Everyone likes to indulge in a dab of “what if…” now and again. In the silent era, there were big names and matched talents who simply never worked together so let’s daydream about them joining forces.
My dream pairing is, obviously, Ivan Mosjoukine with Pola Negri. They could handle comedy and drama and had similar physical abilities but even when they were in the same country at the same time, they were never paired. Such a loss!
I also would have liked to have seen a western with Harry Carey and William S. Hart (and add Texas Guinan to the mix!) or a sassy comedy with Gail Kane and Clarine Seymour.
One dream pairing that has come up often over the years is Greta Garbo and Rudolph Valentino but what are your ideas? Which stars should have worked together but never did?
Movies Silently 
Greta Garbo and Conrad Veidt
Didn’t she really, really want it to happen?
There was a narrow window from 1927-1929, before Veidt’s return to Germany, when it could have happened. I know they were friends. I admire them both as actors.
I somehow think that a comedy with Harold Lloyd and Colleen Moore could have very interesting results.
1.Milton Sills and and Ramon Novarro (just think of the possibilities for these two versatile actors!)
2. Billy Haines and Colleen Moore (would make a great comedy duo, and again with the versatility)
3. Marie Dressler and Alice Howell (…the sight gags alone…)
-Bonus: An ensemble Lot of Fun cast, to include Our Gang, with cameos by everyone working on Roach lot at time of shoot (Charley Chase of course, Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Will Rogers, Harry Langdon, et al.). To be directed by Dick Jones.
Just thinking, though, ‘dream pairings’ don’t always work. For example, Swanson and Valentino in ‘Beyond the Rocks,’ not a succcess. Wonder why that was?
I think my reason for not listing it as a favorite is that it didn’t take advantage of the stars’ flair for comedy. That would have been a must-see!
Fatty Arbuckle and Lillian Gish
Buster Keaton and Mabel Normand.
Buster and Mabel would have been great, but I really would have loved to have seen Buster and Clara Bow! I think some major comic sparks would have flown!
Valentino and Theda Bara, Douglas Fairbanks and Pearl White, Ruth Roland, or Helen Gibson.
Lon Chaney and Bessie Love. Oh yeah!
William Haines & Estelle Taylor–but gad! what kind of a movie would that be?
Don’t know why I thought of this, but I just viewed again “Where East Is East,” where Taylor “out fatals” most of the other silent femmes fatales I can think of.
This is a hard question, but it would have been nice to pair Lillian Gish more often with a competent male actor. Lars Hanson was obviously good, but it would have been interesting to see Gish in Faust, so I’ll pair her with another Swede: Gösta Ekman.
A Chaplin-Keaton teaming when they were young, instead of old men in “Limelight,” would have been nice.And a horror film teaming Lon Chaney and Conrad Veidt would have been great.