We are speaking. The Great Dictator isnt just an essential work in the history of film, but it’s a powerful piece of art that feels timely — especially when silence is complicity.

Doors open at 6:30 and we will be screening the first half of the documentary The Tramp and The Dictator for pre-show. It gives excellent context re: the making of The Great Dictator and how Chaplin navigated thumbing his nose at the ruthless, murderous Hitler.

In his controversial masterpiece The Great Dictator, Charlie Chaplin offers both a cutting caricature of Adolf Hitler and a sly tweaking of his own comic persona. Chaplin, in his first pure talkie, brings his sublime physicality to two roles: the cruel yet clownish “Tomainian” dictator and the kindly Jewish barber who is mistaken for him. Featuring Jack Oakie and Paulette Goddard in stellar supporting turns, The Great Dictator, boldly going after the fascist leader before the U.S.’s official entry into World War II, is an audacious amalgam of politics and slapstick that culminates in Chaplin’s famously impassioned speech.

In a film with almost no title cards, FW Murnau gives us a stunning and affective masterpiece in THE LAST LAUGH (1924) which is about a hotel doorman (Emil Jannings) who takes great pride in his position. Aging has made it difficult for him to do this job — and he is demoted to washroom attendant. Humiliated, the old man struggles to carry on with his life and maintain his pride and position in the social hierarchy of his neighborhood.

Mary Pickford plays a “tomboy of the tenements” in this comedy drama, which she also wrote. Filmed over ten weeks, LITTLE ANNIE ROONEY was shot entirely on a set created by art director John D. Schulze at the Pickford Fairbanks Studio. Co-starring William Haines and a wide-ranging, multi-ethnic cast, the film met with huge critical and commercial success upon it’s original release, proving fans and critics alike wanted the then 33-year old Mary to stay a child forever.

Disfigured from wounds suffered in war, pilot Oliver Bradford (Robert Young) runs away in shame from his beautiful fiancée (Hillary Brooke) and his mother (Spring Byington). Renting a cottage from the kind-hearted Mrs. Minnett (Mildred Natwick), Oliver meets the plain-looking but gentle housekeeper Laura Pennington (Dorothy McGuire). As the veteran and the maid begin to learn more about one another, they see past their outer imperfections to discover that true beauty lies within.

Reteaming actress Louise Brooks and director G.W. Pabst (Pandora’s Box), DIARY OF A LOST GIRL is a wonderfully salacious adaptation of Margarethe Bohme’s scintillating novel, in which the naive daughter of a middle class pharmacist is seduced by her father’s assistant, only to be disowned and sent to a repressive home for wayward girls. She escapes, searches for her child, and ends-up in a high-class brothel, only to turn the tables on the society which had abused her. Brooks delivers a tour-de-force performance that helped cement her status as one of cinema’s most luminescent beauties.

“A deliciously sordid soap opera…[starring] one of the most iconic stars that cinema has ever seen!” -Wendy Ide, The Times

You’ve likely seen SAFETY LAST! — maybe even THE FRESHMAN or SPEEDY, but have you seen GIRL SHY? Often overlooked in favor of the aforementioned Harold Lloyd gems, GIRL SHY is a fun and quirky romance, complete with awkward glances, swoony daydreaming, a disruptive dog, and a scheming bigamist. While Keaton was known as the master of daredevil stunts, Lloyd matches skill in this film with one of the most epic race/chase sequences, as he utilizes just about every mode of transportation you can imagine. Jobyna Ralston brings her radiance, skill, and chemistry — and the Robert Israel score makes this one of Lloyd’s best feature films. Give it a chance. You won’t regret it.

Before the film we will be joined by silent film historian, composer, and accompanist Ben Model. He will be speaking about the newly restored Undercrank Productions release of THE BAT (1926) as well as his process in composing scores for films — as well as accompaniment.

The Bat is one of the best and most enjoyable examples of the popular old dark house genre. A stylish combination of laughs and thrills, Mary Roberts Rinehart’s classic had thrilled audiences on stage before it came to the screen in 1926. Director Roland West was a master visual stylist with a penchant for the macabre. In The Bat he expertly manipulated light and shadow, and assembled a top-notch production crew that included expert art direction by William Cameron Menzies, and stunning photography by Arthur Edeson and Gregg Toland. The cast, which includes Louise Fazenda, Jack Pickford, Jewel Carmen and Arthur Housman, deftly support the ominous mood while providing plenty of amusement. A hit when it opened, the film was also influential, as the masked figure of the master criminal The Bat had a profound effect on the young Bob Kane, who cited this film and its sound remake as one of his main inspirations for the creation of Batman.

