Hollywood: A Celebration of the American Silent Film is a 13-part British documentary miniseries produced by Thames Television and first aired on ITV in 1980. Written and directed by film historians Kevin Brownlow and David Gill, the series examines the history of The Silent Age of Hollywood and traces the development of the American Silent Movie, from its beginnings in the late 1890s to its ending with the Rise of the Talkies in the late 1920s.
Hollywood focuses on the development of the eponymous town becoming a film capital, its stars, its scandals, its filmmakers, technical aspects like stuntwork and cinematography, its interest in The Western, and the impact of World War I. This development is mainly presented through clips of silent films and interviews with surviving actors, actresses, directors, cameramen, crew, writers, and other individuals who experienced film history in the making. James Mason narrates the series, with musical compositions provided by Carl Davis. Hollywood was essential in the preservation of early film and the recollections of the people who lived in those times.
Brownlow and Gill would continue making documentaries on the silent film: Unknown Chaplin (1983), Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow (1987), Harold Lloyd: The Third Genius (1989), D. W. Griffith: Father of Film (1993), and Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood (1995).
Tropes:
- Abusive Parents: Episode Twelve, "Star Treatment", showed Clara Bow and John Gilbert suffering this in their childhoods.
- Book Ends:
- Episode One, "Pioneers", begins with the premiere of The Jazz Singer. Episode Thirteen, "End of an Era", covers that film and its impact.
- The closing music of Episodes One and Thirteen uses a different composition of the main theme from the one used for the episodes in between.
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California Doubling: Inverse; probably the first use of this trope. In the documentary, Cecil B. DeMille claimed The Squaw Man was filmed in five states. In truth, all of it was filmed at or near Hollywood. - Convicted by Public Opinion: Despite Fatty Arbuckle’s acquittal, the public had made up their mind. As Karl Brown puts it:"Everything was proven in his favor. But the people had put a burst bladder against his enormous weight and said, 'Yeah... but we know what REALLY happened.'"
- Covers Always Lie: The HBO/Thames VHS covers display several inaccurate pictures for the subject material:
- The cover of Episode Two depicts Charlie Chaplin directing The Gold Rush. Although Chaplin makes several brief appearances in the episode, said picture – showing the comedian on location in Alaska – has nothing to do with the subject of the development of the town Hollywood.
- Zigzagged for the cover of Episode Thirteen. The picture is of the ending to Modern Times. As the last official silent film in Hollywood, it is an appropriate picture for the episode's subject matter (the end of the silent movie), even though it shows no clip of the film itself.
- Dated History:
- The series, unfortunately, took part in the contemporary Slut-Shaming of Virginia Rappe for her role in the Fatty Arbuckle trial. The rumors about her allegedly sordid character (that she had sexually-transmitted diseases, had an abortion, and was involved in badgering wealthy people) have since been disproven.
- Demythification:
- The series set out to show the value of the silent movie. The widespread consensus was that the films were primitive, jerky, melodramatic curiosities on blurry prints played at an accelerated speed and a twinkling piano. In truth, silent films in the 1920s were sophisticated, shown on visually pristine prints with proper speed and an orchestrated score. Episode One shows the difference by comparing the primitive one-reeler The Life of an American Fireman (1901) and the sophisticated The Fire Brigade (1926).
- Episode Twelve, "Star Treatment" set out to disprove the myth that John Gilbert's career failed because of a bad voice, showing other factors were responsible.
- End of an Age: Episode Thirteen, "End of an Era", chronicles how the rise of the talkies brought the curtain down on the Silent Age and the careers of many of its figures.
- Exposition Diagram: Episodes Five and Ten would present animated diagrams depicting how stunts and effects were done (Douglas Fairbanks’ sail-ripping descent in The Black Pirate, Mary Pickford kissing Mary Pickford in Little Lord Fauntleroy [1921]).
