Wings is a 1927 American silent and synchronized sound film known for winning the first Academy Award for Best Picture. Due to the general public's apathy towards silent films, the film was quickly re-released in 1928 with synchronized sound. While the sound version of the film has no audible dialogue, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects.
The Jazz Singer is a 1927 American part-talkie musical drama film directed by Alan Crosland and produced by Warner Bros. Pictures. It is the first feature-length motion picture with both synchronized recorded music and lip-synchronous singing and speech. Its release heralded the commercial ascendance of sound films and effectively marked the end of the silent film era with the Vitaphone sound-on-disc system, featuring six songs performed by Al Jolson. Based on the 1925 play of the same title by Samson Raphaelson, the plot was adapted from his short story "The Day of Atonement".
A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed before sound motion pictures became commercially practical. Reliable synchronization was difficult to achieve with the early sound-on-disc systems, and amplification and recording quality were also inadequate. Innovations in sound-on-film led to the first commercial screening of short motion pictures using the technology, which took place in 1923. Before sound-on-film technology became viable, soundtracks for films was commonly played live with organs or pianos.
Walter John Buchanan was a Scottish theatre and film actor, singer, dancer, producer and director. He was known for three decades as the embodiment of the debonair man-about-town in the tradition of George Grossmith Jr., and was described by The Times as "the last of the knuts." He is best known in America for his role in the classic Hollywood musical The Band Wagon in 1953.
Clifford Hardman "Clive" Brook was an English film actor.
Phonofilm is an optical sound-on-film system developed by inventors Lee de Forest and Theodore Case in the early 1920s.
Malcolm McGregor was an American actor of the silent era. McGregor appeared in more than 50 films between 1922 and 1936. He was born in Newark, New Jersey and died in Hollywood, California.
Brewster's Millions is a 1935 British musical comedy film directed by Thornton Freeland and starring Jack Buchanan, Lili Damita and Nancy O'Neil. It is based on the 1902 novel and subsequent 1906 play, with the action relocated from the United States to Britain.
The Bondman is a 1929 British silent adventure directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Norman Kerry, Frances Cuyler, and Donald Macardle. It was based on the 1890 novel The Bondman by Hall Caine.
A South Sea Bubble is a 1928 British silent comedy adventure film directed by T. Hayes Hunter and starring Ivor Novello, Benita Hume and Alma Taylor. The screenplay concerns a group of adventurers who head to the Pacific Ocean to hunt for buried treasure. It was made at Islington Studios.
Sydney Fairbrother was a British actress.
Annette Benson (1895–1965) was a British film actress. She was a leading lady of British silent films of the 1920s, appearing in Confetti with Jack Buchanan and Downhill with Ivor Novello. She also featured in several French and German productions in the mid-1920s. Her career tailed-off with the arrival of sound film and she made her last screen appearance in 1931.
The Burgomeister is a 1935 Australian film directed by Harry Southwell based on the 1867 play Le juif polonais by Erckmann-Chatrian, adapted into English in 1871 by Leopold Lewis, previously filmed a number of times. The Burgomeister is considered a 'substantially lost' film, with only one sequence surviving.
Sir or Madam is a 1928 British-German silent comedy film directed by Carl Boese and starring Margot Armand, Percy Marmont and Ossi Oswalda. It was based on the 1923 novel Sir or Madame by Berta Ruck and shot at Elstree Studios near London. The film was a co-production between Germany and Britain, with separate versions released in the countries. In Britain it was not released until February 1930.
Weekend Wives is a 1928 British silent comedy film directed by Harry Lachman and starring Monty Banks, Jameson Thomas and Estelle Brody. It was made at British International Pictures's Elstree Studios. The film is set in Paris and resort town of Deauville.
Jacob Benson Luden was an American film actor.
Auld Lang Syne is a 1917 British silent crime film directed by Sidney Morgan and starring Violet Graham, Henry Baynton and Sydney Fairbrother. The film is notable for marking the screen debut of Jack Buchanan, who went on to be a leading star. It was produced in a film studio at Ebury Street in Westminster.
The Children of Gibeon is a 1920 British silent drama film based on a novel by Sir Walter Besant, directed by Sidney Morgan and starring Joan Morgan, Langhorn Burton and Eileen Magrath. An aristocrat adopts a criminal's daughter and brings her up with her own daughter. She never reveals to them which way round they were.
Almost a Divorce is a 1931 British comedy film directed by Jack Raymond and Arthur Varney and starring Nelson Keys, Sydney Howard and Margery Binner. It was made at British and Dominion's Elstree Studios.
That's a Good Girl is a 1933 British comedy film directed by Jack Buchanan and starring Buchanan, Elsie Randolph and Dorothy Hyson. The film was based on a musical show of the same title that opened at the Lewisham Hippodrome on 19 March 1928, in which Jack Buchanan also starred. The music was written by Joseph Meyer and Phil Charig, with lyrics by Douglas Furber. The film omitted much of music of the original show, but popularised one song in particular, Fancy our Meeting. The song remained a Jack Buchanan favourite and a version of it was also recorded by Al Bowlly shortly after the film's release.
