A Silent Movie That Is 101 Years Old

I have fallen completely in love with a silent movie. It's Peter Pan (1924), available on YouTube for FREE. This movie is 101 years old. My Grammy, who turned 105 on January 20, was 4 years old when this movie came out!

(WOW! I just realized that my Grammy may remember the invention of talkies! She was born in 1920, and The Jazz Singer came out in 1927.)

I've researched silent movies before, in this post about the Wizard of Oz, but Peter Pan is the first one that I'm actually going to show to Zac. He's reading Chris Colfer's Land of Stories series, and Neverland comes up in book 4 (along with Camelot, Sherwood Forest, Wonderland, and the Land of Oz... all of which he already knows about).

J. M. Barrie's original book, available FREE at Project Gutenberg, is wildly inappropriate for children, so when Zac asked about Peter Pan, I started looking for a movie adaptation. And I stumbled across this wonderful film!

Betty Bronson as Peter Pan

According to Wikipedia, the 1924 silent film was celebrated for its innovative use of special effects. It was seen by Walt Disney (born in 1901) and he later bought the rights and created his 1953 animated version of the story.

Wikipedia goes on to explain,

For decades, the film was thought to be lost. In the 1950s James Card, film restorer and curator of George Eastman House in Rochester, New York, discovered a well-preserved copy in a vault at the Eastman School of Music, and made a preservation of that source. Film historian David Pierce discovered an additional and hitherto unknown 16mm copy at the Disney Studios which had been made when the company acquired the rights to the property in 1938. A new restoration was undertaken by the George Eastman House combining the two sources in 1994, and Philip C. Carli composed new film music for it, which was premiered by the Flower City Society Orchestra at the 1996 Pordenone Silent Film Festival.

You may remember from Singin' in the Rain that silent films are not silent. They were actually presented with live musical accompaniment, and several selections from the soundtrack for the 1924 film are available on Spotify!

Flying Theme

Bedtime in the Darling Nursery

Through the Window

Learning to Fly

The Forest of Make-Believe

The Clock and the Crocodile

Arriving in Never Never Land

Bothersome Fairies

Pirates and Indians Do Battle

Hook Poisons Peter's Medicine

Do You Believe?

Hook Brings the Lost Boys Up on Deck

A Mother's Last Words to Her Children

Sword Fight

The Flying Ship

If you do watch the film with your child, try playing some of the music along with it so that you get the full effect. Personally, I find silent movies really fun to watch because you can't get distracted and look away or you'll miss the title cards. Watching a silent movie makes me realize how often I tune out the film to look at my phone. But you can't do that with a silent movie!!!

P.S. Preview the film before showing it to your child, since there is offensive language (also found in the Disney version). It's from the original book.

P.P.S. I took all the time to track down music, and then found this version of the 1924 movie (from The Gallery of Anna May Wong) which includes music. So I'm including both versions here, and you can decide!

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