The Essential Watchlist Similar Cinematic Experiences to His Silent...

Dir: Charley Chase

A young married couple volunteer to take charge of several orphans after the asylum has burned down. Of course they find their hands full with their troublesome charges.

Dir: Edgar Jones

A mail-order bride arrives at a Maine lumber camp but doesn't like her prospective husband.

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of In the River perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Dir: Lloyd Ingraham

While walking along the street one day, Arthur P. Hampton, an impoverished young doctor, and his chums, Stub Masters and Johnny Stokes, are persuaded to part with their last remaining funds by tag day solicitor Mary Jane Smith, with whom the doctor promptly falls in love. Doc's friends then hit upon a get-rich-quick scheme. Knowing that his Uncle George has promised a large sum of money upon his nephew's marriage, they persuade Doc to send out fake wedding invitations naming Mary Jane as the blushing bride. Uncle George, elated at the good news, writes to Mary Jane's aunt, Angelica Burns, an old sweetheart, to invite Mary Jane and Angelica to be his guests on an ocean voyage. Meanwhile, Mary Jane pays a visit to the doctor's office and, upon seeing the wedding invitations, becomes so flustered that she trips and sprains her ankle. Doc comes to her rescue and then begs her to pose as his wife. She agrees, but at ship-side, Stub and Johnnie confess all to Uncle George, who flies into a rage until Doc announces that he and Mary Jane have chosen a wedding at sea.

Dir: Charley Chase

Two hotel bell hops get into all kinds of shenanigans between dames, baths and bags of loot.

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Mary's Ankle perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Dir: Maurice Campbell

Carver Endicott, a young sophisticate, is rejected by his fiancée for being too foppish and dull. When she feigns an interest in his father, Carver attempts to disgrace his family name by working as a farmhand and later as a busboy in a hotel. However, the newspapers only praise him for his self-sacrificing principles; and finding that he cannot bring shame to the family through menial labor, he takes up with a notorious actress. But when this maneuver also fails, he returns to his former fiancée, who has no further complaint about his being an inexperienced dullard.

Dir: Unknown Director

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Hop to It, Bellhop perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Dir: Reggie Morris

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Charley Chase

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of An Amateur Devil perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Dir: Charley Chase

Snub and his girl break a mirror, walk under a ladder, a black cat crosses their path, and they meet a cross eyed man. Some amusing misadventures follow.

Dir: Charley Chase

Snub, a henpecked husband, joins an equally unhappy man on the floor below. They rebel and turn the tables on their wives.