“Never has a picture been better photographed. It is as clear and beautiful as your first memory.” -New York Daily News.

The very first film adaptation of the J. M. Barrie’s timeless play, PETER PAN was a smash sensation in its day. Barrie sold the rights to Paramount for a hefty sum, and the studio closely adapted the original text, translating the stage production to screen with wit, heart, and a bevy of still-thrilling special effects spectacular. 17-year-old Betty Bronson plays the mischievous leader of the lost boys with impish glee, Ernest Torrence tears through the scenery as Captain Hook, and legendary Chinese-American starlet Anna May Wong appears as Princess Tiger Lily. Virtuoso cinematographer James Wong Howe filmed the production with his trademark deep-focus clarity. The result is a stirring film that brings the viewer closest to the original magnificence of Barrie’s play. The film even inspired Walt Disney to create his own animated adaptation.

For November, we might all need a little comforting escapism - and will be showing one of the best films you've never seen, SO THIS IS PARIS (1926) from comedic master Ernst Lubitsch. A love quadrangle of mixed up communications and feelings, Lubitsch deftly juggles the chaos of love and lies colliding in the most humorous of ways -- climaxing with a chaotic and transcendent jazz ball, with more feathers and sparkles than you can shake a tailfeather at. You won't want to miss this treasure of a film. (rescheduled from September)

$5 — TICKETS

Silent and Spooky

Come join us for a magical evening at the National Building Arts Center, where crates of salvaged ornament from lost theaters become the backdrop for an unforgettable one-night popup cinema experience. Curated by Silents, Please! STL, our program of rarely-seen spooky shorts runs the full spectrum from terrifying to mystifying to absolutely hilarious.

Need more silence? We got you! Indulge your shoppy side with a silent auction benefitting NBAC. Our lineup features amazing goodies from sponsors including the Angad Art Hotel, STL-Style, BarK, and many more. With s'mores galore and liquid treats from Urban Chestnut Brewing Company, it's sure to be a night of memorable entertainment.

Please note that this event will be held in a spooky unheated warehouse-style space that is open to the outdoors on one side. The outdoor space will include a fire pit.

About NBAC

The National Building Arts Center is a unique, emergent study center housing the nation's largest and most diversified collection of building artifacts, supported with a research library offering broad holdings in architecture and allied arts. Learn more at nationalbuildingarts.org.

TICKETS $20

The last person to die on New Year’s Eve before the clock strikes twelve is doomed to take the reins of Death’s chariot and work tirelessly collecting fresh souls for the next year. So says the legend that drives The Phantom Carriage (Körkarlen), directed by the father of Swedish cinema, Victor Sjöström. The story, based on a novel by Nobel Prize winner Selma Lagerlöf, concerns an alcoholic, abusive ne’er-do-well (Sjöström himself) who is shown the error of his ways, and the pure-of-heart Salvation Army sister who believes in his redemption. This extraordinarily rich and innovative silent classic (which inspired Ingmar Bergman to make movies) is a Dickensian ghost story and a deeply moving morality tale, as well as a showcase for groundbreaking special effects. (The Criterion Collection)

One of the most revered comedies of the silent era, this film finds hapless Southern railroad engineer Johnny Gray (Buster Keaton) facing off against Union soldiers during the American Civil War. When Johnny's fiancée, Annabelle Lee (Marion Mack), is accidentally taken away while on a train stolen by Northern forces, Gray pursues the soldiers, using various modes of transportation in comic action scenes that highlight Keaton's boundless wit and dexterity.

July is hot and the winds are kicking up in 1928’s THE WIND starring Lillian Gish. Based on the 1925 novel by Dorothy Scarborough, The Wind follows young Letty going west, headed to live with a cousin. Slowly, adversities increase as the howling dusty winds outside gain strength, serving as a metaphor for Letty’s increasingly fragile psychological state.

This is considered one of Lillian Gish’s best films and was sadly overlooked at the time, being released after talking pictures had become the rage. We welcomed THE WIND into the public domain this year! Hurrah for art for all of us!!

