Buster Keaton asks the father of the woman he loves for her hand in marriage, but the father wants to see Keaton make something of himself first. "I'll leave for the city to make good. If I'm not a success, I'll come back and shoot myself," Buster declares, which is a perfectly acceptable arrangement as far as the father is concerned. So Keaton heads off for the big city and tries his hand at a number of different jobs. But his letters to his girl suggest more noble and enterprising careers than those he's actually attempting.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0011656/ nota: 8.3 in IMDB ^^ Is a great film!!!

1922 (public domain) silent version of the classic, with Douglas Fairbanks, Alan Hale and many others. Visit the IMDB page for this movie.

Charlie Chaplin's 60th Film Released April 16 1917 The Cure is a short comedy film written and directed by Charlie Chaplin. Chaplin plays a drunk who checks into a health spa to dry out, but his suitcase full of alcohol does not aid him in this pursuit. Along the way he aggravates a large man and seduces a young lady, as Chaplin's characters are often wont to do. The film featured Chaplin's frequent co-stars Edna Purviance, Eric Campbell, Henry Bergman, John Rand, James T. Kelley, Albert Austin, and Frank J. Coleman.

Director D.W. Griffith's expensive, most ambitious silent film masterpiece Intolerance (1916) is one of the milestones and landmarks in cinematic history. Many reviewers and film historians consider it the greatest film of the silent era. The mammoth film was also subtitled: "A Sun-Play of the Ages" and "Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages." Griffith was inspired to make this film after watching the revolutionary Italian silent film epic Cabiria (1914) by director Giovanni Pastrone.

david w. griffith "broken blossoms" (1919)

The Sinking of the Lusitania, released in 1918, is an animated short film by American artist Winsor McCay. It features a short 12 minute explanation of the sinking of RMS Lusitania after it was struck by two torpedoes fired from a German U-boat. The film was one of many animated silent films published to create anti-German sentiment during World War I. McCay illustrated some 25,000 drawings for the production.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is the first modern Horror Film and it influence a number of contemporary productions. A real classic! PLOT: A man named Francis relates a story about his best friend Alan and his fiancée Jane. Alan takes him to a fair where they meet Dr. Caligari, who exhibits a somnambulist, Cesare, that can predict the future. When Alan asks how long he has to live, Cesare says he has until dawn. The prophecy comes to pass, as Alan is murdered, and Cesare is a prime suspect.

Buster Keaton stars in this comedy as the captive of hostile Indians. His captors tie him to a stake and prepare him for death by fire. Keaton moves with the stake as the Indians try frantically to place the firewood around him. When he survives the flames due to his fire-resistant clothes, Keaton is made a member of the tribe and named Little Chief Paleface. He then foils the scheme of unsavory oil speculators to steal the land from his Indian companion.

The opening scene, a dream sequence prior to the vaudeville routines which follow, is what makes this film famous. In it Keaton plays everyone in a theatre simultaneously (through multiple exposures). He is the band leader, all its members, the dancers on the stage and everyone in the audience.