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The Dawn of Sound: How Movies Learned to Talk

Sep 2, 2007

1h 25m

★ 7.0

Overview

Film historians, and survivors from the nearly 30-year struggle to bring sound to motion pictures take the audience from the early failed attempts by scientists and inventors, to the triumph of the talkies.

Genres

Documentary

History

Production Companies

Warner Bros. Entertainment

Sparkhill

Turner Entertainment Co.

The Dawn of Sound: How Movies Learned to Talk Trailers

No Trailers found.

Cast

Self

Scott Eyman

Self

Rudy Behlmer

Self

Robert Gitt

Self

Jonathan Kuntz

Self

A.C. Lyles

Self

Ben Burtt

Self

Leonard Maltin

Self

Vince Giordano

Self

Rose Marie

Self

Dane A. Davis

Self

Sanford Green

Self

Mickey Rooney

A day in the city of Berlin, which experienced an industrial boom in the 1920s, and still provides an insight into the living and working conditions at that time. Germany had just recovered a little from the worst consequences of the First World War, the great economic crisis was still a few years away and Hitler was not yet an issue at the time.

6.0

The Birth of a Nation

Mar 8, 1915

Two families, abolitionist Northerners the Stonemans and Southern landowners the Camerons, intertwine. When Confederate colonel Ben Cameron is captured in battle, nurse Elsie Stoneman petitions for his pardon. In Reconstruction-era South Carolina, Cameron founds the Ku Klux Klan, battling Elsie's congressman father and his African-American protégé, Silas Lynch.

4.9

Dickson Greeting

May 20, 1891

William K.L. Dickson brings his hat from his one hand to the other and moves his head slightly, as a small nod toward the audience. This was the first film produced by the Edison Manufacturing Company to be shown to public audiences and the press.

6.3

The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots

Aug 28, 1895

A short film depicting the execution of Mary, Queen of the Scots. Mary is brought to the execution block and made to kneel down with her neck over it. The executioner lifts his axe ready to bring it down. After that frame Mary has been replaced by a dummy. The axe comes down and severs the head of the dummy from the body. The executioner picks up the head and shows it around for everyone else to see. One of the first camera tricks to be used in a movie.

5.2

The Story of the Kelly Gang

Dec 26, 1906

Just as Galeen and Wegener's Der Golem (1915) can be seen as a testament to early German film artistry, The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906) symbolizes both the birth of the Australian film industry and the emergence of an Australian cinema identity. Even more significantly, it heralds the emergence of the feature film format. However, only fragments of the original production of more than one hour are known to exist, preserved at the National Film and Sound Archive, Canberra; Efforts at reconstruction have made the film available to modern audiences.

5.0

The Sealed Room

Sep 2, 1909

The Count sets out to make a private room for him and his Countess, built in such a way no one can see, hear, and most importantly, disturb them. But unbeknownst to the Count, his wife has set her eyes on the court minstrel. Based on Edgar Allan Poe's “The Cask of Amontillado” and Honoré de Balzac's “La Grande Breteche”.

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7.0

Encierro de toros

Jan 30, 1898

No overview available.

2.0

Buffalo Bill

Jun 17, 1894

The famous army scout in an exhibition of rifle shooting. A fine picture of the principal, and beautiful smoke effects.

6.0

Muurmanin pakolaiset

Jan 9, 1927

In northern Finland in the fall of 1916, Saima Niva rescues a man drifting in the river, who turns out to be a German lieutenant Braun. Braun and his six comrades have managed to escape the prisoner of war at the Muurmann railway station, but the lieutenant has had to get rid of the lost group. While Braun is recovering, under the good care of Saima, Niva's neighbor and henchman of the gendarmes, the greedy policeman Simpura, gets a tip about the refugees camped in the desert.

7.2

Cabiria

Jun 1, 1914

Young Cabiria is kidnapped by pirates and sold as a slave in Carthage. Just as she's to be sacrificed to Moloch, Cabiria is rescued by Fulvius Axilla, a good-hearted Roman spy, and his powerful slave, Maciste. The trio are broken up as Cabiria is entrusted to a woman of noble birth. With Cabiria's fate unknown, Maciste punished for his heroism, and Fulvius sent away to fight for Rome, is there any hope of our heroes reuniting?

7.1

Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages

Sep 4, 1916

The story of a poor young woman, separated by prejudice from her husband and baby, is interwoven with tales of intolerance from throughout history.

5.5

Days of Thrills and Laughter

Mar 21, 1961

An appreciative, uncritical look at silent film comedies and thrillers from early in the century through the 1920s.

10.0

Dingjun Mountain

Dec 28, 1905

The first Chinese film ever made, a sung representation of Battle of Mount Dingjun.

3.8

Tossing a Nigger in a Blanket

Apr 6, 1898

A method soldier boys have for amusing themselves in their leisure moments. New comrades are frequently initiated by the old-fashioned sport of tossing in a blanket. The newly arrived recruit, who is the victim of their sport, enjoys himself, perhaps, less than the other participants.

4.0

Modern Education

Jun 7, 1909

The great men of letters and military conquest pose on subsequent pages of a very special history book.

4.2

Men Boxing

Apr 30, 1891

Experimental film fragment made with the Edison-Dickson-Heise experimental horizontal-feed kinetograph camera and viewer, using 3/4-inch wide film.

10.0

Rodez

Nov 1, 2017

An exploration of Rodez Cathedral and its stained glass windows: praying figures and scientific imagery. A study on color, repetition and flickering consisting of 292 photographs.

0.0

Kristallwachstum

Jan 1, 1952

Experiments on the crystallization of various inorganic substances: crystallization from solution, crystallization from melt and vapour phase, mixed crystal formation, oriented growth, change from a metastable into a stable phase.

6.0

Traffic Crossing Leeds Bridge

Oct 15, 1888

A film by Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince, shot in late October 1888, showing pedestrians and carriages crossing Leeds Bridge.

5.2

Carmencita

Mar 14, 1894

The first woman to appear in front of an Edison motion picture camera and possibly the first woman to appear in a motion picture within the United States. In the film, Carmencita is recorded going through a routine she had been performing at Koster & Bial's in New York since February 1890.