Tickets $5: Lillian Gish in THE WIND (1928) presented by Silents, Please! STL – ARKADIN CINEMA & BAR

Silents, Please! STL presented a double feature of films by Tod Browning, film director, film actor, screenwriter, vaudeville performer, and carnival sideshow and circus entertainer.

THE BLACKBIRD

The Blackbird (Lon Chaney) is a bishop by day, but a world-class thief after nightfall. When he develops feelings for a sultry singer named Fifi Lorraine (Renée Adorée), he will stop at nothing to steal a diamond necklace that she covets. Unfortunately for him, West End Bertie (Owen Moore) has the same idea and beats him to the punch, stealing the jewels and the dame's heart. But The Blackbird won't give up without a fight -- and it threatens to reveal his other persona.

THE SHOW

A Hungarian carnival troupe follows a young girl who reforms a tearaway after her old suitor tried to kill him with a poisonous lizard.

In this silent drama, lifelong school chums Leo (John Gilbert) and Ulrich (Lars Hanson) are soldiers in the German army. Leo falls in love with Countess Felicitas (Greta Garbo) and courts her, which enrages her husband (Marc McDermott). When Leo fights a duel with and kills the Count, he is deployed to Africa for five years as punishment. Leo returns to find that Ulrich has fallen for Felicitas, but she resumes her amorous pursuit of Leo, thus pushing the limits of their friendship.

Silents, Please! STL is throwing Charlie Chaplin a 135th birthday party and you’re invited! Featuring MODERN TIMES.

This comedic masterpiece finds the iconic Little Tramp (Charlie Chaplin) employed at a state-of-the-art factory where the inescapable machinery completely overwhelms him, and where various mishaps keep getting him sent to prison. In between his various jail stints, he meets and befriends an orphan girl (Paulette Goddard). Both together and apart, they try to contend with the difficulties of modern life, with the Tramp working as a waiter and eventually a performer.

Arrive early for a Chaplin look-a-like contest and a new experiment - the mutual jukebox! You’ll get to choose the tunes to put alongside some Chaplin shorts and make your own soundtrack for The Tramp! Pre-show begins at 6 pm

Silents, Please! STL celebrates Women’s History Month with with a night devoted to WOMEN PIONEERS OF EARLY CINEMA. The program will feature a selection of shorts by groundbreaking French director Alice Guy-Blaché, whose work influenced Alfred Hitchcock and Sergei Eisenstein. Then, we’ll present Lois Weber’s masterful 1916 tearjerker SHOES, of which critic Louella Parsons wrote that it “loosens the heartstrings, stirs the pulse and makes one choke with emotion.” Both Shoes and Guy-Blaché’s short Matrimony’s Speed Limit have been selected for preservation by the National Film Registry.

TICKETS $5

Arkadin Cinema and Bar

Grab your sweetie and come see SPEEDY! Admission includes a bubbly beverage to toast with your darling at this Valentine's Day screening!

Speedy was the last silent feature to star Harold Lloyd—and one of his very best. The slapstick legend reprises his “Glasses Character,” this time as a good-natured but scatterbrained New Yorker who can’t keep a job. He finally finds his true calling when he becomes determined to help save the city’s last horse-drawn streetcar, which is operated by his sweetheart’s crusty grandfather. From its joyous visit to Coney Island to its incredible Babe Ruth cameo to its hair-raising climactic stunts on the city’s streets, Speedy is an out-of-control love letter to New York that will have you grinning from ear to ear.

Join Silents, Please! STL for an evening of fantasy, whimsy, and downright oddity as we screen the British release of Alice in Wonderland from 1915. Other magical and fantastical shorts will be shown for your delight.

To celebrate the holiday season, we are again bringing Charlie Chaplin’s masterpiece CITY LIGHTS (1931) to the screen.

