Cinematic Era: 1928 Vintage

The Man Without a Face is a 1928 American adventure film serial directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet.

A training film stressing accuracy for Western Union's keyboard operators, who were mostly women.

A documentary on the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam.

A hilarious musical short starring character actor John Forrest "Fuzzy" Knight and his little piano, 1928. Knight was known for playing sidekicks in 1930s and '40s "B" westerns.

Comedian Chaz Chase performs his vaudeville act.

A Snub and Fat short.

In a middle class family in Buenos Aires, a conflict arises between their two sons. One is a carefree playboy who spends his nights on cabarets. The other, a promising engineer who is the pride of the family.

Activities of recreation and entertainment in the city of Östersund is shown.

An early Australian silent film depicting historical events on the Young district goldfields, then known as Lambing Flat. During the gold rush of 1861, tensions between Australian miners and immigrant Chinese led to rioting, with Chinese miners attacked and driven from the diggings. The film portrays these events as being the genesis - or birth - of the White Australia policy, a significant political issue of the day.

An animated film where Ko-Ko the clown becomes involved in a war.

Montagu Love pretty much plays himself in this Vitaphone short where he starts off by introducing himself to the viewer and saying most probably remember him for playing villains. He then asks that people pretend that he's surrounded by a dinner party and he's been asked to give a speech even though he's shy.

Mr. Bug and his girl elope after Dad tries to enforce curfew. Part of the Daffy Doings in Doodlebugville series from 1928.

Filmic research into the manipulation of time in film. At the end of the film, Mol shows his famous time-lapse pictures of budding flowers. (eyefilm.nl)

In one of the small port towns, a boy named Vasya lives in a basement with his drunkard father and sister Ganusya. After a disagreement, his drunken friends kill his father. Ganusya is sent to a children's colony. Vasya joins a group of homeless people. One day, the leader of the homeless, Koska, and his friend, nicknamed Sailor, detain a girl, Alya, the daughter of the seaman Chugunov, on the street to get a ransom for her. But while Koska and Sailor negotiate with the father for a ransom, Vasya, who was assigned to watch over Alya, releases the girl and takes her to her father himself. The verdict of the homeless is unequivocal: this is treason.

Fifth release in the 'Sexton Blake' series of short crime dramas.

A silent film adaptation of the popular, yet legendary, tragic romance between Mughal Prince Salim (the future Emperor Jahangir) and the courtesan Anarkali. Their forbidden love incurs Emperor Akbar's wrath, leading to Anarkali's legendary punishment of being walled up alive. This pioneering film is considered lost.

Joe Noble animation featuring Sammy and Sausage - a cartoon dog. A mixture of live action and animation. Sammy and Sausage are fooling around - kicking each other and doing somersaults. C/U of Joe Noble sitting at his drawing board smoking a cigarette. Sammy says "Wonder what's up with the boss to-day?" Sausage is dressed up as Sherlock Holmes with a deer stalker and magnifying glass.

Lost movie based on the novel The Immortal by Lawrence H. Desberry. The board of the industrial syndicate headed by Thomas Deleston, makes a decision to prolong the working day. The worker Paul Notan calls people for political struggle. Deleston’s pro-fascist organisation Patriot Union attacks the workers. Paul is killed. His younger brother Joseph takes his place. Strikers have street battles with the fascists. But forces are unequal…

Dogs and cats go on show at two princely London venues – among them some of the fluffiest kittens London is ever likely to see.

Spanning three generations, the film depicts life in Copenhagen from the perspective of the working class. The film portrays the development of the city, the new opportunities arising and the improved living conditions created as the welfare state expands. ‘From darkness towards light’ is Denmark’s first-ever Social Democratic propaganda film, and it was part of the election campaign leading up to the local elections in 1929. (stumfilm.dk)

An early Photofilm of the Victoria Girls' vaudeville routine.

