Betty Bronson

The first film adaptation of J.M. Barrie's play, made with Barrie's blessing and his personal choice of Betty Bronson for the title role. Herbert Brenon's production preserves the stage business, including an animal impersonator as the Darling family's dog Nana and the crocodile, and the famous moment when the audience is asked to clap if they believe in fairies. Ernest Torrence's Captain Hook set the template for every screen Hook to follow, and the film's success helped convince a young Walt Disney that Peter Pan was worth adapting himself. Long thought lost, a copy was recovered by film historian James Card in the 1950s. The film entered the public domain in the United States in 2020.

Fantasy · Adventure · Family · Silent

The follow-up to The Jazz Singer, and the film that actually proved the talkie was a business. Al Jolson plays a waiter who becomes a singing star, marries a woman who leaves him, and loses himself in grief over his young son. The plot is melodrama, but the film's real draw was Jolson singing, and "Sonny Boy" became one of the first songs from a movie to become a hit record on its own. Where The Jazz Singer was mostly silent with a few sung sequences, The Singing Fool leans harder into synchronized dialogue and music, and it outgrossed its predecessor. Warner Bros. built its early sound strategy on films like this, and Jolson's stage-trained, directly-to-camera performing style set the template for early talkie musicals. The 1928 film entered the United States public domain on January 1, 2024.

Musical · Drama