“If only one of Charles Chaplin's films could be preserved, “City Lights” (1931) would come the closest to representing all the different notes of his genius. It contains the slapstick, the pathos, the pantomime, the effortless physical coordination, the melodrama, the bawdiness, the grace, and, of course, the Little Tramp--the character said, at one time, to be the most famous image on earth….. Chaplin's gift was truly magical. And silent films themselves create a reverie state; there is no dialogue, no obtrusive super-realism, to interrupt the flow. They stay with you. They are not just a work, but a place…. Children who see them at a certain age don't notice they're “silent” but notice only that every frame speaks clearly to them, without all those mysterious words that clutter other films. Then children grow up, and forget this wisdom, but the films wait patiently and are willing to teach us again.” —Roger Ebert

You asked for it? You got it!! The oft requested, Fritz Lang Expressionist masterpiece, METROPOLIS is coming to Arkadin Cinema and Bar! Thank you for coming out in support of silent film this year! *with the tip of a hat* This one’s for y’all.

This influential German science-fiction film presents a highly stylized futuristic city where a beautiful and cultured utopia exists above a bleak underworld populated by mistreated workers. When the privileged youth Freder (Gustav Fröhlich) discovers the grim scene under the city, he becomes intent on helping the workers. He befriends the rebellious teacher Maria (Brigitte Helm), but this puts him at odds with his authoritative father, leading to greater conflict.

$5
Wednesday November 8
7pm

Great care is always taken to choose the perfect film for Halloween season — and this year is no exception! There are so many amazing silent suspense/horror films, and this one is often requested. 

THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA is a 1925 American silent horror film adaptation of Gaston Leroux’s 1910 novel Le Fantôme de l’Opéra, directed by Rupert Julian and starring Lon Chaney in the title role of the deformed Phantom who haunts the Paris Opera House, causing murder and mayhem in an attempt to make the woman he loves a star. The film remains most famous for Chaney’s ghastly, self-devised make-up, which was kept a studio secret until the film’s premiere. The picture also features Mary Philbin, Norman Kerry, Arthur Edmund Carewe, Gibson Gowland, John St. Polis and Snitz Edwards.

Get ready to come in your best masquerade attire….. There will be prizes!

“First released in 1925, the Chaney Phantom lets the drama of Gaston Leroux’s novel play out on exaggerated sets inspired by German Expressionism, but seemingly projected from the villain’s twisted psyche. The atmosphere matches Chaney’s performance perfectly.”
–Keith Phipps, The A.V. Club

We are so excited to bring to the screen filmmaker Benjamin Crew’s brilliant silent edit of Tim Burton’s BATMAN (1989).

Accompanied by the original Danny Elfman score and title cards added by Crew, you will have the opportunity to really see and feel the German silent DNA that is splashed throughout Burton’s filmography - and experience Batman in a whole new and wonderful way.

We hope you will join us for this amazing opportunity, including a Q and A with Benjamin Crew.

$9
7pm (doors at 6pm with a pre show of film clips related to Batman and Burton)

tickets: https://checkout.square.site/buy/INBT3DWLIFW23YI7X5JP4QF2...

Ben Crew is a writer and documentary filmmaker based out of Chicago. He is known as the writer of the viral "Muppets Present The Great Gatsby" screenplay and for his Mad Men trivia nights. He has made a hobby of reediting existing films and shows with Batman: The Silent Motion Picture being his favorite of those projects

Considered to be the first film to explicitly depict psychoanalysis, symbolically and practically, SECRETS OF A SOUL (1926) is a fun trip into the filmic psyche of a man who is struggling with unwanted thoughts, compulsions, and feelings of inadequacy which leads him to the couch of his friendly neighborhood analyst.

G.W. Pabst, one of the greatest filmmakers out of Weimar Germany, does a beautiful job of using the camera and filmic language to convey the experience of dreaming and dissociative fantasy. This film is not an explicitly Expressionist film, but its influence is felt throughout.

accompanied by short films that feature dream logic and sequences

Wednesday July 12

8pm (doors at 7 - with pre-show films and clips)

Arkadin Cinema and Bar

5228 Gravois Ave St. Louis, MO 63116

FREE (donations welcome to help support and sustain programming)

Reservations Recommended (click here)

Considered one of Chaplin’s best films, THE KID is a tender and humorous film, complete with Chaplin’s trademark pathos and social commentary.

Paired with THE KID is the 1921 (often overlooked) film THE PILGRIM, when an escaped convict (Chaplin) evades the law by taking the clothes and role of a pastor in a small desert town.

