Thanks to the popularity of home video, especially DVD, a lot of horror classics are being dusted off and offered to fans.  One sub-genre that's getting the DVD treatment is the classic silent horror film, so now we can all see and "hear"...

By PROF. GRIFFIN

(Prof. Griffin is the host of The Midnight Shadow Show, Austin, Texas' first and only horror host. He has hosted several movies for local stations Fox 7 and KVC 13 in Austin during the Halloween season and is the official Halloween spokesthing for Goodwill Industries in Austin. Professor Griffin is the alter ego of Joseph Fotinos.  Mr. Fotinos is a professional actor and comedian and has been very active in the local and national improv and sketch comedy scene.  He has performed for HBO, Montreal's Just for Laughs Comedy Festival, and several off-Broadway shows. Hosting horror films comes naturally for Mr. Fotinos as he often does this from the comfort of his own living room for anyone who happens to be present. You can read a bit about him here.)

So without any further ado, let’s begin.

Nightmares. We all have had them, and we all take a strange pleasure in reliving the most unusual and surreal horrors to our friends or ourselves. That is what Silent Movie horror is to me. These images are not just flickering light casting shadows on a large screen, they are the stuff of nightmare; a sweaty fever dream of the most unbelievable visions and creatures.

Film has always been a reflection of life around it, and in its early days it was an imitation of that life. However, audiences slowly started to appreciate the illusion of death that could be presented as a morbid distraction.

The first "horror" film ever made was in 1896. It was Le Manoir du Diable, or The Manor Of The Devil. The legendary film pioneer Georges Melies basically presented this as a series of images designs to shock and thrill. The scene that classifies this as a true horror movie is the transformation of the devil into vampire bat. Audiences apparently wanted more.

Film looked to the classics of Literature for inspiration and basis for story. To this end, Thomas Edison’s studio created the first screen Frankenstein in 1910. Thought to be lost for many years, this very choppy and surreal piece feature a "Monster" born in an oven, bubbling in a stew pot of chemicals. In this version, the creature is played by an Edison Company player Charles Ogle,

Along the same theme is Der Golem (1914 and 1920). Paul Wegener directed and produced and starred as the title monster. He was truly inspired to produce this labor of love, and its remake and sequels, by the story he heard while visiting Prague. The story of Rabbi Loew and the man of clay he created to protect the town, with Frankenstein-like results. The creation scene as the rabbi draws a magical circle is echoed again in Faust and later in Metropolis in the creation of Maria.

Truly whenever we think of silent horrors we think of two very important points; German Expressionism and Lon Chaney.

The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari is a tale of madness and control and it’s subsequent loss. The traveling sideshow with its mesmerist Dr. Caligari (Werner Krauss) and his prize attraction Cesare (Conrad Veidt) is now a classic of typical horror but presented here it becomes a mythic dream within a dream within a dream.

Who is mad and who is sane and are we as an audience witnessing the horror or are we a part of it? Sleepwalkers like Cesare were a common theme with silent horrors. In the realm of sleep we are powerless to fight any suggestions or influence and often live out things that in our walking world, we would never ever do, like sex...or murder.

Haxan (Witchcraft Through The Ages) and Nosferatu have beautiful sleepwalkers and the horrors they encounter in their Nocturnal wanderings.

Nosferatu by the by, is probably one of the most admired and studied silent horror films in history. This dramatic and dreamlike retelling of Bram Stoker’s work was a large copyright infringement that barely survived destruction.

Max Shreck’s portrayal of Count Orlock is little more than a sleepwalker without any real emotion, a "living" dead man without a soul. This is exactly why it works on that basic creeps under your skin level. In 1922, the very embodiment of disease and filth was Count Orlock. One more thing about Max Shreck and Nosferatu, because of William DeFoe’s brilliant performance of Shreck/Orlock in Shadow Of The Vampire, we will be seeing a lot more studies and examinations of this film and this actor.

I have heard and read many different reports on the identity of this actor. The one I believe is that Max Shreck was actually actor Alfred Able playing the part under a pseudonym. After all, Shreck means terror. And what better name to be known as when you are portraying a ‘thing’ of nightmares.

