SILENT BOB

WORK IN PROGRESS
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In 1928, The Film Daily, a popular trade paper, polled 221 American film reviewers to produce a list of “Ten Favorite Directors”. The votes were:

Herbert Brenon (192)
King Vidor (181)
Frank Borzage (159)
Raoul Walsh (152)
Josef von Sternberg (140)
Victor Fleming (109)
Fred Niblo (95)
Ernst Lubitsch (74)
Charles Chaplin (74)
James Cruze (73)

A subsequent poll of 51 directors on the “ten most influential directors of the profession” produced the following results:

Frank Borzage (38)
King Vidor (32)
Ernst Lubitsch (30)
Erich von Stroheim (29)
Clarence Brown (21)
Cecil B. DeMille (21)
F.W. Murnau (21)
Henry King (20)
Josef von Sternberg (16)
Fred Niblo (10)

What is most interesting from our perspective is that ten of the fifteen directors mentioned continued making films well into the sound era, some into color and scope, as well. Most of them are familiar to most cinephiles today. Of the five who did not successfully make the transition, Murnau died young, Stroheim’s career as a director was essentially over with Queen Kelly, and the other three, Herbert Brenon, James Cruze, and Fred Niblo, though each continued making films into the thirities, all seemed to have lost the momentum of their tremendously successful silent careers.

Most conspicuous by his absence form both lists is David Wark Griffith, without whose work none of the voters would have been likely to have had jobs. Of course, by 1928, he was considered an anachronism in the industry, if he was considered at all. He had not had a major "hit’ since Way Down East in 1920, and his late masterpiece Isn’t Life Wonderful from four years earlier was already forgotten.

Also missing from these lists, disregarding for now the “foreign” directors who obviously had no place in the list-makers world, are three other pioneers, Edwin S. Porter, Mack Sennett, and Thomas Ince. Even allowing for the fashions of the time, it is still somewhat surprising to see no mention of such notable and still vital directors as Lois Weber, Marshall Neilan, Maurice Tourneur, and Rex Ingram. From our perspective, we might miss the names of three classic auteurs who began their careers in silents, namely John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock, and Howard Hawks, but though they all had some success in the twenties, none really found himself as an artist until the sound era.

When some of my friends on the site asked me to do something on Silents, I thought that a good start would be to list the ones I have seen alphabetically by director. It soon became clear that a chronological listing would be more convenient and useful for others as well as myself. Appearing after each date is the number of films released that year per IMDb. Keep in mind that probably ninety per cent of these are lost.

This still growing list will provide the framework for my thoughts (to come later) on Silent movies and their directors. I have made no attempt to include all the one and two reel (or even shorter) films by such artists as Lumiere, Melies, Griffith, Feuillade, Sennett, Chaplin, and Keaton. I have chosen instead to pick one early example of each directors non-feature length work to stand for what in some cases was literally hundreds of films. So, do not be deceived by the small number of titles listed from the nineties to the teens. It was a remarkable time in film history, and it is quite thrilling to see the grammar of film being created right before our eyes.

That said, the language continued to grow throughout the teens and the twenties until, in the last few years before sound, some of the finest movies ever were made. Many filmmakers reached a level of dramatic intensity and visual beauty rarely matched at any other time, most notably Murnau’s Sunrise and City Girl, Borzage’s Seventh Heaven, Street Angel, The River, and Lucky Star, Sternberg’s Underworld and The Docks of New York, Stroheim’s The Wedding March, Sjostrom’s The Wind, and Vidor’s The Big Parade and The Crowd.

See Kenji’s The Silent Era 1888-1929, Apursansar’s The Silent Era, Paul Johnson’s Favorite Silent Movies, A.‘s Photoplay Productions Silent Film Restorations, Grey Daisies’ Asta Nielsen – The Silent Muse, Nadia’s The Silent Classics, Max S’ 10 From 10s, and 20 From 20s, Movieyana’s Best Silents, H.Jackson’s Express Yourself With Intertitles, Spartacula’s For Your Consideration…The Silent Era and For Your Consideration: Moonshine, Feuding and the Silent Era, Flying Dutchman’s Too Beautiful for Word. Top 20 Silents, Cecil Will Burchett’s Shhhhh!!!!-five star films of the ‘20s, Divya’s Silent Movies.

