This is a history and critical appreciation of an unusually fertile period for the production of great or near-great silent films: late 1927 through early 1929, in the midst of the tumult and upheaval of Hollywood’s transition from silent to sound. It offers in-depth looks at several of the best of these films and discusses the gifted artists such as Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Lillian Gish who helped bring them to life, even as the art they had taken to remarkable heights was about to be obliterated. It depicts some of the silent medium’s most talented filmmakers and their efforts—in the face of inescapable technological change—to give their dying art a rousing last hurrah.

The author of multiple books on film history, David Meuel has also published two books of poems, more than two dozen short stories, and hundreds of articles on subjects ranging from U.S. national parks to high technology. He lives in Menlo Park, California.

David Meuel
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages:
Bibliographic Info: ca. 10 photos, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2022
pISBN: 978-1-4766-6895-6
eISBN: 978-1-4766-4859-0
Imprint: McFarland