While train tracks get all the publicity as sources of silent era peril (and I have written extensively on how they were neither common nor taken particularly seriously), burglars were the real sources of suspense and comedy.
This month is going to focus on burglars in silent movies, suspenseful, silly and everything in between! To whet your appetite, here are a few titles I have already covered.
The Burglar on the Roof (1898) and On the Roofs (1897) are early examples of the comedic burglary with slapstick responses.
Lois Weber’s Suspense (1913), meanwhile, stylishly showcases the Grand Guignol mood of cinematic home invasions and I dig into the history of the telephone-for-help-while-the-burglar-approaches trope, later spoofed in Won in a Cupboard (1914), directed by Mabel Normand.
In addition to directing burglar pictures, women got into the burglary game too, though they often managed to steal hearts rather than valuables. Soft Shoes (1925) and The Mystery of the Sleeping Death (1914) both feature romances with attractive thieves.
Burglars could be benevolent antiheroes too, as we see in the Broncho Billy picture After Midnight (1915), or they could inadvertently walk into a practical joke, as is the case in the Cecil Hepworth comedy The Joke That Failed (1917).
I hope the cinematic burglars this month will steal your heart!
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Movies Silently 