Employees Leaving the Lumiere Factory (Louis Lumiere)

La Fee au choux (Alice Guy-Blache)

Une partie de cartes (Georges Melies)

The Great Train Robbery (Edwin S. Porter)

The Adventures of Dolly (D.W. Griffith)

Une dame vraiment bien (Louis Feuillade)

The Diving Girl (Mack Sennett)

The Heart of an Indian (Francis Ford)

Twilight of a Woman’s Soul (Yevgeni Bauer)
The Last Days of Pompeii (Mario Caserini/Eleuterio Rodolfi)
Fantomas (Louis Feuillade)

L’enfant de Paris (Leonce Perret)
Ingeborg Holm (Victor Sjostrom)
Suspense (Lois Weber)

Traffic in Souls (George Loane Tucker)
The Student of Prague (Paul Wegener)

The Wrath of the Gods (Reginald Barker)
Caught in a Cabaret (Charlie Chaplin)

The Squaw Man (Cecil B. DeMille)
The Virginian (Cecil B. DeMille)
Home, Sweet Home (D.W. Griffith)
The Avenging Conscience (D.W. Griffith)
Judith of Bethulia (D.W. Griffith)
Cabiria (Giovanni Pastore)
Tillie’s Punctured Romance (Mack Sennett)

The Coward (Reginald Barker/Thomas Ince)
After Death (Yevgeni Bauer)
Assunta Spina (Francesca Bertini/Gustavo Serena)
The Pitch o’ Chance (Frank Borzage)

The Raven (Charles Brabin)
The Lamb (Christy Cabanne)
Carmen (Cecil B. DeMille)
The Cheat (Cecil B. DeMille)
The Golden Chance (Cecil B. DeMille)

Les vampires (Louis Feuillade)
Young Romance (William DeMille/George Melford)
The Birth of a Nation (D.W. Griffith)
The Italian (Thomas Ince)
A Knight of the Trail (Thomas Ince)
A Fool There Was (Frank Powell)
Trilby (Maurice Tourneur)
Regeneration (Raoul Walsh)
Hypocrites (Lois Weber)

Nugget Jim’s Partner (Frank Borzage)
The Pilgrim (Frank Borzage)
Life’s Harmony (Frank Borzage)
Burlesque on Carmen (Charlie Chaplin)
Joan the Woman (Cecil B. DeMille)
Judex (Louis Feuillade)
Gretchen the Greenhorn (Chester Franklin/Sidney Franklin)
Intolerance (D.W. Griffith)

Hoodoo Ann (Lloyd Ingraham)
The World and the Woman (W. Eugene Moore)
Tigre Royale (Pastrone)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Stuart Paton)
Love and Journalism (Mauritz Stiller)

Hell’s Hinges (Charles Swickard)
Where Are My Children? (Lois Weber)

‘49-’17 (Ruth Ann Baldwin)
The Dying Swan (Yevgeni Bauer)
Until They Get Me (Frank Borzage)
A Romance of the Redwoods (Cecil B. DeMille)
The Little American (Cecil B. DeMille)
Wild and Wooly (John Emerson)
Reaching for the Moon (John Emerson)
Straight Shooting (John Ford)
Bucking Broadway (John Ford)
A Mormon Maid (Robert Z. Leonard)
The Merry Jail (Ernst Lubitsch)
Terje Vigen (Victor Sjostrom)
The Honor System (Raoul Walsh)

The Gun Woman (Frank Borzage)
Shoulder Arms (Charlie Chaplin)
Old Wives for New (Cecil B. DeMille)
The Whispering Chorus (Cecil B. DeMille)
Don’t Change Your Husband (Cecil B. DeMille)
The Squaw Man (Cecil B. DeMille)
J’Accuse (Abel Gance)

Hearts of the World (D.W. Griffith)
The Heart of Humanity (Alan Holubar)
The Eyes of the Mummy Ma (Ernst Lubitsch)
Carmen (Ernst Lubitsch)
Stella Maris (Marshall Neilan)
The Outlaw and His Wife (Victor Sjostrom)
Prunella (Maurice Tourneur)

The Wicked Darling (Tod Browning)
Male and Female (Cecil B. DeMille)
Leaves from Satan’s Book (Carl Dreyer)
The President (Carl Dreyer)

