"Fifty Great
American Silent Films 1912-1920: A Pictorial Survey"
by Anthony Slide and Edward Wagenknecht (Dover Publications,
Inc., 1980, 140 pages)
This is the first out-of-print book we have reviewed
on "Silents Are Golden," but it's such a wonderful,
and apparently little-known, book that we couldn't resist. Anything
with Anthony Slide's name or Edward Wagenknecht's name on it is
great, and this book is no exception. Along the lines of "Classics
of the Silent Screen," this book limits itself to those early
features of the silent era. Many of the well-known films we've
all seen are there such as "Intolerance," "Mickey,"
"Broken Blossoms," and "The Mark of Zorro,"
but Slide and Wagenknecht have also provided us a look at some
of the less common films such as "From the Manger to the
Cross," "The Italian," "A Daughter of the
Gods," "Polly of the Circus," "The Blue Bird"
and "Remodeling Her Husband." For each film, the reader
is provided the usual technical information such as producing
company, year of release, credits, etc. One neat bit of info added
to this, however, is where and when the world premiere of the
movie was. Then there's the cast list, synopsis and a great commentary
by Slide or Wagenknecht. There are 210 illustrations, and these
are reproduced well since the book is printed on glossy paper.
Check those used book websites and see if you can find a copy.
It won't be cheap, but it'll be well worth a few extra bucks to
the serious silent film enthusiast.
Purchase
this book from
Just click
on the link above and type in the author's name
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