Alan Crosland

John Barrymore at the peak of his matinee-idol powers, swashbuckling through Borgia-era Italy as the legendary lover. Directed by Alan Crosland for Warner Bros., it's a lavish silent spectacle — duels, dungeons, and Lucrezia Borgia herself — but its place in history is technical: Don Juan was the first feature released with a synchronized Vitaphone musical score and sound effects, the experiment that led directly to The Jazz Singer a year later. Mary Astor and a young Myrna Loy are among the women pursued through its nearly two hours. As a work published before 1930, it is in the public domain in the United States.

Adventure · Romance · Silent

A Vitaphone-era synchronized-sound historical drama from Warner Bros., directed by Alan Crosland (who would direct *The Jazz Singer* the same year). Dolores Costello stars as Dolores Vasquez, the daughter of an old Spanish California family, and Warner Oland plays Chris Buckwell, a villainous landowner with underworld connections who schemes to steal the Vasquez property. The film climaxes with the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. While the film has no audible dialogue, it was released with a synchronized musical score and sound effects via the Vitaphone sound-on-disc system. As a work published before 1930, the film is in the public domain in the United States.

Drama · History · Romance

A loose, swashbuckling portrait of the 15th-century French poet Francois Villon, played by John Barrymore at the height of his stage and screen fame. Villon is a tavern brawler and versifier who runs afoul of King Louis XI, played by the German actor Conrad Veidt in a Hollywood sojourn between Caligari and his later work in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari's shadow. The production was lavish, with sets by William Cameron Menzies and an estimated million-dollar budget. The only surviving domestic print was found years later in Barrymore's own former mansion by its next occupant, Edgar Bergen, and donated to the American Film Institute. It entered the public domain in the United States in 2023.

Adventure · Drama · Silent

A silent comedy directed by Alan Crosland, considered the first film to feature a flapper character and a major influence on the 1920s flapper phenomenon. Olive Thomas stars as Genevieve "Ginger" King, a restless young woman sent to a strict boarding school who rebels against convention, sneaks out to parties, and dreams of romance and adventure. The film captures the spirit of the new generation of young women who defied Victorian expectations of propriety. Thomas, a former Ziegfeld Follies girl, brings a natural charm and modern energy to the role. Tragically, she died later that same year at age 25, making this one of her final films. The film is in the public domain.

Comedy · Drama · Silent

The Jazz Singer is the film that ended the silent era. It was the first feature-length motion picture with synchronized music and lip-synchronous speech, and its release in 1927 announced that sound had arrived. Al Jolson plays a young man torn between his father's wish that he become a cantor and his own dream of singing on the Broadway stage. Most of the film is silent, with intertitles, but Jolson's songs and a few spoken lines stop the show. The moment he ad-libs, "Wait a minute, wait a minute, you ain't heard nothin' yet," is one of the most famous in cinema history. The film entered the public domain in the United States on January 1, 2023.

Drama · Musical · Music

The young Chevalier Fabien des Grieux sacrifices wealth, family, and vocation for the bewitching Manon Lescaut, who cannot abandon her taste for luxury even as it destroys them both. John Barrymore and Dolores Costello star in this Vitaphone-scored adaptation of Abbé Prévost's novel. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Romance · Drama · History