- Hired Guns: In Episode Two, "In the Beginning," a conflict breaks out in New Jersey between the Patents Trust, a collection of film companies (among them Thomas Edison) with a legal monopoly on the Film Industry, and the Independent filmmakers, who refused to join or cooperate with them. The Patents Trust employed this trope to compel (by threat, damage, or force) the Independents to bow down to their rules or quit. This eventually forced the Independents to leave New Jersey and head for the relative safety of California.
- Homage: In Episode Nine, "Out West", John Wayne reveals that his stance at the end of The Searchers was a nod to silent-film cowboy star Harry Carey.
- Match Cut: Episode Two, "In the Beginning", begins with a look at Hollywood circa 1979. A frozen shot of the modern city dissolves to what it looked like in the early 1900s.
- Mouthing the Profanity: In Episode Four, Raoul Walsh reveals that in one scene from his film What Price Glory, stars Edmund Lowe and Victor McLaglen actually swore profanity to each other! Their voices were inaudible because it was a silent movie, but audience members could recognize the words via lip reading.
- Old Media Are Evil: Newspaper companies (especially William Randolph Heart) exploit the Fatty Arbuckle Scandal to sell their issues. Some papers fake pictures showing the Comedian in jail.
- Propaganda Machine: Zigzagged. When America entered World War I in 1917, Hollywood made propaganda films showing the evil and depravity of the German soldier. However, President Woodrow Wilson got embarrassed by these negative representations, hindering his attempts to get just peace from Germany. When that was attained, Washington informed Hollywood to cut down on the anti-German propaganda.
- Recycled Soundtrack: Composer Carl Davis used classical music for several clips:
- The Ride of the Klu Klux Klan from The Birth of a Nation (1915) used "Die Valkyrie" by Richard Wagner.
- The Banquet Hall sequence from Intolerance used a piece from Samson and Delilah by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.
- The Ending of the aforementioned film used a sample from Die Allmacht D. 852 by Franz Schubert.
- The Ending of The Thief of Bagdad (1924) used a piece from Scheherezade by Rimsky-Korsakov.
- Seeking Sanctuary: After threats from the Patents Trust, Independent filmmakers moved to the safety of California to continue their careers without trouble.
- Silent Movie: The series' use of footage is majorly this. Films that were given greater focus were The Birth of a Nation (1915), Ben-Hur (1925), The Big Parade, and Greed.
- Splash of Color: Although most films are black-and-white, there are occasional scenes done in 2-strip Technicolor from Ben-Hur (1925), Star Struck (1925), The Black Pirate, and The Hollywood Revue of 1929.
- Stunt Double: Inverse. Episode Five is devoted to the Stuntman, with interviews by Yakima Canutt and Harvey Parry, who doubled for Harold Lloyd and John Barrymore respectively. Zigzagged by Douglas Fairbanks, who did many of his stunts close up, but would use this trope for a distant shot stunt.
- Talking Heads: Brownlow interviewed pretty much all the surviving people from The Silent Age of Hollywood:
- Actors (Lillian Gish, Gloria Swanson, Viola Dana, Jackie Coogan, Mary Astor, Leatrice Joy, Blanche Sweet, Louise Brooks, Janet Gaynor, Colleen Moore, Dolores Costello, Charles "Buddy" Rogers, Eleanor Boardman, John Wayne, etc.)
- Directors and producers (King Vidor, Frank Capra, Hal Roach, Allan Dwan, Henry King, William A. Wellman, Raoul Walsh, etc.)
- Crew (Karl Brown, Byron Haskins, Harvey Parry, Yakima Cannutt, A. Arnold Gillespie, Harold Schuster, Henry Hathaway, etc.)
- Writers (Cedric Belfridge, Adela Rogers St. Johns, Sam Marx, Anita Loos, etc.)
- Relatives and acquaintances (Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Albert Valentino, Leatrice Gilbert, Agnes DeMille, Lord Mountbatten, etc.)
- War Is Hell: In Episode Four, "Hollywood Goes to War," focused on World War I, several films made after the conflict served to dispel the romantic view of the war, depicting battles as senseless death and destruction.
