Douglas Fairbanks and Silent Film

Daring Performances and Breathtaking Chases

Film audiences of the 1920s were attracted by daring stunts and heart-stopping chases. Audiences were enthralled by daring feats performed by Hollywood’s most athletic actors, including Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton, and W.C. Fields. If you’re curious to see how these acrobatic stunts would translate onto the big screen with sound, take a look at “Safety Last!”. Starring “King of Comedy”, Buster Keaton, the film is about a young man who gets a job as a billboard advertising salesman. To advertise the product he must climb up a tall building in the middle of the city. The film contains one of the most daring and death-defying stunts ever seen on screen.

The Rise of the Action Hero

The advent of sound film was also an excellent opportunity for filmmakers to create strong characters who could rise above the noise and confusion of movie-making. Actors now had to deliver long speeches with great emotion, and directors had to create an illusion of realism amid all the noise and activity on the set. Those actors who rose to the challenge and remained silent are now considered the forerunners of modern action stars. Hollywood studios were quick to capitalize on this new demand for strong silent characters. As early as 1920, Douglas Fairbanks had been labeled the “King of the Hollywood High-Brows.” His action-hero roles in films like “The Mark of Zorro” and “The Three Musketeers” were the first to live up to that title.

Early Romantic Heroes: Douglas Fairbanks and Charles Vanguard

The “romantic hero” is a type of character often found in silent films. It is a concept that has evolved into the modern-day idea of “bromance”. In the silent film era, romantic heroes often had no interest in romance. Instead, they were action-driven characters who were more interested in saving the world than finding a girl.

Silent Film Stars Who Escaped the Silence

While mainstream Hollywood actors relied on their vocal talents, other actors relied on their visual acting skills to get noticed in the new world of talking pictures. As early as 1920, Hollywood studios were hiring actors with German or Russian accents for villainous roles. They were able to get away with this because audiences could not understand what the villains were saying. This trend continued well into the sound era, with rising stars like Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet being cast as villains or shady characters. Let’s take a look at how some of these silent film stars escaped the silence of the silent screen.

Final Words: From Silents to Sound

Unfortunately, not everyone was able to make the transition from the silence of silent film to the chatter of sound. Some of the most famous names of the silent film era were unable to make the transition to the sound era. The great Charlie Chaplin, who had been a leading silent film star since the beginning of the 20th Century, had an accent that was impossible to understand when he spoke. Silent film star Mary Pickford also had a thick accent that made it hard for her to transition to sound. Pickford’s famous “s” sound was so hard to understand that she became known as the “Smiling Sneer”. And while the transition from silent film to talkies has been a fascinating part of Hollywood history, it has also been echoed in the recent shift from silent reading to audiobooks. With the rise of smartphones, e-readers, and other portable devices, consumers have less and less opportunity to sit quietly and read, and more opportunities to consume audio content. Silent film actors and their stories are a fascinating slice of history, and with the recent resurgence of audiobooks, there’s never been a better time to revisit this era of Hollywood.