the REEL WORLD

(or, what happens when one woman decides to quit watching The X-Files and get reel)

This page and the ones on this site below it represent a highly individual, eclectic approach to classic film and the history of early Hollywood. The first section consists of links to outstanding Web sites -- interesting that so many of them seem to be non-commercial labors of love -- and the second lists the classic movies I've seen, and provides links to the short reviews that I am writing. Also available is a bibliography of books about early Hollywood.

Valuable movie sites

The Internet Movie Database
Infinitely useful and vast, although not always accurate for older films.

Greatest Films
One person's painstaking and comprehensive collection of reviews, stills, plot summaries, quotations, and lots more.

Moderntimes
An elegantly designed and content-heavy collection of articles, sound clips, still images, and more, with sections on the author's favorite actors (most notably Edward G. Robinson and Barbara Stanwyck). Fascinating section about the early history of black people in film.

Classic Film at the Mining Company
Annotated pointers to the Web's collection of film resources.

The Silents Majority
The online journal of silent film.

Taylorlogy
An utterly engrossing collection of newsletters about the unsolved 1922 murder of silent film director William Desmond Taylor. Provides a great deal of social history about early Hollywood, mostly through interviews with silent film stars. Part of the University of New Orleans' Drama and Communications department's collection of silent film sites.

The Silent Film Bookshelf
A collection of primary source material about silent film (contemporary reviews, articles about the industry, and so forth), updated monthly.

Frequently asked questions for alt.movies.silent
Lots more links and pointers to resources, online and off. (Rick Levinson and I maintain these.)

Pre-1950 movies that I've seen

This section lists all the movies made in the years up to 1950 that I've seen in the past while; I include 1950 because All About Eve is so good. I'm slowly writing capsule reviews of each of them, so stay tuned. Each year is (or will be) a link to a page of reviews for that year. Keep in mind: everything before 1927 is silent.

1909: The Light That Came
1911: In the Days of '49
1914: At Dawn; The Squaw Man; Tillie's Punctured Romance
1915: The Birth of a Nation
1916: The Rink
1917: The Poor Little Rich Girl
1919: Back to God's Country; Broken Blossoms; The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari; Don't Shove
1920: The High Sign; The Mark of Zorro; One Week; Page Me!; Suds; Way Down East
1921: The Boat; The Idle Class; The Kid
1922: Nanook of the North; The Primitive Lover
1923: The Covered Wagon; The Love Nest; Our Hospitality; Safety Last; The White Rose
1924: The Navigator
1925: Cyrano de Bergerac; Go West; My Lady of Whims; The Phantom of the Opera; Seven Chances
1926: The Black Pirate; The Desert's Toll; The Fire Brigade; Love 'Em and Leave 'Em; The Son of the Sheik; Sparrows
1927: Call of the Cuckoo; The Fighting Eagle; Getting Gertie's Garter; The Jazz Singer; My Best Girl
1928: The Crowd; Feel My Pulse; The Little Wild Girl; Show People; Speedy; Steamboat Bill, Jr.
1929: Diary of a Lost Girl; The Four Feathers
1930: All Quiet on the Western Front; Animal Crackers; Feet First; The Silent Enemy; The White Hell of Pitz Palu
1931: City Lights; Frankenstein; M; Parlor, Bedroom and Bath; Platinum Blonde
1932: Air Mail; Grand Hotel; I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang; Rain
1933: Dinner at Eight; Duck Soup; The Kennel Murder Case; King Kong; She Done Him Wrong
1934: Friends of Mr. Sweeney; It Happened One Night; The Richest Girl in the World; The Scarlet Pimpernel; The Thin Man; Twentieth Century
1935: The Informer; Lives of a Bengal Lancer; Mark of the Vampire; Riffraff; Top Hat; The Whole Town's Talking
1936: Black Legion; Come and Get It; Dodsworth; The Ex-Mrs. Bradford; Follow the Fleet; The Great Ziegfeld; Libeled Lady; Mr. Deeds Goes to Town; Modern Times; My Man Godfrey; The Prisoner of Shark Island; Swing Time; A Woman Rebels
1937: The Life of Emile Zola; Lost Horizon; The Man Who Could Work Miracles; Quality Street; Stella Dallas; Thunder in the City; You Can't Have Everything
1938: The Adventures of Robin Hood; Bringing Up Baby; The Divorce of Lady X; Jezebel; The Lady Vanishes; Room Service
1939: Bachelor Mother; Beau Geste; The Cat and the Canary; Dark Victory; Drums Along the Mohawk; The Four Feathers; Gunga Din; Honolulu; Mr. Smith Goes to Washington; Ninotchka; The Wizard of Oz; The Women; Wuthering Heights
1940: Angels Over Broadway; Christmas in July; Down Argentine Way; Fantasia; Foreign Correspondent; The Great Dictator; The Great McGinty; His Girl Friday; The Letter; The Philadelphia Story; Pride and Prejudice; Rebecca; Seventeen; Texas; They Drive by Night
1941: Ball of Fire; Buck Privates; Citizen Kane; The Devil and Miss Jones; Ellery Queen's Penthouse Mystery; Here Comes Mr. Jordan; Life with Henry; The Little Foxes; The Maltese Falcon; Meet John Doe; "Pimpernel" Smith; Shadow of the Thin Man; Sullivan's Travels
1942: Across the Pacific; After Midnight with Boston Blackie; Casablanca; Dr. Broadway; The Magnificent Ambersons; The More the Merrier; Mrs. Miniver; Now, Voyager; Once Upon a Honeymoon; The Palm Beach Story; Saboteur; Springtime in the Rockies; Woman of the Year
1944: Bowery to Broadway; Double Indemnity; Gaslight; Going My Way; Hail the Conquering Hero; Laura; The Miracle of Morgan's Creek; To Have and Have Not; The Woman in the Window
1945: The Bells of St. Mary's; Brief Encounter; Christmas in Connecticut; The Lost Weekend; Murder, He Says; Wonder Man
1946: The Best Years of Our Lives; Great Expectations; A Matter of Life and Death (released in the US as Stairway to Heaven); Notorious; To Each His Own
1947: Boomerang!; Crossfire; Dead Reckoning; Magic Town; Monsieur Verdoux; Odd Man Out; Out of the Past; Song of the Thin Man
1948: Key Largo; Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House; State of the Union; The Treasure of the Sierra Madre; Unfaithfully Yours
1949: I Was a Male War Bride; The Heiress; Thieves' Highway; Whisky Galore!
1950: All About Eve; Cage of Gold

Emily Way (emily@vex.net)
Last updated December 27, 1999 background by