Kings of Comedy: Masters of the Silent Screen

A new film compiled from the BFI National Archive's unparalleled holdings of early films of China, features films from 1900-48 filmed across China. The cinematic journey of Around China with a Movie Camera contains many films which may never have been seen in China, or at the very least not for over 70 years. These travelogues, newsreels and home movies were made by a diverse group of British and French filmmakers, some professionals, but mainly enthusiastic amateurs, including intrepid tourists, colonial-era expatriates and Christian missionaries.

A 1919 Comedy short.

David Huxley is waiting to get a bone he needs for his museum collection. Through a series of strange circumstances, he meets Susan Vance, and the duo have a series of misadventures which include a leopard called Baby.

A tramp falls in love with a beautiful blind flower girl. His on-and-off friendship with a wealthy man allows him to be the girl's benefactor and suitor.

Dictator Adenoid Hynkel tries to expand his empire while a poor Jewish barber tries to avoid persecution from Hynkel's regime.

After the insane General Jack D. Ripper initiates a nuclear strike on the Soviet Union, a war room full of politicians, generals and a Russian diplomat all frantically try to stop the nuclear strike.

A gold prospector in Alaska struggles to survive the elements and win the heart of a dance hall girl.

When a rich woman's ex-husband and a tabloid-type reporter turn up just before her planned remarriage, she begins to learn the truth about herself.

Singapore Sling is chasing after Laura, a romantic memory from his past. One night he finds himself in a mysterious villa, watching two women bury a body. He falls into their trap and, in an atmosphere of isolation and decadence, the trio act out insane pleasure games and a ritual of blood and murder.

A runaway train speeds down the track.

Ténérife

Noi runs a rural bar and guesthouse called the Paradise Hotel. He tends bar and arm wrestles any challengers. The hotel, which has only one room, already has a guest, a man named Chana. Chana is annoyed that the hotel plays host to various musical groups, including a man who sings European opera, another man who practices the trombone, a Peking opera troupe, a Filipina ballad singer and a brass band that accompanies two bare-knuckles boxers.

'Snub' Pollard and Mildred Davis star in this 1920 comedy short.

Snub's many humorous experiences in attempting to transport his goat home. Comedy short directed by Charley Chase.

Too Many Crooks is a lost 1927 American comedy silent film directed by Fred C. Newmeyer, written by E.J. Rath and Rex Taylor, and starring Mildred Davis, Lloyd Hughes, George Bancroft, El Brendel, William V. Mong, John St. Polis, and Otto Matieson. It was released on April 2, 1927, by Paramount Pictures.

An important example of amateur filmmaking during this era, That Ice Ticket was made by Angela Murray Gibson who ran Gibson Studios in the small community of Casselton, North Dakota. Gibson cast community members in her productions, taking on multiple roles herself, writing, directing and acting in the films, operating the camera during filming, then processing the footage and editing the finished picture together. Here she plays a young woman managing multiple male suitors with the "help" of her mischievous kid brother.

Three reporters and an office girl are trying to stop a bacteriological strike by some powerful western business leaders against the USSR.

Andy Gump is a clueless yokel that decides that he can run for President.

Documentary footage of the author and his two daughters at home.

The just-out-of-college, effete son of a no-nonsense steamboat captain comes to visit his father whom he's not seen since he was a child.