It Was Worth It. . .To Be Near You.
Five Silent Film Romances For Valentine's Day
It was definitely difficult for me to narrow down a list of romance films to just five titles. It may well be my favorite genre and the silent era is just chock full of sumptuous entries. The five films I chose to write about for this piece fall more in the romantic comedy side of cinema (except the Lubitsch, but more on that later). All of these films came towards the end of the silent era, harnessing every aspect of the cinematic arts that made it such a perfect escape for dreamers. I hope you find these films as swoon-worthy as I do.
My Best Girl, 1927 (dir. Sam Taylor)
I first saw this film at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco as part of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival’s Silent Winter event in February, 2013. I probably don’t need to introduce Mary Pickford, here in her final silent film role, but for those of you unfamiliar with Charles “Buddy” Rogers, you may have seen him opposite Clara Bow in the Best Picture-winning war film Wings. Pickford and Rogers have undeniable chemistry, which some biographers1 have stated was the couple falling in love, captured forever in the amber of celluloid (Pickford was still married to Douglas Fairbanks at the time and would remain so until their divorce in 1936; she and Rogers married in 1937.) In My Best Girl, Pickford plays a stockgirl named Maggie who falls in love with the store owner’s son Joe, although she thinks he’s just an errant stockboy. When Maggie discovers the truth — and that Joe has a fiancée — it puts their newfound love to the ultimate test.
Although the film was restored in 2015, there doesn’t seem to be a home video video release (and the old Milestone DVD is out of print), but there are decent versions streaming on YouTube.
The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg, 1927 (dir. Ernst Lubitsch)
Okay, so I first saw this beautiful film as the closing night feature at the 2017 Pordenone Silent Film Festival. I did not know anything about it other than it was directed by Ernst Lubitsch, so I thought it was going to be a frothy comedy. Readers, I was mistaken. Ramón Novarro stars as the Crown Prince Karl Heinrich who arrives at the prestigious school with his faithful tutor (Jean Hersholt) in tow. After a meet-cute involving insulting her family’s business, Karl falls hard for the earthy Kathi (Norma Shearer), and, despite being engaged to another man, she falls for him as well. So far, this sounds like a screwball romance, right? Wrong! Much like Roman Holiday, Karl’s monarchical duty comes between the young lovers, and the final sequence literally and figuratively punched me in the face and left me for dead on the theater floor.
This is another film without a proper home video release (unless you have a LaserDisc player), and the only versions streaming on YouTube and Archive.org are not the best quality, but it does sometimes screen on TCM. I’m sorry to get your hopes up with this entry; my thought was to put it on.your radar in case someday it plays in 35mm near you!!!
The Cameraman, 1928 (dir. Buster Keaton & Edward Sedgwick)
So now that you have had your heart stomped on, here is Buster Keaton (and a really cute monkey named Josephine) to pick it back up. The Cameraman was Keaton’s first film under his contract with MGM,2 although he largely made it with his own crew. Keaton plays a sidewalk tintype photographer named Buster who falls hard for Sally (Marceline Day), a secretary who works in the MGM newsreel department. Determined to woo her, Buster attempts to master the art of the moving picture, often with hilarious results. One sequence features antics with Buster and Sally a swimming pool that ends with one of the most romantic inter-titles ever3.
The film entered the public domain this year so it is available for free on YouTube and Archive.org, but I recommend picking up the Criterion Collection Blu-ray if you can because it is chocked full with special features.
Lonesome, 1928 (dir. Paul Fejos)
The first time I saw this gorgeous film was when I got the Criterion edition as a blind buy about a decade ago (back when I was still buying DVDs like a fool; I gotta upgrade this to Blu-ray!!). I remembered a restoration4 had played at TCMFF the year before, but I missed that screening. Everyone raved about it. Everyone was right. Not only does it have the most relatable inter-title5 maybe of all time, it features some truly playful filmic technique, from kinetic camera movements to ethereal double exposures to hand colored stenciling and tinting. Barbara Kent plays a telephone operator and Glenn Tryon plays a factory worker who meet-cute on Coney Island during Independence Day. After spending a perfect day together, the two get accidentally separated, unsure how they will ever meet again. That is, until fate shines its smirking little smile on the couple.
This is another film available in the public domain, but if you can swing the Criterion Collection edition it is well worth it. The special features include several archival interviews, an audio commentary, plus Fejos’ 1929 silent film The Last Performance, and more.
Lucky Star, 1929 (dir. Frank Borzage)
Lastly, I have to absolutely recommend my favorite of the films Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell made together. A part-talkie, this was the third film made by Frank Borzage with this duo (Gaynor won her Oscar partly for her performances in 7th Heaven and Street Angel). In this film Gaynor plays Mary Tucker, the daughter of a widowed dairy farmer, who spends her days flirting with two linemen, Timothy Osborn (Farrell) and Martin Wrenn (Guinn "Big Boy" Williams.) After the two return from WWI, their playful rivalry for Mary’s affections takes on a more serious turn when Mary’s mother promises her daughter’s hand to Wrenn.
There is actually a pretty decent rip of the film available on YouTube, which is pretty much the only way to watch it in the U.S. as the “Murnau, Borzage and Fox” DVD set has been long out of print (unless you have $400 to drop; there also appears to be a Blu-ray import from Spain)
https://www.cinema.ucla.edu/events/2015/03/15/my-best-girl
He would later say the two-year contract he signed with the studio was the worst decision he ever made.
