Reading Room

Apocalypse Later Film Reviews: The Rounders (1914) (opens apocalypselaterfilm.com in a new tab)

Critical review of the sole Chaplin-Arbuckle teaming praised as one of the best Keystone comedies.

Apocalypse Later Film Reviews

On The Rounders

The New Janitor (24 September 1914) (opens chaplinfilmbyfilm.wordpress.com in a new tab)

Analysis examining Chaplin's narrative progression and emotional depth in this bank janitor comedy.

Chaplin: Film by Film

On The New Janitor

The Unholy Three - San Francisco Silent Film Festival (opens silentfilm.org in a new tab)

Festival resource on Browning's unique approach to grotesque cinema.

On The Unholy Three

Film essay for Morocco — Library of Congress National Film Preservation Board (opens loc.gov in a new tab)

Official preservation essay on this milestone film in Dietrich and Sternberg's collaboration.

On Morocco

The Rounders (7 September 1914) (opens chaplinfilmbyfilm.wordpress.com in a new tab)

Analysis of Chaplin and Arbuckle's drunken duo comedy examining visual gags and physical performance.

Chaplin: Film by Film

On The Rounders

Tillie's Punctured Romance | film by Sennett [1914] (opens britannica.com in a new tab)

Historical entry on this landmark first feature-length comedy film directed by Mack Sennett.

Britannica

On Tillie's Punctured Romance

Flesh and the Devil - San Francisco Silent Film Festival (opens silentfilm.org in a new tab)

Festival resource on Garbo and Gilbert's chemistry and film legacy.

On Flesh and the Devil

Blonde Venus (1932) (opens criterion.com in a new tab)

Criterion's overview of Sternberg and Dietrich's melodrama about a chanteuse's moral decline.

Criterion Collection

On Blonde Venus

HOT SATURDAY ( 1932 ) (opens cinemavensessaysfromthecouch.wordpress.com in a new tab)

Essay on Seiter's pre-Code examination of small-town morality and rumors about women's sexuality.

CineMaven's Essays from the Couch

On Hot Saturday

The psychological horror of Dreyer's Vampyr — BFI Sight & Sound (opens bfi.org.uk in a new tab)

Essay on Dreyer's dreamlike approach to horror and psychological terror in his first sound film.

On Vampyr

MoMA | Josef von Sternberg's Morocco — Museum of Modern Art (opens moma.org in a new tab)

Essay on Sternberg's visualizations of obsessive desire and cinematic exoticism.

On Morocco

Judge Priest (opens seeingthingssecondhand.com in a new tab)

Essay on Ford's Will Rogers comedy and its complex legacy of humor alongside racial insensitivity.

Seeing Things Secondhand

On Judge Priest

OF HUMAN BONDAGE (1934) (opens oforinvolvingmotionpictures.wordpress.com in a new tab)

Critical analysis of how the film navigated Hays Code restrictions while exploring human weakness.

Of or Involving Motion Pictures

On Of Human Bondage

Caught in a Cabaret (27 April 1914) (opens chaplinfilmbyfilm.wordpress.com in a new tab)

Critical essay on Chaplin's early comic performance and character development.

Chaplin: Film by Film

On Caught in a Cabaret

Neglected film: OUR DAILY BREAD (1934) (opens oforinvolvingmotionpictures.wordpress.com in a new tab)

Essay exploring Vidor's Depression-era collective farm drama and its social commentary.

Of or Involving Motion Pictures

On Our Daily Bread

Beginner's Guide to Alfred Hitchcock: Murder! (1930) (opens talkfilmsociety.com in a new tab)

Guide to Hitchcock's exploration of theatrical spaces and wrongful accusation themes.

Talk Film Society

On Murder!

M (1931) | The Definitives (opens deepfocusreview.com in a new tab)

Critical analysis of Lang's masterpiece and its prescient warnings about mass justice.

Deep Focus Review

On M

La fée aux choux | film by Guy-Blachê (opens britannica.com in a new tab)

Encyclopedia entry on Alice Guy-Blachê's pioneering narrative film, the first fiction film ever made.

Britannica

On The Cabbage-Patch Fairy

WEEK 11: Murder! (1930) (opens weeklyhitch.wordpress.com in a new tab)

Analysis of Hitchcock's innovative use of voice-over and sound design in this early talkie.

Weekly Hitch

On Murder!

Vampyr at 90: how Carl Dreyer conjured a waking nightmare — BFI (opens bfi.org.uk in a new tab)

Retrospective essay celebrating Dreyer's creation of atmosphere through visual innovation and technique.

On Vampyr

Now and Forever 1934 review-how to weaponize cuteness (opens cornerstorecinema.net in a new tab)

Essay on how the film uses Shirley Temple's innocence as counterpoint to adult corruption and crime.

Corner Store Cinema

On Now and Forever

The Disappearance of the Working Class from the Cinematic Screen — Widok. Theories and Practices of Visual Culture (opens pismowidok.org in a new tab)

Scholarly article examining the representation of working-class labor in early cinema and its historical significance.

On Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory

The General - San Francisco Silent Film Festival (opens silentfilm.org in a new tab)

Festival resource on one of cinema's greatest comedies.

On The General

Radical Object: The Blue Angel (1930) (opens historyworkshop.org.uk in a new tab)

Essay examining the film's transgressive elements and cultural significance during Nazi era.

History Workshop

On The Blue Angel