Free Movie Friday: The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927)

As a young cinephile, perhaps one of the first director’s I sought out by name was Alfred Hitchcock and this was well before I knew what auteur theory was. As such I saw all of his silent films perhaps earlier than I probably should have. However, even without a keen eye on narrative and style alone this film earned the film a 7/10 on my erstwhile rating scale.

I’m not sure if I’ve revisited this film, but it’s definitely worth a look.

Free Movie Friday: Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)

It’s not just the answer to a trivia question (What was the first film awarded Best Picture?), Sunrise is now in the public domain, freely available to watch, and quite good. If you’re familiar with Murnau, it’s likely not your favorite of his films, but as one of the emblematic directors of German Expressionism to come to Hollywood and debut with this is a legendary feat of its own.

Free-Movie Friday: Hell-Bound Train (1930)

This was a film I first viewed on the Criterion Channel.

It’s a morality tale from the Jazz Age and a milestone in early Black cinema, which only remains extant thanks to preservation efforts of cobbling together partial prints to restore the whole. As such it has been included in the National Film Registry.