The two most popular sources for silent films were the stage (including operas and operettas) and prose fiction (both novels and short stories). However, there were many, many other ways to get movie ideas and if you think modern Hollywood has gotten a bit, ahem, creative in its search for intellectual property, well, the silent era will be even more so.
Movies were inspired by postcards, songs, poems, news clippings, paintings, cartoon strips and more. This month, we will be diving into the wild and wonderful world of movies that weren’t stage or prose first.
Here are a few I have already reviewed to get you started:
The Boys Think They Have One on Foxy Grandpa But He Fools Them (1902): Based on the popular Foxy Grandpa comic strip (and, to be fair, by way of the stage).
The Captive (1915): Based on a news item about Turkish POWs being turned over to Montenegrin women to work their farms.
Dream of a Rarebit Fiend (1906): An almost perfect reproduction of Winsor McCay’s popular strip.
Annabelle Lee (1921): Ostensibly based on the Poe poem but really just an excuse to shoot Martha’s Vineyard.
Rusalka (1910): A faithful adaptation of one version of Pushkin’s poem.
The Dreyfus Affair (1899): Based on news items about the famous case as they were released.
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Movies Silently 