shoulder Arms (prod. Charles Chaplin)
Must-See Movies: A Dog's Life; Old Wives For New; Shoulder Arms; Stella Maris
Recommended Films: Amarilly Of Clothes-Line Alley; Berg-Ejvind och hans hustru (The Outlaw And His Wife); The Blue Bird; The Married Virgin; Tih Minh
Of Interest: Die Augen der Mumie Ma a.k.a. Eyes Of The Mummy; Carmen a.k.a. Gypsy Blood); Hearts of the World; Himmelskibet, a.k.a. A Trip To Mars; The Sinking Of The Lusitania; Tarzan of the Apes

ACTOR
winner: Victor Sjöström (Berg-Ejvind och hans hustru a.k.a.The Outlaw And His Wife)
nominees: Roscoe Arbuckle (The Roscoe Arbuckle Comedy Shorts); Charles Chaplin (A Dog's Life and Shoulder Arms); Elliott Dexter (Old Wives For New); William S. Hart (Blue Blazes Rawden); Harold Lloyd (The Harold Lloyd Short Comedies)

ACTRESS
winner: Pola Negri (Die Augen der Mumie Ma a.k.a. Eyes Of The Mummy and Carmen a.k.a. Gypsy Blood)
nominees: Mabel Normand (Mickey); Ossi Oswalda (Ich möchte kein Mann sein a.k.a. I Don't Want To Be A Man); Mary Pickford (Stella Maris and Amarilly Of Clothes-Line Alley); Norma Talmadge (The Forbidden City)

DIRECTOR
winner: Cecil B. DeMille (Old Wives For New)
nominees: Charles Chaplin (A Dog's Life and Shoulder Arms); Marshall A. Neilan (Stella Maris and Amarilly Of Clothes-Line Alley); Victor Sjöström (Berg-Ejvind och hans hustru a.k.a. The Outlaw And His Wife); Maurice Tourneur (The Blue Bird)

SUPPORTING ACTOR
winner: Theodore Roberts (Old Wives For New)
nominees: Snub Pollard (The Harold Lloyd Comedy Shorts); Rudolph Valentino (The Married Virgin)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
winner: Dorothy Gish (Hearts of the World)
nominees: Sylvia Ashton (Old Wives For New); Kathleen Kirkham (The Married Virgin); Marsha Manon (Stella Maris); Florence Vidor (Old Wives For New)

SCREENPLAY
winner: Jeanie Macpherson, from a novel by David Graham Phillips (Old Wives For New)
nominees: Frances Marion, from a novel by Belle K. Maniates (Amarilly of Clothes-Line Alley); Charles Chaplin (A Dog's Life and Shoulder Arms); Frances Marion, from a novel by William J. Locke (Stella Maris)

SPECIAL AWARDS
Winsor McCay (The Sinking of the Lusitania) (Animation); Walter Stradling (Stella Maris) (Cinematography)

The Silent Oscars: 1917

We speak of 1939 as being the greatest year in Hollywood history—and who am I to disagree—but you would be remiss not to count 1917 in the mix. That was the year of the industry-wide adoption of what is now known as "classical continuity editing," Mary Pickford's emergence as the most powerful woman in Hollywood history, Charlie Chaplin's maturation as an artist, and the big screen debut of arguably the greatest film comedian of all time, Buster Keaton.

Beat that!

PICTURE
winner: The Chaplin Mutuals (Easy Street, The Cure, The Immigrant and The Adventurer) (prod. Charles Chaplin)
nominees: The Poor Little Rich Girl (prod. Adolph Zukor); Rebecca Of Sunnybrook Farm (prod. Mary Pickford); Terje Vigen a.k.a. A Man There Was (prod. Charles Magnusson); Umirayushchii Lebed a.k.a. The Dying Swan (prod. Aleksandr Khanzhonkov)
Must-See Movies: The Adventurer; The Cure; Easy Street; The Immigrant; The Poor Little Rich Girl
Recommended Films: The Butcher Boy; Coney Island; Down To Earth; Oh Doctor!; Reaching For The Moon; Rebecca Of Sunnybrook Farm; A Romance Of The Redwoods; The Rough House; Terje Vigen a.k.a. A Man There Was; Umirayushchii Lebed a.k.a. The Dying Swan; Wild and Woolly
Of Interest: Das Fidele Gefängnis a.k.a. The Merry Jail; Furcht; The Heart Of Texas Ryan a.k.a. Single Shot Parker; His Wedding Night; A Modern Musketeer; Over The Fence; Straight Shooting; Teddy At The Throttle

ACTOR
winner: Charles Chaplin (The Chaplin Mutuals) (Easy Street, The Cure, The Immigrant and The Adventurer)
nominees: Roscoe Arbuckle (The Roscoe Arbuckle Comedy Shorts); Harry Carey (Straight Shooting and Bucking Broadway); Elliott Dexter (A Romance Of The Redwoods); Douglas Fairbanks (Wild and Woolly, Down To Earth and Reaching For The Moon); William Farnum (A Tale Of Two Cities)

ACTRESS
winner: Mary Pickford (The Poor Little Rich Girl and Rebecca Of Sunnybrook Farm)
nominees: Vera Karalli (Umirayushchii Lebed a.k.a. The Dying Swan); Doris Kenyon (A Girl's Folly); Ossi Oswalda (Das Fidele Gefängnis a.k.a. The Merry Jail)

DIRECTOR
winner: Charles Chaplin (The Chaplin Mutuals) (Easy Street, The Cure, The Immigrant and The Adventurer)
nominees: Yevgeni Bauer (Umirayushchii Lebed a.k.a. The Dying Swan); Victor Sjöström (Terje Vigen a.k.a. A Man There Was); Maurice Tourneur (The Poor Little Rich Girl)

SUPPORTING ACTOR
winner: Buster Keaton (The Roscoe Arbuckle Comedy Shorts)
nominees: Eric Campbell (The Chaplin Mutuals) (Easy Street, The Cure, The Immigrant and The Adventurer); Sam De Grasse (Wild And Woolly)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
winner: Edna Purviance (The Chaplin Mutuals) (Easy Street, The Cure, The Immigrant and The Adventurer)
nominees: Bebe Daniels (The Harold Lloyd Comedy Shorts); June Elvidge (A Girl's Folly); ZaSu Pitts (A Little Princess); Florence Vidor (A Tale Of Two Cities)

SCREENPLAY
winner: Frances Marion, from a play by Eleanor Gates (The Poor Little Rich Girl)
nominees: Charles Chaplin (The Chaplin Mutuals) (Easy Street, The Cure, The Immigrant and The Adventurer); Anita Loos and John Emerson, story by Horace B. Carpenter (Wild and Woolly); Frances Marion, from a play by Charlotte Thompson and a novel by Kate Douglas Wiggin (Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm)

SPECIAL AWARDS

George James Hopkins (Cleopatra) (Costume Design)