I love old animation, not only is there something pleasingly odd about the style of 1920s / 30s stop motion but changes in culture and society in general become so much clearer when viewed through caricature.

I can't help but find something creepy about old silent animation from the 20s and 30s (although that might have something to do with the fact that I've been watching these while listening to Tom Waits!!), even though they were done in all innocence there's something just not quite right when you look back at them.

This is a German animation from 1930 about a wolf who wants to eat seven baby goats who have been left home alone by their mother . . .



Some dinosaurs from 1923!!




I've always had a great love of silent films in general. Everyone knows about Nosferatu and Metropolis, but there are loads of other great films out there from that era. Waxworks (1924) even features an appearance from Spring Heeled Jack (click the link to read our Spring Heeled Jack article from issue two) and is as far as I know the only film to feature both Spring Heeled Jack and Jack The Ripper.



I would also strongly recommend watching the truly stunning The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari from 1920. Here's the full movie (these films are now public domain), be warned it's the best part of an hour long!!



Both of these films star the fantastic Conrad Veidt who, for my money, was one of the great actors of early film.
Anyone else into this sort of thing?

Dr Caligari is superb- The Duke of Yorks had a version which had been hand tinted a few years back... one of the most aamzing things I ever did see. See also- 'Sunrise' tthe original 'Cat and the Canary' and probably a few others I'll remember later.... Check out as well 'the alloy orchestra' a very tom waits-ish american band who specialize in soundtracking old silents....

I defiantly check out The Alloy Orchestra, that sounds right up my street!!

London After Midnight (not the dodgy goth band) is one of the lost movies of the era, there's often been mutterings about bit's of footage coming to light, but nothing substantial. All that really survives is a few stills and Lon Chaney's headshots . . .



Luckily classics like the much referenced Der Golem still exist . . .



As does the stunning 1926 version of Faust



Going back to animation I love this really odd stop motion animation of a bird in a junkyard eating bits of a car!

The 1910(!!!) version of Frankenstein . . .



The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz also from 1910 . . .

I know it says 'silent' in the title but I have to share this, it's only just a talkie (it's even referred to as a 'talkietoon' in the opening titles, that's how much of a novelty it was). This is a Betty Boop & Cab Calloway (the fella who sings Minnie The Moocher in The Blues Brothers, in case anyone was wondering) cartoon set to Minnie The Moocher, this version has been edited down a bit so you only get the musical number. In the original full length edit Betty has an argument with her parents and decides to run away with her friend 'Bimbo' which is where this version comes in. In the full length version there's a nice shot where Betty's father's head turns into a gramophone and her mother changes the record, she actually changes over a wax cylinder!!



I have no idea why the ghost of a singing walrus lives in a cave just outside New York!

Antique animation can indeed be creepy, but nothing is as unsettling as the Donald Duck Nazi special Der Fuhrer's Face. Here, improve the mind Donald, with a copy of Mein Kampf...:-



I still want an Adolf Hitler cuckoo clock though.

This is the first filmed version of Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, from 1903, and one of the earliest British narrative films also. It's rather endearing I think, even some of the effects are quite interesting and impressive today.

That Donald Duck cartoon is really quite unsettling!!

Here's Oswald, The Lucky Rabbit . . . .

Charlie Chaplin one of my favourites the blind girl with the flowers, the kid and this one

An undoubted masterpiece and a film that has done more to intill the idea of blackness and evil as endemic in humanity than just about any other.

Incredible artistic achievement:





IQ//**

Here's a couple of films made by Thomas Edison in 1900!

Uncle Josh's Nightmare . . .


Why Mrs. Jones Got a Divorce . . .


And this is apparently the first 'film' ever made. It's called Strongman Sandow and was made by Thomas Edison in 1894!!


Eugen Sandow is an interesting character in his own right.