Reading Room

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

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

City Lights (1931) (opens criterion.com in a new tab)

Criterion release with comprehensive essay on this greatest achievement of Chaplin's career.

Criterion Collection

On City Lights

A Farewell to Arms: a greater film than Hemingway knew — BFI (opens bfi.org.uk in a new tab)

Critical essay examining Frank Borzage's 1932 adaptation and how it differs from Hemingway's vision.

On A Farewell to Arms

Ozu's Space Adventures: Editing in PASSING FANCY (opens criterionchannel.com in a new tab)

Essay examining Ozu's distinctive editing and compositional techniques in this family comedy.

The Criterion Channel

On Passing Fancy

Love and Death in Hollywood: Desertion and Redemption in Film Adaptations of A Farewell to Arms — Literature Film Quarterly (opens lfq.salisbury.edu in a new tab)

Academic essay analyzing themes of desertion and redemption across film adaptations of Hemingway's novel.

On A Farewell to Arms

Beginner's Guide to Alfred Hitchcock: Juno and the Paycock (1930) (opens talkfilmsociety.com in a new tab)

Guide to Hitchcock's adaptation of Sean O'Casey's play and his frustrations with theatrical material.

Talk Film Society

On Juno and the Paycock

Bird of Paradise (1932): King Vidor's Exotic Adventure, Starring Dolores del Río and Joel McCrea (opens emanuellevy.com in a new tab)

Critical analysis of Vidor's exploration of forbidden desires around race and sexuality in pre-Code Hawaii.

Emanuel Levy

On Bird of Paradise

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 10: Juno And The Paycock (1930) (opens weeklyhitch.wordpress.com in a new tab)

Analysis of Hitchcock's second talkie and its theatrical staginess in cinematic adaptation.

Weekly Hitch

On Juno and the Paycock

Riders of Destiny (1933), with John Wayne as a singing cowboy (opens publicdomainmovies.info in a new tab)

Essay on this early Wayne western musical and its influence on the singing cowboy genre.

Public Domain Movies

On Riders of Destiny

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

Watch the Film That Invented Cinema: Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory in Lyon (1895) (opens openculture.com in a new tab)

Educational analysis of the film's historical importance as a foundational work of cinema history.

Open Culture

On Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory

Morocco (opens criterion.com in a new tab)

Criterion release with essay on Sternberg's direction of Dietrich in her triumphant American debut.

Criterion Collection

On Morocco

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

Shanghai Express (1932) (opens criterion.com in a new tab)

Criterion's analysis of this visually poetic Sternberg-Dietrich collaboration.

Criterion Collection

On Shanghai Express

BFI Screenonline: As Seen Through A Telescope (1900) (opens screenonline.org.uk in a new tab)

Critical analysis of George Albert Smith's innovative use of point-of-view cinematography and film grammar.

BFI Screenonline

On As Seen Through a Telescope

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

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

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

On Art and Aesthetics: The Big Swallow (opens onartandaesthetics.com in a new tab)

Scholarly examination of the film's innovative approach to extreme close-up and film form itself.

On Art and Aesthetics

On The Big Swallow

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

Even Incomplete, the First Alice in Wonderland Film Charms (opens trettleman.medium.com in a new tab)

Critical analysis of Hepworth's adaptation and its innovative special effects for fantasy cinema.

Medium

On Alice in Wonderland

The Great Train Robbery (opens filmsite.org in a new tab)

Comprehensive analysis of the film's narrative structure, editing innovations, and commercial impact.

Filmsite

On The Great Train Robbery