When the Clouds Roll By (Victor Fleming)
Heart o’ the Hills (Sidney Franklin)
The Hoodlum (Sidney Franklin)
A Romance of Happy Valley (D.W. Griffith)
The Girl Who Stayed at Home (D.W. Griffith)
The Greatest Question (D.W. Griffith)
True-Heart Susie (D.W. Griffith)
Scarlet Days (D.W. Griffith)
Broken Blossoms (D.W. Griffith)
The Greatest Question (D.W. Griffith)
The Mother and the Law (D.W. Griffith)
The Fall of Babylon (D.W Griffith)
The Lost Battalion (Burton King)
The Spiders (Fritz Lang)

The Oyster Princess (Ernst Lubitsch)
Madame DuBarry (Ernet Lubitsch)
Die Puppe (Ernst Lubitsch)

Ingmar’s Sons (Victor Sjostrom)
South o’ Santa Fe (Clifford Smith)
Sir Arne’s Treasure (Mauritz Stiller)

The Busher (Jerome Storm)
Blind Husbands (Erich Von Stroheim)

Victory (Maurice Tourneur)
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene)
The Dragon Painter (William Worthington)

Humoresque (Frank Borzage)

The Flapper (Alan Crosland)
Terror Island (James Cruze)
Why Change Your Wife (Cecil B. DeMille)
The Parson’s Widow (Carl Dreyer)
The Mollycoddle (Victor Fleming)
Just Pals (John Ford)

The Idol Dancer (D.W. Griffith)
The Love Flower (D.W/ Griffith)
Way Down East (D.W. Griffith)
The Toll Gate (Lambert Hillyer)
One Week (Buster Keaton/Edward F. Cline)

The Master Mystery (Burton L. King/Harry Grossman)
I Don’t Want to Be a Man (Ernst Lubitsch)
Kohlhiesels Daughter (Ernst Lubitsch)
Romeo and Julia in the Snow (Ernst Lubitsch)
Sumurun (Ernst Lubitsch)
Anna Boleyn (Ernst Lubitsch)
Within Our Gates (Oscar Micheaux)

The Mark of Zorro (Fred Niblo)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (John S. Robertson)
Something New (Nell Shipman/Bert Van Tuyle)
Karin Ingmarsdotter (Victor Sjostrom)
Erotikon (Mauritz Stiller)
The Last of the Mohicans (Maurice Tourneur/Clarence Brown)

The Kid (Charlie Chaplin)
Haxan (Benjamin Christensen)
The Affairs of Anatol (Cecil B. DeMille)

Manslaughter (Cecil B. DeMille)
Miss Lulu Bett (William DeMille)
L’Atlantide (Jacques Feyder)

La roue (Abel Gance)
Little Lord Fauntleroy (Alfred E. Green/Jack Pickford)
Dream Street (D.W. Griffith)
Orphans of the Storm (D.W. Griffith)
Tol’able David (Henry King)
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Rex Ingram)

The Sea Lion (Rowland V. Lee)
The Mountain Cat (Ernst Lubitsch)
The Love Light (Frances Marion)
Das indische Grabmal (Joe May)
The Sheik (George Melford)
Schloss Vogelodd (F.W. Murnau)

The Phantom Carriage (Victor Sjostrom)
Camille (Ray C. Smallwood)
Foolish Wives (Erich Von Stroheim)
The Blot (Lois Weber)
The Ace of Hearts (Wallace Worsley)

Back Pay (Frank Borzage)
The Valley of Silent Men (Frank Borzage)
Down to the Sea in Ships (Elmer Clifton)
Once Upon a Time (Carl Dreyer)
Robin Hood (Allan Dwan)

Crainquebille (Jacques Feyder)
Nanook of the North (Robert Flaherty)
Monte Cristo (Emmett J. Flynn)
Smilin’ Through (Sidney Franklin)
Cyrano de Bergerac (Augusto Genina)
One Exciting Night (D.W. Griffith)
The Prisoner of Zenda (Rex Ingram)
The Man from Beyond (Burton L. King)
Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler (Fritz Lang)
The Loves of Pharaoh (Ernst Lubitsch)
Nosferatu (F.W. Murnau)
Phantom (F.W. Murnau)
Grandma’s Boy (Fred Newmeyer)
Blood and Sand (Fred Niblo)
Sherlock Holmes (Albert Parker)
Tess of the Storm Country (John S. Robertson)
Lorna Doone (Maurice Tourneur)

