Henry B. Walthall

One of the earliest screen adaptations of Henrik Ibsen, this silent film was produced by D.W. Griffith and directed by George Nichols. Henry B. Walthall, fresh from *The Birth of a Nation*, plays a dual role as both Captain Arling, a dissolute father, and Oswald, the grown son who inherits his father's alcoholism and disease. When Oswald falls in love with the family maid, Regina, not knowing she is his half-sister, the family doctor intervenes to stop the marriage, and the sins of the father are visited upon the son. Erich von Stroheim, then a young technical assistant at Griffith's studio, served as wardrobe assistant and appeared in a bit part. The film was rereleased in 1919 under the title *The Curse*. As a work published before 1930, the film is in the public domain in the United States.

Drama · Silent

D.W. Griffith's Civil War and Reconstruction epic was the first true blockbuster — the film that proved the feature-length movie could be a mass cultural event. Its technical innovations in cross-cutting, night photography, and large-scale battle staging reshaped the language of cinema. It is also infamous propaganda: adapted from Thomas Dixon's novel *The Clansman*, it depicts the Ku Klux Klan as heroic saviors and portrays Black characters — mostly white actors in blackface — through vicious racist caricature. The film sparked protests led by the newly formed NAACP and helped inspire the Klan's real-world revival. It is presented here as a historically significant work that must be understood in that context. Published in 1915, it is in the public domain in the United States.

Drama · History · War · Silent

A 1925 American silent romantic comedy directed by Wesley Ruggles, starring Clara Bow, Donald Keith, and Gilbert Roland. Based on Percy Marks's best-selling 1924 novel about college life at a fictional "Sanford College," the film follows Hugh Carver, a freshman and championship runner who falls for Cynthia Day (Bow), a popular party girl, and finds it impossible to please her while keeping up with his studies and athletic training. The Plastic Age was Clara Bow's first major hit and helped jumpstart her meteoric rise to stardom. The film features early uncredited appearances by Clark Gable, Janet Gaynor, and Carole Lombard.

Comedy · Romance

A faithful silent adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel, directed by the Swedish filmmaker Victor Sjostrom (credited as Victor Seastrom) from a screenplay by Frances Marion. In 17th-century Puritan Boston, Hester Prynne is condemned to wear the scarlet letter for bearing a child out of wedlock, and she refuses to name the father, the Reverend Dimmesdale. Lillian Gish fought to make the picture at MGM and gives a restrained, dignified performance that is often cited as one of her finest. Lars Hanson plays the tortured minister, and Henry B. Walthall reprises the role of Chillingworth he had played in an earlier adaptation. Long considered the best screen version of the novel, the film entered the public domain in the United States in 2022.

Drama · Silent