Category Archives: Silent Movies

By Robert J. Avrech | September 3, 2012

Mary Pickford: She Built It

Tweet Being a Conservative means conserving the wisdom of our ancestors, preserving what is best of our cultural heritage. Too often, modern man plunges headlong into the future and never looks back. Nowhere is this more evident than with the history and preservation of silent films.  Last week I spoke with a  group of high [...]

Also posted in 2012 Election, Hollywood, Mary Pickford, Movies | Tagged , , | 18 Responses
By Robert J. Avrech | June 8, 2012

Friday Fashion: The Female Animal

Tweet For as long as fashion has existed, animal metaphors have been an indispensible part of the designers language. Hollywood, during its golden age, a leading arbiter of taste, heightened and refined the animal metaphor with brilliant costume designers turning ravishing movie stars into expressions of animal desire.

Also posted in Friday Fashion, Friday Footwear, Friday Fotos, Hollywood, Myrna Loy, Travis Banton | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 13 Responses
By Robert J. Avrech | May 24, 2012

Movie Posters: Hollywood’s Golden Age

Tweet The major studios had a staff of artists who designed posters and lobby cards. These talented men and women toiled in relative obscurity, but the sophistication of their graphic designs are simply jaw dropping. Major films usually had several versions of posters that went out to theaters.

Also posted in Hollywood, Movie Posters, Movies | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 19 Responses
By Robert J. Avrech | April 23, 2012

“Land of Promise,” 1924 Silent Film About Zionist Pioneers

Tweet When writing about movies, Seraphic Secret usually focuses on Hollywood. But this silent film, “Banim Bonim” Land of Promise, is a documentary/travelogue from 1924 that is fascinating. The second reel is missing, but it’s still 41 minutes long. Take a look, and then some comments. As with most documentaries, the film was carefully constructed [...]

Also posted in Israel, Media, Propaganda War, Zionism | Tagged , | 6 Responses
By Robert J. Avrech | October 19, 2011

Hard to Find Jewish Films

Tweet This post is brought to you by Direct.tv. Fans of classic movies often have a hard time finding their favorite selections on television or in stores. While there are of course a few basic channels that will occasionally show older, classic films, tv schedules are generally aiming for the broadest possible appeal, and classic [...]

Also posted in Hollywood, Jewish Hollywood, Ricardo Cortez | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 12 Responses
By Robert J. Avrech | June 29, 2011

Silent Jewish-Catholic Film

Tweet After much soul searching, I have decided that I made a mistake. This post is not appropriate for Seraphic Secret. It will, however, appear in BIG Hollywood in a few days.

Posted in Silent Movies | Tagged | 25 Responses
By Robert J. Avrech | November 18, 2010

The Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1920s: Silent Films

Tweet I’m frequently asked by many of our readers to recommend the greatest movies ever produced. A daunting task which I’ve put off time and again. But finally, I’ve picked up the gauntlet. This week I’ve compiled a list of movies from the 20′s that I love, movies that strike powerful emotional and intellectual chords. [...]

Also posted in Great Movies, Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1920s | 23 Responses
By Robert J. Avrech | April 1, 2009

Hebrew Hollywood Hottie Risks Life for U.S. Troops

Tweet Theda Bara in Salome, 1918, a lost film. As a first generation American—her father, a Polish born tailor, and her mother from Switzerland—Theda Bara most obviously loved America, and like all first generation American Jews, was grateful for the golden opportunities this land offered. This great movie star went out of her way to [...]

Posted in Silent Movies | 12 Responses
By Robert J. Avrech | February 12, 2009

True Hollywood Confession: I am a Dope Fiend But Not a Jewess

Tweet Alma Rubens, Early Studio Portrait Rubens starred in Humoresque (1920) according to silent film historian Kevin Brownlow, the “first [Hollywood] Jewish classic,” produced and financed by William Randolph Hurst’s Cosmopolitan Pictures. The movie was directed by the twenty-seven year old Frank Borzage, an Italian-American from Salt Lake City. Borzage, one of Hollywood’s finest directors, [...]

Posted in Silent Movies | Leave a comment
By Robert J. Avrech | August 6, 2008

Ten Great Silent Movies: Part II

Tweet Safety Last (1923). Harold Lloyd made a series of “thrill pictures.” This film is his best effort. Lloyd is usually rated number three in the silent comic pantheon, below Chaplin and Keaton. But Lloyd and his crew of clever, hard-working writers created tight scripts with almost perfect narrative coherence—and silent cinema’s most precise sight [...]

Posted in Silent Movies | 17 Responses
By Robert J. Avrech | August 6, 2008

Ten Great Silent Movies: Part I

Tweet I receive a good number of e-mails asking me to recommend the best silent movies ever made. That’s a tall order. I can’t really do it. What I can do is list some of my favorite silent films. I’ve made a list of ten films that I love. This list is not definitive. In [...]

Posted in Silent Movies | 10 Responses