&i

Kindred of the Dust (Raoul Walsh)
Beyond the Rocks (Sam Wood)
Romance of a Fruit Peddler (Shichuan Zhang)

The Nth Commandment (Frank Borzage)
Salome (Charles Bryant)
A Woman of Paris (Charlie Chaplin)
Paris qui dort (Rene Clair)

The Covered Wagon (James Cruze)
The Ten Commandments (Cecil B. DeMille)
Cameo Kirby (John Ford)
The White Rose (D.W. Griffith)
Scaramouche (Rex Ingram)
The Extra Girl (F. Richard Jones)
Merry-Go-Round (Rupert Julian/Erich Von Stroheim)
Three Ages (Buster Keaton/Edward F. Cline)
Our Hospitality (Buster Keaton/John G. Blystone)
Within the Law (Frank Lloyd)
Rosita (Ernst Lubitsch)
Die Finanzen des Grossherzogs (F.W. Murnau)
Safety Last (Fred Newmeyer/Sam Taylor)
Little Old New York (Sidney Olcott)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Wallace Worsley)

Beau Brummel (Harry Beaumont)
Open All Night (Paul Bern)

Secrets (Frank Borzage)
Entr’acte (Rene Clair)
Mikael (Carl Dreyer)
Manhandled (Allan Dwan)
The Iron Horse (John Ford)
Her Night of Romance (Sidney Franklin)
America (D.W/ Griffith)
Isn’t Life Wonderful (D.W. Griffith)
Sherlock Jr. (Buster Keaton)
The Navigator (Buster Keaton/Donald Crisp)
Romola (Henry King)
The Sea Hawk (Frank Lloyd)
The Marriage Circle (Ernst Lubitsch)
Three Women (Ernst Lubitsch)
Forbidden Paradise (Ernst Lubitsch)
Stolen Goods (Leo McCarey)
Der letzte Mann (F.W. Murnau)
The Red Lily (Fred Niblo)
Girl Shy (Fred Newmeyer/Sam Taylor)
Aelita (Yakov Protazanov)
La Fille de l’eau (Jean Renoir)

He Who Gets Slapped (Victor Sjostrom) Gosta Berling’s Saga (Mauritz Stiller)
Greed (Erich Von Stroheim)
The Thief of Bagdad (Raoul Walsh)

Paths to Paradise (Clarence Badger)
Tumbleweeds (King Baggott)
The Lady (Frank Borzage)
The First Year (Frank Borzage)
Lazybones (Frank Borzage)
The Circle (Frank Borzage)
Stella Maris (Charles Brabin)
The Street of Forgotten Men (Herbert Brenon)
The Goose Woman (Clarence Brown)
The Eagle (Clarence Brown)
The Unholy Three (Tod Browning)
The Gold Rush (Charlie Chaplin)
Don Q Son of Zorro (Donald Crisp)
The Road to Yesterday (Cecil B. DeMille)
Master of the House (Carl Dreyer)
Variety (E.A. Dupont)
Strike (Sergei Eisenstein)
The Battleship Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein)

Faces of Children (Jacques Feyder)
Lightnin’ (John Ford)
Her Sister from Paris (Sidney Franklin)
Parisian Love (Louis Gasnier)
Sally of the Sawdust (D.W. Griffith)
Cobra (Henaberry)
Zander the Great (George Hill)
The Lost World (Harry O. Hoyt)
The Phantom of the Opera (Rupert Julian)
Seven Chances (Buster Keaton)
Go West (Buster Keaton)
The Red Kimono (Walter Lang)
Lady Windermere’s Fan (Ernst Lubitsch)
Body and Soul (Oscar Micheaux)
Tartuffe (F.W. Murnau)
The Freshman (Fred Newmeyer/Sam Taylor)
Ben-Hur (Fred Niblo)
The Joyless Street (G.W. Pabst)
Chess Fever (Vsevolod Pudovkin)
Bed and Sofa (Abram Room)
The Plastic Age (Wesley Ruggles)
The Coming of Amos (Paul Sloane)
The Big Parade (King Vidor)
The Salvation Hunters (Josef Von Sternberg)
The Merry Widow (Erich Von Stroheim)

