They made some great films before sound. Too bad they are treated as "quaint" by those who present them. Many of them deserve better.
I love Buster Keaton, and I love "The General". Unfortunately, the only version of it I've seen on videotape has rinky-dink generic piano music for a sound track, with no attempt whatsoever to match the music to the action.
But the thing about silent movies is that THEY WERE NOT SILENT! Even the smallest movie houses had a piano player who played along with them. Many of the big city houses had full orchestras, and the package they received from the studios often included not only the film itself, but a fully orchestrated musical score to be played along with it.
Somebody, sometime, will make a mint by taking some of these old gems and doing them justice with good music, sound effects and spoken dialogue and offering them to TV. (If you pay attention, you'll see that the actors in many of the silents are actually saying the lines. A little judicious dubbing and you've got a "sound" movie.)
Come on, one of you movie lovers in the business. Take a chance. I'd love to see "The General" with that kind of treatment, and I'll bet a lot of other people would too.
I love Buster Keaton, and I love "The General". Unfortunately, the only version of it I've seen on videotape has rinky-dink generic piano music for a sound track, with no attempt whatsoever to match the music to the action.
But the thing about silent movies is that THEY WERE NOT SILENT! Even the smallest movie houses had a piano player who played along with them. Many of the big city houses had full orchestras, and the package they received from the studios often included not only the film itself, but a fully orchestrated musical score to be played along with it.
Somebody, sometime, will make a mint by taking some of these old gems and doing them justice with good music, sound effects and spoken dialogue and offering them to TV. (If you pay attention, you'll see that the actors in many of the silents are actually saying the lines. A little judicious dubbing and you've got a "sound" movie.)
Come on, one of you movie lovers in the business. Take a chance. I'd love to see "The General" with that kind of treatment, and I'll bet a lot of other people would too.
