Sam Taylor

Mary Pickford's first talkie and the film that won her the Academy Award for Best Actress, the second ever awarded. She plays Norma Besant, a Southern coquette whose flirtatious ways mask a genuine love for Michael Jeffery, a man her domineering father forbids her to see. When the father takes matters into his own hands, the consequences spiral toward tragedy. The film was a deliberate departure for Pickford, who shed her curls and childlike image to play a sophisticated young woman, though the transition was not entirely smooth: early sound technology was unforgiving, and her performance has a stiffness that critics noted at the time. Still, the film was a box office success and proved that Pickford could make the leap into talkies. It is also notable as one of the earliest talkies to use the word "damn." Published in 1929, the film entered the public domain in the United States on January 1, 2025.

Drama · Romance

Harold Lloyd's first feature as an independent producer, and one of his best. He plays a stuttering, girl-shy tailor's apprentice who writes a bogus advice book on how to woo women, then has to live up to it when he falls for a wealthy girl visiting from the city. The film builds to a celebrated chase in which Harold races a jalopy, a horse, a trolley, and finally a stolen motorcycle (with no driver) through Los Angeles traffic to stop his beloved's wedding. Lloyd's gift was for ordinary-guy heroism, and here the romantic setup and the stunt climax feed each other perfectly. It was the first release from his own Harold Lloyd Corporation. The film entered the public domain in the United States in 2020.

Comedy · Romance · Silent

A Harold Lloyd feature comedy directed by Fred Newmeyer and Sam Taylor. Lloyd plays a young newlywed whose blissful marriage is complicated when his formidable mother-in-law moves in, followed by her shiftless son and her henpecked husband. The film is structured as a series of domestic comic set pieces, culminating in the famous sequence where Lloyd tries to drive home a carload of groceries while a streetcar full of passengers watches in horror. The film's gentle satire of family life and its expertly staged physical comedy make it one of Lloyd's most charming features. The film is in the public domain.

Comedy · Silent

A 1927 American silent romantic comedy film directed by Sam Taylor, starring Mary Pickford and Charles "Buddy" Rogers. Maggie Johnson (Pickford) is a stock girl at Merrill's department store, where she falls for Joe Grant (Rogers), a new coworker. What Maggie doesn't know is that Joe is actually the son of the store's wealthy owner, working incognito to prove himself without his father's influence. When Joe is called back to his family, Maggie follows him and discovers the truth about his identity. This was Mary Pickford's last silent film. Rogers and Pickford later married in 1937. The film features an early uncredited appearance by Carole Lombard as a flirty salesgirl. Charles Rosher received an Academy Award nomination for his cinematography.

Comedy · Romance

A small-town clerk moves to the city to make his fortune and tells his sweetheart back home he is a success. When she visits, he has to keep up the act, and to earn real money he arranges a publicity stunt in which a friend will climb the outside of the department store. The friend is chased off by a policeman, so the clerk does the climb himself, floor by floor, dodging pigeons, a collapsing ledge, a flagpole, and finally a clock that leaves him hanging from its hands high above the street. The climb is the most famous image in silent comedy. Harold Lloyd produced the film, Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor directed, and real buildings on real streets were used with carefully placed platforms just out of frame. The film is in the public domain.

Comedy · Action · Silent

Harold Lloyd plays a small-town boy so primed for college life that he has rehearsed his entrance greeting in front of a mirror for months. He arrives on campus full of pep and immediately becomes the patsy of the football team and the joke of the student body, all while believing he is the most popular man in school. The film builds to a football finale where he finally gets his chance on the field. Lloyd's everyman optimism was never better matched to a story, and The Freshman was one of the biggest hits of the silent era. The glasses character, Lloyd's signature screen persona, is in full form here. Published in 1925, it is in the public domain in the United States.

Comedy · Silent

A hypochondriac millionaire sails to a tropical island resort seeking rest and quiet, only to find himself in the middle of a revolution led by a brutal dictator. Harold Lloyd's feature-length comedy, directed by Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor. The film entered the public domain through non-renewal.

Comedy

Mary Pickford's first talkie and the film that won her the Academy Award for Best Actress, the second ever awarded. She plays Norma Besant, a Southern coquette whose flirtatious ways mask a genuine love for Michael Jeffery, a man her domineering father forbids her to see. When the father takes matters into his own hands, the consequences spiral toward tragedy. The film was a deliberate departure for Pickford, who shed her curls and childlike image to play a sophisticated young woman, though the transition was not entirely smooth: early sound technology was unforgiving, and her performance has a stiffness that critics noted at the time. Still, the film was a box office success and proved that Pickford could make the leap into talkies. It is also notable as one of the earliest talkies to use the word "damn." Published in 1929, the film entered the public domain in the United States on January 1, 2025.

Drama · Romance