The Campus Flirt (Clarence Badger)
Sparrows (William Beaudine)
Torrent (Monta Bell)

Beau Geste (Herbert C. Brenon)
Kiki (Clarence Brown)
The Strong Man (Frank Capra)
Don Juan (Alan Crosland)
Old Ironsides (James Cruze)
The Volga Boatman (Cecil B. DeMille)
The Son of the Sheik (George Fitzmaurice)
Moana (Robert Flaherty)
The Blue Eagle (John Ford)
The Shamrock Handicap (John Ford)
Three Bad Men (John Ford)
Napoleon (Abel Gance)

Ella Cinders (Alfred E. Green)
The Sorrows of Satan (D.W. Griffith)
Fig Leaves (Howard Hawks)
Tell it to the Marines (George Hill)
The Pleasure Garden (Alfred Hitchcock)
The Lodger (Alfred Hitchcock)
Mare Nostrum (Rex Ingram)
The General (Buster Keaton)
Metropolis (Fritz Lang)
So This Is Paris (Ernst Lubitsch)
Faust (F.W. Murnau)
The Temptress (Fred Niblo/Mauritz Stiller)
Spangles (Frank O’Connor)
The Black Pirate (Albert Parker)
The Adventures of Prince Achmed (Lotte Reiniger)
Nana (Jean Renoir)
The Show Off (Malcolm St. Clair)
Skinner’s Dress Suit (William Seiter)
The Scarlet Letter (Victor Sjostrom)
The Clinging Vine (Paul Sloane)
It’s the Old Army Game (A. Edward Sutherland)

Exit Smiling (Sam Taylor)
Mysterious Island (Maurice Tourneur)
Love ’Em and Leave ’Em (Frank Tuttle)
La Boheme (King Vidor)
Bardelys the Magnificent (King Vidor)
What Price Glory? (Raoul Walsh)
The Sea Beast (Millard Webb)
The Boob (William Wellman)

The Red Mill (Roscoe Arbuckle)
It (Clarence G. Badger)
Man, Woman and Sin (Monta Bell)
The Chess Player (Raymond Bernard)
Seventh Heaven (Frank Borzage)
Flesh and the Devil (Clarence Brown)
The Light of Faith—reedited The Light in the Dark, 1922 (Clarence Brown)
Stark Love (Karl Brown)
The Unknown (Tod Browning)
The Show (Tod Browning)
London After Midnight (Tod Browning)
Long Pants (Frank Capra)
The Circus (Charlie Chaplin)
Un chapeau de paille d’Italie (Rene Clair)
Twelve Miles Out (Jack Conway)
Old San Francisco (Alan Crosland)
The Beloved Rogue (Alan Crosland)
The Jazz Singer (Alan Crosland)
The First Auto (Roy Del Ruth)
The King of Kings (Cecil B. DeMille)
The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Dreyer)
Hindle Wakes (Maurice Elvey)
Quality Street (Sidney Franklin)
Paid to Love (Howard Hawks)
Fazil (Howard Hawks)
Downhill (Alfred Hitchcock)
Easy Virtue (Alfred Hitchcock)
The Ring (Alfred Hitchcock)
The Gaucho (F. Richard Jones)
The Yankee Clipper(Rupert Julian)
Siren of the Tropics (Mario Kalpas/Henri Etievant)
College (Buster Keaton/James W. Horne)
Spione (Fritz Lang)
Barbed Wire (Rowland V. Lee/Mauritz Stiller)
The Cat and the Canary (Paul Leni)
The Man Who Laughs (Paul Leni)
Oliver Twist (Frank Lloyd)
The Student Prince (Ernst Lubitsch)
Two Arabian Knights (Lewis Milestone)
Sunrise (F.W. Murnau)
Charleston (Jean Renoir)
Captain Salvation (John S. Robertson)
Bed and Sofa (Abram Room)
Hotel Imperial (Mauritz Stiller)
Underworld (Josef Von Sternberg)
The Wedding March (Erich Von Stroheim)
My Best Girl (Sam Taylor)
The Loves of Carmen (Raoul Walsh)
Wings (William Wellman)
Romance of the Western Chamber (Hou Yao)

