MOTOR PIRATES (1906) American release title The Modern Pirates – This British action short was directed by England’s monumentally underrated silent film director Arthur Melbourne Cooper. Motor Pirates clocks in at under 9 minutes but crams quite a bit into that runtime.
A pair of brilliant criminals have designed an armored vehicle in which to carry out crimes. And remember, this was before tanks were being used in combat. The armored car also sports a few diesel-punk gadgets.
The Motor Pirates drive their vehicle on to a country estate where they employ its front-end “suction feature” to vacuum up several chickens. Four men of the estate come out with guns blazing to stop the crooks, but they shoot down their victims, leaving three dead and one barely clinging to life as they drive off.
Personally, I wouldn’t want murder charges hanging over my head for a crime as petty as chicken-poaching, but what can you do? A child comes along and the victim who is clinging to life has the little girl go and fetch a police officer. Continue reading
BESS THE DETECTRESS – Bess Meredyth was a silent film starlet, writer and director. This particular blog post will focus on her Bess the Detectress character at Universal Studios but in the future Balladeer’s Blog will cover other aspects of her life and career. 
BESS THE DETECTRESS IN THE OLD MILL AT MIDNIGHT (Jun 1914) – The first short in the Bess the Detectress series. When the stage show she was performing in closes as a flop, Bess is left scrambling for her next meal. She spots a Wanted poster offering a reward of $200.00 (equal to $6,300 in 2025) for the capture of the male outlaw Honey Hall. 
ASTREA – One of the most enigmatic figures from the Silent Film Era. No precise birth or death dates are known. Her surname was supposedly Barbieri but not even that is certain. 
JUSTITIA (1919) – Astrea’s most well-known movie. She plays a prim, ladylike noblewoman who becomes a fiery, two-fisted champion of justice when need be. 
MABEL NORMAND – Born Amabel Ethelreid Normand on November 9th, 1893 in New York, this silent film comedienne blazed trails for countless subsequent actresses as well as female directors and screenwriters. Like so many silent film stars Normand is largely neglected today except for my fellow silent movie geeks and I. 
INDISCRETION OF BETTY (1910) – Mabel had her first starring role in this short drama but had appeared in an unknown number of previous films in smaller roles. Mabel played Betty, the wife in the marriage of a social-climbing couple. 
HER AWAKENING (1911) – The above-mentioned short in which Mabel caught the eye of Mack Sennett, who then signed her for comedy collaborations. In this short drama, Normand played a young lady trying to snare a successful husband. 
THROUGH HIS WIFE’S PICTURE (1911) – Mabel Normand’s first film short with Mack Sennett. He directed and had a supporting role in this 9-minute comedy about a misunderstanding that threatens a marriage. 
20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA (1916) – The famous first cinematic adaptation of the Jules Verne classic. Having loved the version of this pioneering 1916 film that was available during the 1990s and earlier I had put off watching the restored and upgraded version released in 2010. 
Personally, I would have preferred that Universal had just produced a shorter 20,000 Leagues film that was all Leagues and nothing but Leagues, then release The Mysterious Island later as a sequel. In 1916 audience expectations were not yet such that movies had to run the 86 to 105 minutes boasted by surviving copies of 20,000 Leagues. 
SANTA CLAUS (1925) – This 28 minute and 44 second movie was directed by Frank Kleinschmidt, the famous explorer and documentary filmmaker. Santa Claus has an irresistible charm and with its short running time might be the ideal way of introducing silent films to modern day viewers who are unfamiliar with them. 
Santa Claus opens with Saint Nick himself welcoming us with arms spread wide. The story proper gets underway as we join two children – a brother and sister – who sneak out of their beds overnight to wait for Santa in their living room. 
SCROOGE, OR MARLEY’S GHOST (1901) – This big-screen Christmas Carol adaptation was the first-ever cinematic depiction of the Charles Dickens classic. The criminally neglected British silent film pioneer R.W. Paul produced the movie and fellow trailblazer Walter R. Booth directed. 
Back to this 1901 production. Scrooge was originally just over 6 minutes long but like so many movies from the silent era it suffered damage in the decades ahead. About 5 minutes have survived and the film bears a few similarities to the 13-minute Edison Films Christmas Carol from 1910.
CLEOPATRA (1917) – Born Theodosia Goodman in Cincinnati, OH on July 29th, 1885, Theda Bara was the first monumental “man-eating”, femme fatale sex symbol in American cinema. It was inevitable that she would portray one of history’s most notorious women. Only part of this film has survived, and the story is a mix of various accounts of Cleopatra’s activities. 
FRANKENSTEIN (1910) – This first ever cinematic depiction of the classic horror story was produced by Edison Studios, as in Thomas Edison. Luckily Frankenstein has survived, and existing copies run from 11 minutes to 16 minutes. 
Edison Studios efforts were known for their slipshod, seat of their pants nature, and Frankenstein serves up my all-time favorite back-to-back dialogue boards. “Frankenstein leaves for college.” followed by “Two years later Frankenstein has discovered the mystery of life.” (… And Frankenstein Created Cram School) 
SAMSON AND DELILAH (1902) – This 6-minute short was directed by Ferdinand Zecca, Walter Pathe’s right-hand man. This film has survived and is an interesting historical piece. It’s the earliest surviving silent movie about Samson, the iconic Zecca’s first Samson film, plus Samson and Delilah is one of the silent era shorts that were tinted by hand – frame by frame. 
This 1902 effort opens with Samson’s “labor” of tearing off the gate of Gaza, then just dumping it rather than carrying it away. We get other standard bits from the tale of this Biblical Judge including, of course, the seductive Philistine woman Delilah learning that the secret of Samson’s strength lies in his uncut hair. 
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