A comprehensive listing of the best general silent film sites on the Web.

Bristol Silents
This organization that was begun in August 2000 to promote and celebrate silent cinema in the UK has established an international reputation for silent film programming and live events. Learn more about their approach to showing silent films and their upcoming festival schedule.

Camille - Original Music by Peter Vantine
As part of his grand prize in the 2001 Young Film Composers Competition, Peter Vantine was hired to compose the full score for the 1921 classic silent film version of Camille, starring Alla Nazimova and Rudolph Valentino. This site contains details about the film, plus an MP3 excerpt.

Early Cinema
An introduction to the first decade of motion pictures; includes a timeline covering the years 1827 to 1905, biographies of the important pioneers, descriptions of the key early technologies, an extensive A to Z list of people and things related to the topic, a bibliography, and several essays. A Films section is currently under development.

The European Silent Cinema Project
Although not updated recently, this site still contains extensive listings of European silent film stars, plots, production companies, bibliographies, and reviews related to silents produced in England, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, etc.

Gilda's Blue Book of the Screen
The home page for Gilda Tabarez, who has created a number of excellent pages devoted to silent film, including tributes to Conrad Veidt, Ivor Novello, Rudolph Valentino, and Anthony Dexter, plus a many interesting articles on silent film topics.

Golden Silents
Photos, bios, and filmographies for dozens of silent film actors and actresses, plus a message board and some streaming video clips (for a small fee). Click on Page Two for some singalongs!

Hollywood Silents
Jesse's site offers photographic tributes to Mabel Normand, Theda Bara, William S. Hart, and Charlie Chaplin, plus collections of photos of other classic stars and Hollywood landmarks.

Intertitle-O-Rama
"Intertitles" are the words that appear on the screen every once in a while during silent films to give the audience a sense of what's being said, in case you ever had a desire to read them one after the other. Question: Why didn't they just print them on the screen underneath the action, like they do with subtitles? Answer: Because nobody really wanted to know exactly what they were saying. As Harry Warner once said, "Who in the hell wants to hear actors talk?"

Kino Online
An excellent source of silent movies and related material on video; includes annotated feature articles related to new offerings.

Mug Shots
Described as the home page for forgotten silent comics, this site offers biographies of actors from Monty Banks to Larry Semon, as well as profiles of studios such as Bulls Eye (the only one as yet completed).

Navarro's Silent Film Guide
All about the book by 74-year-old Dan Navarro, silent film fan extraordinaire, an illustrated directory listing and descriptions of over 10,000 silent feature films produced in the USA during the silent era.

Quicktimes of D. W. Griffiths films
A special section of David B. Pearson's Silent Ladies and Gents site offering brief segments from D. W. Griffiths' silent films, in QuickTime format. You'll need a QT plug-in, but it's free and only takes a few moments to download and install.

The San Francisco Silent Film Festival
Home page of the Festival which takes place annually in July, but which is now focused on their special presentation of the rediscovered Rudolph Valentino/Gloria Swanson love story Beyond the Rocks (1922), which will take place on Sunday, November 13 at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco.

Silent Era
This extensive and informative site dedicated to silent films includes reviews, lists of stars with filmographies in some cases, a bibliography of silent film books, a top 100 list, and a list of films that are presumed lost.

Silent Film Music
Experience the thrill of the early silents with new music by Donald Sosin and Joanna Seaton. On this site you'll find samples, performance schedules, links to purchase their work, and more.

Silent Film Sources
Though not updated in the last few years, David Pierce's site still offers a lot of information for silent film buffs, including the Silent Film Bookshelf, with fascinating reprints of original documents from the silent film era.

The Silent Film Still Archive
Silent film collector Bruce Calvert has put together a very nice collection of stills and photos from the silent film era, which you can review by performer or film title.

Silent Ladies and Gents
David Pearson's excellent collection of photos from the silent era. A searchable database of thousands of images of hundreds of actors and actresses from the silent film era, from Renee Adoree to Loretta Young, and from Bronco Billy Anderson to Ben Wilson.

Silent Movie Personalities
Single pages on ten people from the silent film era, including William S. Hart and Fritz Lang, created by E.H. Larson. Well done, though not updated recently.

The Silent Movie Theatre Company
Web site for the only silent cinema in the United States, located in in Hollywood and reopened after having been closed for over two years after the murder of the owner (but now seems to be closed again, or at least the site hasn't been updated since last year). Includes theatre history, news, and calendar of showings.

Silent Movies
The first silent movies page on the Web. Glen Pringle's site includes film screenings, silent star of the month, filmography, filmmakers, music from silent films, and more.

The Silent Worlds of David B. Pearson
best of the net Here are the complete works of the prolific David B. Pearson, who has gifted us with Arbucklemania, Silent Ladies, Silent Gents, Slapstick, and DG, as well as two mirror sites of Bruce Long's "Taylorology."

Silents Are Golden
Tim Lussier's excellent silent film site features photos, vintage reviews, articles and essays, and links to other sites. Don't miss the special section called Photos of the Stars.

The Silent Movie Theatre Company
Web site for the only silent cinema in the United States, located in in Hollywood and scheduled to reopen on November 5 after having been closed for over two years after the murder of the owner! Includes theatre history, news, and calendar of showings (update still to come as this is written).

The Silent Western
An informative essay on the early days of motion pictures. Of course, the first American narrative film was a Western.

Silentfilm.co.uk
Steve Day's site, formerly The Silent Comedy Page, was being "rewritten and rebranded" in 2001, and doesn't seem to have gone anywhere since then, but there's lots of great stuff here, including individual pages on many of your favorite stars. Click on the banner at the top of the page, then look for the navigation bar on the right.

Silents in the Court
If you've ever wondered how to could find out where the old movies can be seen on the big screen, this is the answer to your question. Billed as "An online resource for public exhibitions of silent and early sound films," Michael Neno's listing of venues from all over the United States is obviously a labor of love from somebody who not only cares about the classic stuff, but also knows what he's talking about.

Special Ladies
A tribute to four silent film actresses -- Olive Thomas, Barbara LaMarr, Clara Bow, and Thelma Todd -- for whom the creator of this site admits to having a "definite fascination." Photos, filmology, and links.

Unsung Divas of the Silent Screen
Last week we featured one of the tributes from this site. Here's a link to the home page, where you'll find full tributes to Pauline Frederick, Norma Talmadge, Clara Kimball Young, and Alice Joyce, as well as single pages with brief bios and links lists for almost two dozen more of the great female stars of the silent era.

Women of Italian Films
A tribute to Italian silent film actresses, a new section of David Pearson's excellent Silent Ladies site, with extensive contributions from Marco Gaetani, of Tuscany, Italy.

Welcome to Silent Movies
A site devoted to silent film, including articles, links, interviews, trivia, and more. Now being updated regularly.