Our Dancing Daughters (Harry Beaumont)
Street Angel (Frank Borzage)
The River (Frank Borzage)
Laugh, Clown, Laugh (Herbert Brenon)
A Woman of Affairs (Clarence Brown)
West of Zanzibar (Tod Browning)
Un Chien Andalou (Luis Bunuel)
Le capitaine Fracasse (Alberto Cavalcanti)
Noah’s Ark (Michael Curtiz)
October (Sergei Eisenstein)
The Fall of the House of Usher (Jean Epstein)
Four Sons (John Ford)
Hangman’s House (John Ford)
Riley the Cop (John Ford)
Love (Edmund Goulding)
Drums of Love (D.W. Griffith)
The Battle of the Sexes (D.W. Griffith)
A Girl in Every Port (Howard Hawks)
The Farmer’s Wife (Alfred Hitchcock)
Champagne (Alfred Hitchcock)
The Manxman (Alfred Hitchcock)
Steamboat Bill, Jr. (Buster Keaton/Charles Reisner)
The Cameraman (Buster Keaton/Edward Sedgwick)
Frau im Monde (Fritz Lang)
The Garden of Eden (Lewis Milestone)
The Racket (Lewis Milestone)
The Viking (Roy William Neill)
The Mysterious Lady (Fred Niblo)
The Love of Jeanne Ney (G.W. Pabst)
Storm Over Asia (Vsevolod Pudovkin)
The Little Match Girl (Jean Renoir)
The Wind (Victor Sjostrom)
White Shadows in the South Seas (W.S. Van Dyke)
The Crowd (King Vidor)
The Patsy (King Vidor)
Show People (King Vidor)
The Last Command (Josef Von Sternberg)
The Docks of New York (Josef Von Sternberg)
Queen Kelly (Erich Von Stroheim)
Sadie Thompson (Raoul Walsh)
The Red Danube (Raoul Walsh)
Beggars of Life (William Wellman)
Speedy (Ted Wilde)

The Girl with the Hatbox (Boris Barnet)
Lucky Star (Frank Borzage)
The Younger Generation (Frank Capra)
Evangeline (Edwin Carewe)
Seven Footprints to Satan (Benjamin Christensen)
The Godless Girl (Cecil B. DeMille)
Arsenal (Alexander Dovzhenko)
Piccadilly (E.A. Dupont)
The Iron Mask (Allan Dwan)
The Kiss (Jacques Feyder)
Wild Orchids (Sidney Franklin)
Spite Marriage (Buster Keaton/Edward Sedgwick)
Eternal Love (Lubitsch)
Asphalt (Joe May)
City Girl (F.W. Murnau)
Throw of the Dice (Franz Osten)
Pandora’s Box (G.W. Pabst)
Diary of a Lost Girl (G.W. Pabst)

The Single Standard (John S. Robertson)
Redskin (Victor Schertzinger)
Laila (George Schneevoigt)
A Strong Man (Henryck Szaro)
The Ship of Lost Men (Maurice Tourneur)
The Pagan (W.S. Van Dyke)
Man with a Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov)
The Love Trap (William Wyler)
1930
A Cottage on Dartmoor (Anthony Asquith)
Earth (Alexander Dovzhenko)
Au bonheur des dames (julien Duvivier)
1931
City Lights (Charlie Chaplin)
Tabu (F.W. Murnau)
Flunky Work Hard (Mikio Naruse)
Tokyo Chorus (Yasujiro Ozu)
1932
No Blood Relation (Mikio Naruse)
I Was Born But… (Yasujiro Ozu)
Wild Rose (Yu Sun)
1933
Apart from You (Mikio Naruse)
Every-Night Dreams (Mikio Naruse)
Passing Fancy (Yasujiro Ozu)
Japanese Girls at the Harbor (Hiroshi Shimizu)
Daybreak (Yu Sun)

1934
Street Without End (Mikio Naruse)
A Story of Floating Weeds (Yasujiro Ozu)
Queen of Sports (Yu Sun)
1935
The Big Road (Yu Sun)

Modern Times (Charlie Chaplin)