The only surviving film produced by Showa Kinema, the first company of pioneering sound-film producer Yoshizo Minagawa, records a speech by conservative Prime Minister Giichi Tanaka, who served from from 1927 to 1929, when he resigned after a dispute with the Emperor. The film features Tanaka standing in front of black drapes, talking directly into the camera as he presents his position on issues ranging from the economy to diplomacy and foreign policy. The identity of the cameraman is unknown, as is the exact date of shooting, but the film passed state censorship on February 6th, 1928, shortly before elections for the House of Representatives, the lower house of Japan’s Diet. As a historical record, the film is important since it not only constitutes Japan's earliest surviving sound film, but also provides a record of concerns central to Japanese politics in the late 1920s.

Fandango, a short Lane made for Educational Pictures in 1928. It's pleasant enough, and amusing at times, as long as you don't require a plot or expect dimensional characters. If you want basic silent comedy chuckles, you'll get them. Our setting is Bullonia, "the land of romance, castanets, onions and sweet zephyrs of garlic." Actually, it looks rather like a back-lot version of Spain or Latin America. More to the point, the atmosphere suggests the Doug Fairbanks vehicle The Gaucho, which was in general release when this short was made.

A thief steals a $10,000 string of pearls from the star of a show. The thief runs into Ben (literally), and in the ensuing chaos the thief ends up with Bens suitcase. Ben discovers he has the stars suitcase, and the necklace, but the crook returns. Does Ben get the beads back to the beauty?

There is a town with a well called 'Bachelor's Well' after a young man dug the well and jumped in to kill himself when his love for a girl from a rich family ended miserably. The story is about a ferryboat rower, a bum with a limp, and many other men all fighting to get the love of one girl. Three beggars who die with grudges against this town appear every night as ghosts to haunt and curse their foes.

The first West Indies Test cricket team visits England and loses all three matches.

Film directed by Elmer Clifton

A Cattlemen´s Association hires a detective (Bob Custer) to look into a series of cattle rustlings. To dismantle the plot, an undercover agent will be infiltrating the gang as a bandit.

An Aesop's Fables Studio cartoon.

An Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon.

Based on the work of the same name by the Russian writer G. Danilevsky.

Daughters of Today was a 1928 silent film from Lahore, in present-day Pakistan (then British India). It was produced by G.K Mehta and directed by Shankradev Arya. This was the first feature film made in Lahore, and helped to establish the city of Lahore as one of the centers of filming in India. The Lahore film industry is now known as Lollywood. Production started in 1924 and took three years to complete, mainly due to financial problems. Two participants later became prominent personalities of the South Asian film industry: A.R. Kardar was one of the most famous Bombay film directors in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s; and actor M. Ismael's film career spanned over five decades.

Documentary on making locomotives.

Outlaw "Dutch" Haynes is extorting money from the ranchers by threatening to blow up the dam that keeps the valley from flooding. To get to that point, Haynes, and his henchmen, have also practiced a little kidnapping, highway robbery, and all-around general connivery. But cowhand James Murdock has been on hand to stop the anti-social behavior, and looks to do so again regarding blowing up the dam.

A major and his wife return from abroad and pose as servants to observe their adolescent children.

Sammy and Sausage animation - the characters lift a maid's skirt with the aid of some bellows.

Hans Christian Andersen's well-known fairy tale, where the ugliest youngster in the litter ends up as a beautiful swan. Here as a mixture of drawn and photographed film. (Stumfilm. dk).

The historical silent film, which was commissioned by the City of Frankfurt, shows the individual construction phases of the Frankfurt "Großmarkthalle" right up to the traders moving in at the start of actual market operations.

An African-American violin prodigy overcomes her impoverished background to find success in music and love. Based on Oscar Micheaux's unpublished novel, House of Mystery.

Juneteenth Celebration, farms, residences, football games and various people in Wybark, OK; Porter, OK; Muskogee, OK; Langston, OK; and Okay, OK.

This Fox Films short subject shows some of the world's last working four-riggers, still eking out a living well into the third decade of the 20th century. Beauty is part of the workaday background of these ships, even in their dotage, from the ship's masts and rigging -- partially hidden, it is true, by the rigging of lines to dry laundry on.