Silent Shakespeare is a compendium of some of the earliest productions of the Bard ever to be committed to film. With entries from Britain, America, and Italy dating back as early as 1899, it documents how the movie industry strove to lift itself up from its "lowbrow" status by taking on Shakespeare's classics. The enthusiasm for the new medium shows in the often-spirited performances of the actors, some of the finest stage performers of their day; the 1909 American production of A Midsummer Night's Dream even includes a whimsical camera trick or two, à la the Lumière brothers. The Italian productions of King Lear (1910) and The Merchant of Venice are painstakingly hand-tinted and stenciled, a process that had to have been mind-bogglingly tedious. Unfortunately, the title cards of the films only provide the barest synopsis of the stories; the beauty of Shakespeare to this day is in his language, and film adaptations of his work inherently lose much when the rhythms and cadences of his verse are not present. Nonetheless, this is a fascinating and seldom-seen look at the fledgling film industry and some of its earliest attempts at onscreen drama, one that should prove interesting for silent film fans and drama buffs alike. In a time when as much as 80 percent of films made before 1920 have either been lost, been destroyed, or disintegrated, kudos is in order to Milestone Film and Video for this restoration effort. -Jerry Renshaw.

Originally running an astonishing 10 hours when it was produced in 1925, Greed suffered one of Hollywood's unkindest cuts. Much to the devastation of its Austrian creator, Eric von Stroheim, MGM slaughtered his ambitious silent epic based on Frank Norris' solemn novel, McTeague, reducing it from 42 reels to 10 with a running time of just over two hours (von Stroheim broke down upon watching the finished piece). Yet, it's a testament to the director's vision and talent that the surviving version of Greed remains one of cinema's timeless masterpieces. Sure, its plot-examining the destructive effects that a large lottery payoff has on three close friends feels stilted and awkward at times. But there's enough brilliance to shield any minor quibbles. The restrained, subtle acting, the cynical attitude toward wealth and excess, and especially the bitter, claustrophobic portrayal of a selfish marriage between the Gibson Gowland and ZaSu Pitts characters all retain freshness and seem remarkably contemporary even now. Von Stroheim digs at his characters' weaknesses with ferocious irony, exposing recurring hypocrisy and ugliness whenever money enters the picture. Visually, the director understood the thematic importance of setting his characters against contrasting landscapes, and Greed was among the first films shot almost entirely on location. As it moves from the buzzing, crowded streets of San Francisco to the haunting last images in the desolate wasteland of Death Valley-a place where money has no value-von Stroheim's ruthless satire demolishes everything American in its path. -Dave McCoy.