The 1920’s also gave us one of the most definitive portrayals of Robert Louis Stevenson’s bi-polar scientist, Dr. Henry Jekyll, and the result of his repression and guilt, Mr. Edward Hyde. John Barrymore has the title role(s) and hams it up as only Barrymore can do.

There is a lot of melding of this version with Oscar Wilde’s The Picture Of Dorian Gray. Jekyll’s future father-in-law temps him and introduces him to the darker side of his life, thus opening the door for the release of Hyde. In this way we have a much more heavy-handed Jekyll who is shocked at such debauchery and a much more leering Hyde. The nightmares continue in this film when Jekyll goes to sleep and dreams that a giant spider scuttles across the floor and onto the bed to smother him. When Jekyll wakes, he has turned into Hyde. It was no coincidence that Hyde himself was very spider-like in his appearance.

Hollywood’s actual contribution in the silent era of horror was little more than filmed mystery plays and examples of man’s inhumanity to man. One of the most prolific Hollywood directors in the 1920’s was Tod Browning, and his most worked with actor was Lon Chaney.

Alonzo Chaney was born on April Fool’s Day to deaf and mute parents. This rather quaint fact is told and re-told by film biographers and used as a reasoning tool for his amazing pantomime abilities. I can do one better, he was just a good actor. He brought real emotion and pathos to his many characters and made them touch us in ways both beautiful and frightening. Teamed with Browning, Chaney made a series of films including The Unholy Three (1925), London After Midnight (1927), The Unknown (1927), West of Zanzibar (1926), and Where East is East (1929)

Browning’s history in carnivals shows in most of these but it’s The Unknown that I would classify as my favorite collaboration between these two. Joan Crawford and Norman Kerry star with Chaney as Alonzo The Armless Wonder. In reality a murderer hiding from the police in a sideshow. What Alonzo does to himself for the love of Crawford and his insane revenge when she refuses him make this a truly gruesome film in the Brothers Grimm flavor.

Chaney is probably best known for films like the Hunchback Of Notre Dame and The Phantom Of The Opera. In both films he creates characters that frighten us and induce our sympathy. Hunchback is a grand historical piece and not really much of a horror movie. Impressive is Chaney with that rubber hump strapped to his back, legs bowed and banded, cavorting and hoping like a deranged ape.

Phantom Of The Opera is my all-time favorite Chaney film. His Erik is a classic figure of tragedy and terror. We all know the story and we all remember the unmasking scene, but I get chills when I watch it to this day.

Mary Philbin (Christine) creeps up on the Phantom while he’s playing his organ (the organ standing proudly as in a funeral parlor in his lair, juxtaposed with the musical piece the Phantom is playing about a famous lover of life and women, "Don Juan Triumphant") and reaches for the mask. His body tenses, and she pulls back…then Christine goes in for the goal. The shot has been from the side and suddenly jumps to front as the mask is pulled off to reveal the ruined skull-like face underneath.

Robert Bloch (author of Psycho) describes that moment as "the naked face of horror." Brilliant about that shot the faces of the two on screen at the same time. In a matter of moments, Erik’s face goes from shock and surprise to rage and horror, Christine’s face meanwhile is still smiling and hopeful that this beautiful man will turn around and be the handsome angel she imagines he is, but quickly turns into disbelief and fear. It’s a beautiful moment.

The silent horrors I’ve mentioned are, of course, only a portion of the amazing use of light and shadow in these films. They where a reflection of our life and more importantly,death. In films like The Man Who Laughs and The Cat And The Canary (1928) cinema became the master of "sight" horror. Mystery was the name of the game and "real" horror was often explained away in a revelation in the final reel, but death was always present.

After the lights go out and the darkness overwhelms us, we enter this silent world of silver horror. Flickering menacingly in our minds long after the film is over, these classics opened the door to horror films. That door by the way is decorated with a grinning death’s head.

Rest in Peace--Prof. Griffin.

Thanks, Prof., and we hope your well-chosen survey of the classic silent horror film scene will prompt some of our readers to check out a few "quiet quakers."  They will not be disappointed if they do.

Article copyright © Prof. Griffin

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"These images are not just flickering light casting shadows on a large screen, they are the stuff of nightmare; a sweaty fever dream of the most unbelievable visions and creatures..."