Pajama Guy Salutes The Jazz Age (#9 In A Series)

Jesse Walker wraps up his look back at films made in years ending in the number 2. By the 20s, the film industry was going like gangbusters, but like so much of the silent era, the films are not often shown. Thus he has no list of films from 1922, though he does like Nosferatu (and he mentions titles from 1912, 1902 and 1892). So add another vampire film to his top-of-the-list.

True, it's rare to even have seen ten films from 1922, much less have a top ten, but enough was going on then that I bet some cinephiles would love to give it a shot.

Above all, you have the great clowns.  Chaplin was seriously slowing down his schedule, but in 1922 managed to produce his last short--one of his favorites--Pay Day.  Meanwhile, Buster Keaton was in his second year of an amazing run of shorts.  He put out seven in 1922, all worth watching, including his most famous, Cops. In the same year, Harold Lloyd showed the way, leaving shorts behind to concentrate on features, which meant his breakthrough, Grandma's Boy, as well as Dr. Jack.  Right there you have ten films.

Other shorts in 1922 included the start of the Our Gang series from Hal Roach, not to mention animation like Felix The Cat and Walt Disney stuff before he was Walt Disney. There's even the avant-garde short Manhatta, available on YouTube.

Then there were the big stars.  Douglas Fairbanks made Robin Hood, one of his best swashbucklers.  Mary Pickford made Tess Of The Storm Country. John Barrymore made Sherlock Holmes.  Norma Talmadge made Smilin' Through. Lon Chaney made a handful of films, including Oliver Twist with Jackie Coogan.

There were also some big-name directors around.  D. W Griffith made One Exciting Night. Cecil B. Demille made Manslaughter.  Ernst Lubitsch made The Loves Of Pharaoh. Fritz Lang made Dr. Mabuse The Gambler.  Erich von Stroheim made Foolish Wives. Robert Flaherty made one of the most famous documentaries of all, Nanook Of The North. (Even Frank Capra made his first film, Fultah Fisher's Boarding House, though I don't believe it's available.)

There were also a lot of big screen adaptations of famous titles, such as Lorna Doone, The Prisoner Of Zenda, The Scarlet Letter and Vanity Fair.

It does take an effort to see silent films, but perhaps Jesse will get around to checking out enough of them that eventually he'll have some silent top ten lists.