The Great Train Robbery (1903)

The Great Train Robbery, directed by Edwin S. Porter, was the very first narrative film and became the prototype for the American western. Porter used state of the art techniques including parallel editing, pan shots, double exposure composite editing and on location shooting. This western was filmed in New Jersey and Delaware and produced at Thomas Edison’s studio.

Porter based the movie on a 1896 story by Scott Marble and was inspired by Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch who, in 1900 Wyoming, separated a mail car from the rest of the train and blew up the safe holding $5,000 cash.

In the final scene, a man aims a gun into the camera and shoots, which caused audiences of the time to leap in fear. This scene has been used for effect in other movies like Tombstone and paid homage to in Goodfellas.

The Iron Mask (1929)

I borrowed THE IRON MASK Starring Douglas Fairbanks from my mother-in-law, enjoyed it, and discovered it on the always reliable YouTube. MASK was Fairbank's last silent film and a sequel to 1921's The Three Musketeers. This version includes an introductory prologue spoken by Fairbanks, original subtitles deleted and 1952's narration voiced by Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. added.



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Other silent flicks posted on EPW:
The Navigator | A Trip to the Moon | Faust | Sherlock Jr. | The Great Train Robbery

Related topics:
Alexandre Dumas bio | Who was the "Man in the Iron Mask"?

Buster Keaton - Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928)

Steamboat Bill, Jr. is the story of a naive, college-educated young man who must prove himself to his father, a riverboat captain. This silent classic features the famous stunt where a cyclone blows down a wall on top of Keaton who passes, unharmed, through a precisely placed open window.




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Related links:

Roger Ebert: The Films of Buster Keaton

Reviews of Steamboat Bill, Jr.

AMC filmsite

Combustible Celluloid

DVD.net


Other silent flicks posted on EPW:
The Navigator | A Trip to the Moon | Faust | Sherlock Jr. | The Great Train Robbery | The Iron Mask