Wednesday June 14

8pm (doors at 7 - with pre-show films and clips)

Arkadin Cinema and Bar

5228 Gravois Ave St. Louis, MO 63116

FREE (donations welcome to help support and sustain programming)

Reservations Recommended (click here)

ALL AGES

Often credited as the first (feature) horror film, THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI (1920) takes the viewer on a dreamlike journey through distorted spaces both real and imagined. With subtext critical of power and social control that led to the horrors of WWI, Caligari operates on a number of levels. This film is often recognized as the pinnacle of German Expressionism, which found its place in a post war Germany, rife with scarcity and instability. Artists and filmmakers took what limited means they had and worked within in these boundaries to expansive and brilliant effect.

Join us on Wednesday October 12 at Arkadin Cinema and Bar to see this classic masterpiece of horror. Whether it’s your first time or tenth, there’s always something new to be found in the dreamy landscape where somnambulist Cesare roams the night, doing the bidding of his ruthless master, Dr. Caligari.

A collection of horror shorts from the earliest days of filmmaking will be shown before the feature.

$10 (https://silents-please-stl.square.site/)

21+ — enter through The Heavy Anchor, located at 5226 Gravois Ave

8pm (doors at 7:30pm)

Did you know that exploitation films have existed since the earliest days of filmmaking? Framing films as morality tales enabled filmmakers or get certain content past the censors.

In THE PACE THAT KILLS (1928), we follow a young man from the country to the city as he searches for his sister who has fallen into ill repute. In an effort to keep a pep in his step, a young woman at his job offers him cocaine -- and you can guess where it goes from there.

This may not be the pinnacle of filmmaking, but it sure is a lot of fun. Come and make some noise. Silents are never silent!!

21+
$10
https://silents-please-stl.square.site/

In 1950’s SUNSET BOULEVARD, aging silent star Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) proclaimed, “We didn’t need dialogue. We had faces!”

In this 1922 film starring the aforementioned Gloria Swanson and silent heartthrob Rudolph Valentino you’ll get all the faces! In this story of unfulfilled romance and desire, you’ll see the only time these titans of silent film appear together on screen. The camera loves them both and you’ll be swept up by their presence and charisma.

August in St. Louis is hot and steamy - and we will turn it up a notch. To keep cool, the first 18 guests will receive your very own Valentino hand fan. So, grab your smelling salts and your best fainting pillow and join us for a sizzler of an evening on the backlot. Swoon!

21+
$10 (your ticket supports this and ongoing silent film programming in St. Louis)
https://silents-please-stl.square.site/

Join us for an evening of more Buster Keaton than you could shake a pork pie hat at!! Titles to be announced, but you can pretty much bet on SHERLOCK, JR being in there along with maybe another feature, a short, maybe a few shorts. STAY TUNED!!

This event is FREE in celebration of a full year of Silents, Please! STL offering up the best in silent film for St. Louis -- oh yeah, it's Kate's birthday too.

ALL AGES WELCOME!! Noisemakers (slidewhistles, tambourines, kazoos, etc) welcome!! Come and make some noise for Buster.

8:30pm

In this Chaplin film, that marked the end of the silent era (though not the end of silents for Chaplin), Chaplin's tramp is accused of criminal acts, and unwittingly ducks into a big top, where his bumbling attempts to avoid pursuing police officers earn the laughter and applause of the circus-goers. Impressed, the ringmaster decides to employ the tramp as an entertainer. In between getting trapped in a lion's cage and partaking in clumsy high wire escapades, he falls for a beautiful show rider, who unfortunately has eyes for a daring tightrope acrobat.

Jeffrey Vance wrote, "Chaplin—a great cinema auteur—revealed his innermost feelings through his films. In The Circus, he fashioned a scenario that places The Tramp within the confines of a circus and, in so doing, documents, celebrates, and memorializes his own position as the greatest clown of his time. And, that accomplishment—beyond the wonderful comedy—ranks The Circus a major Chaplin film of considerable importance."

Chaplin (Mutual) short ONE A.M. (1916) will also be shown.

$10 -- your ticket supports this screening and ongoing silent film programming in St. Louis.

THIS EVENT IS ALL AGES!! And, if you’ve never seen a silent film before, message us and we will reserve a seat for you, for free.

Tickets: https://silents-please-stl.square.site/

This is an outdoor event -- and in the event of inclement weather, event will be rescheduled and tickets can be refunded.