Silent movie night in October 2020: “Uncanny Stories”

This months’s silent movie night (SMN) occurs just a day before Halloween, and traditionally, ever since I started organising SMNs, October has been reserved for silent horrors. Over the years we’ve watched quite a few, and let me first offer a recap of those. In case you’d like to revisit them, or maybe get acquainted for the first time, they are all readily available on YouTube.

In 2016, back when we had weekly SMNs, we saw The Cat and the Canary, Witches (Häxan), Nosferatu, and two short ones: The Haunted Castle, and The Haunted House.

In 2017: Warning Shadows (Schatten – Eine nächtliche Halluzination), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Golem, and The Phantom of the Opera.

In 2018: Genuine: A Tale of a Vampire (Genuine, die Tragödie eines seltsamen Hauses, Waxworks (Das Wachsfigurenkabinett, Wolf Blood: A Tale of the Forest, and The Bat.

In 2019 we held the first Halloween SMN at the new venue – Kino Babylon in the 1920s Berlin sim. That year we watched Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens).

Now that I’m writing this post, I have to admit I feel rather proud of all the silent movie events we’ve had over the years, both before 2019 and since the merger with the Berlin sim cinema community. But before I get too emotional, let’s get back to business, as I have yet to announce the selection for this months’s silent horror movie night.

Starting at 12 noon SLT on Friday, 30th October 2020 (that’s 8pm for those of us on CET), we’ll be watching Uncanny Stories (also known as Eerie Tales, Weird Tales, etc., orig. Unheimliche Geschichten), a German silent movie released in 1919, directed by Richard Oswald, starring Conrad Veidt.

The film consists of five stories: The Apparition, The Hand, The Black Cat (based on the famous short story by E. A. Poe), The Suicide Club (based on the R. L. Stevenson short story) and The Spectre. It lasts about 90 minutes.

We’re centrally located in Berlin, can’t miss us – to TP to 1920s Berlin sim, please follow this SLurl (first make sure you’re dressed appropriately – this is an RP community and standard rules apply).

Do join us if you can, we’d love to have you with us! And if you can’t, not to worry – the film will be available on demand at the Kino until 27th November.

Silent movie nights in October 2018

For the third year in a row at the Odie Cinema, the month of October is dedicated to silent horror movies. As we approach Halloween, join us for some delightfully spooky time!

As always, silent movie nights take place Fridays from 1 pm SLT, at this location.

5 October 2018
Genuine: A Tale of a Vampire (orig. Genuine, die Tragödie eines seltsamen Hauses, Germany)

Directed by Robert Wiene, released in 1920. Starring Fern Andra and Hans Heindrich von Twardowski. The set was designed by expressionist artist Cesar Klein. We’ll be watching a version with a particularly eerie score by P. Emerson Williams.

12 October 2018
Waxworks (orig. Das Wachsfigurenkabinett, Germany)

Directed by Paul Leni, released in 1924. Starring Emil Jannings and Conrad Weidt. The movie is a mix of different genres, and some classify it as historical, with only some episodes belonging to the horror genre.

19 October 2018
Wolf Blood: A Tale of the Forest, USA

Directed by George Chesebro, released in 1925. Starring George Chesebro and Roy Watson. A werewolf story.

26 October 2018
The Bat, USA

Directed by Roland West, released in 1926. Starring Jack Pickford (Mary’s younger brother) and Louise Fazenda. Based on the 1920 Broadway hit by the same title, it was an influence on the subsequent creation of Batman.

Silent movie nights in September & October 2017

We started the new season at the Odie Cinema at the beginning of last month. I was a bit lazy, so I didn’t blog about the September schedule in advance. However, in this post I will first briefly recap the movies we saw, just for the record.

September 1
Asphalt (1929, Germany). Starring Betty Amann and Gustav Fröhlich.

September 8
One Day (1920, USA). Starring Buster Keaton and Sybil Seely.

September 15
The Last of the Mohicans (1920, USA). Starring Wallace Beery and Barbara Bedford.

September 22
The Wizard of Oz (1925, USA). Starring Larry Semon, Oliver Hardy, Dorothy Dwan.

September 29
The Lost World (1925, USA). Starring Wallace Beery.

It was last year that I introduced monthly themes for the movie selections, and although we haven’t always stuck to them, October was the month dedicated to silent horrors and comedy horrors (to see the list of films we played at the Odie a year ago, click here). Since I love this time of year, and all the spookiness surrounding Halloween, I’ve decided to redo the horror theme. Here’s the October schedule – to learn more about these films, click on the titles to get the Wikipedia entries on them.

October 6
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920, USA). Directed by John S. Robertson, starring John Barrymore and Nita Naldi.

October 13
Warning Shadows / Schatten – eine nächtliche Halluzination (1923, Germany). Directed by Arthur Robinson, starring Fritz Kortner, Ruth Weyher.

October 20
The Golem (1920, Germany). Directed by, Paul Wegener and Carl Boese, starring Paul Wegener, Lyda Salmonova.

October 27
The Phantom of the Opera (1925, USA). Directed by Rupert Julian, Lon Chaney, Ernst Laemmle, Edward Sedgwick; starring Lon Chaney, Mary Philbin.

As always, all movie nights take place Fridays starting from 1 pm SLT. To reach the Odie Cinema, please follow this SLurl.

Additionally, you can join our group on Facebook. All members get an automatic event reminder for each of the movie nights.