One hundred Years Ago: 1924

Il Cinema Ritrovato Festival 2024 is looking back at the cinema of 100 years past. Curator Oliver Hanley selected canonical classics and lesser-known rarities from 1924 culled from the archives, including seminal films from France’s burgeoning avant-garde scene, Swedish master Victor Sjöström’s majestic Hollywood feature, He Who Gets Slapped, Karl Freund’s 'unchained camera' at work in F.W. Murnau’s Der Letzte Mann/The Last Laugh, Gabriellino d’Annunzio and Georg Jacoby’s lavish adaptation of Quo vadis? that almost single-handedly bankrupted Italy’s film industry, plus a thrilling multi-part serial and much more. We selected 33 postcards of classics and less canonical films from Hollywood and European cinema.


German collectors card by Ross Verlag in the series Vom Werden Deutscher Filmkunst - Der Stumme Film, picture, no, 160, Group 43. Photo: Ufa. Emil Jannings during the shooting of Der letzte Mann/The Last Laugh (Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, 1924). Caption: Der letzte Mann wird gefilmt, mit feststehendem Kamerastativ. (The Last Laugh is filmed, with a fixed camera).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 697/2. Photo: Ufa. Emil Jannings in Der Letzte Mann/The Last Laugh (1924). Jannings plays a proud hotel doorman who loses his self-esteem and that of others when he is reduced to a toilet man, working in the basement of the hotel.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 813/1. Photo: Ufa. Ilka Grüning and Harry Liedtke in Die Finanzen des Großherzogs/The Grand Duke's Finances (F. W. Murnau, 1924). Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau also made this little gem in 1924, his only comedy.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 674/4. Photo: Krabbe / RO-Film. Conrad Veidt as Don Carlos and Wilhelm Dieterle as Marquis Posa in Carlos und Elisabeth/Carlos and Elisabeth (Richard Oswald, 1924).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 675/2, 1924. Photo: Decla-Ufa-Film. Paul Richter and Georg John in Die Nibelungen I (Fritz Lang, 1924). Siegfried (Paul Richter) and Alberich in the fog meadow. Die Nibelungen (Fritz Lang, 1924) is one of the masterpieces of the Weimar cinema. Die Nibelungen is a diptych of silent fantasy films: Die Nibelungen: Siegfried and Die Nibelungen: Kriemhilds Rache/Kriemhild's Revenge.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 677/8, 1924. Photo: Decla-Ufa-Film. Publicity still for Die Nibelungen 2: Kriemhilds Rache/Die Nibelungen: Kriemhild's Revenge (Fritz Lang, 1924). Kriemhild (Margarete Schön) has gotten the deathblow. In the back, King Hetzel (Rudolf Klein-Rogge) looks in astonishment.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 682/2, 1924. Photo: FFG (Froehlich-Film GmbH). Henny Porten and Wilhelm Dieterle in Mutter und Kind/Mother and Child (Carl Froehlich, 1924). Henny Porten was one of the most important and popular film actresses of German silent cinema. Wilhelm Dieterle later became the well-known Hollywood director William Dieterle.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 694/1, 1924. Photo: Atlantic Film / Westi Film. Henny Porten and Angelo Ferrari in Pratertraum/Prater. Die Erlebnisse zweier Nähmädchen (Peter Paul Felner, 1924).


German postcard by Verlag Ross, Berlin, no. 684/7. Photo: Carl-Wilhelm-Film / Terra Film. Theodor Loos and Heinrich George in the German silent film Soll und Haben/Debit and Credit (Carl Wilhelm, 1924), adapted from the novel by Gustav Freytag. The film had anti-Semitic and anti-Polish tendencies.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 895/2, 1925-1926. Photo: Ossi Oswalda-Film-Prod. Ossi Oswalda in Colibri (Viktor Janson, 1924).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 933/1, 1925-1926. Conrad Veidt in Das Wachsfigurenkabinett/Waxworks (Leo Birinsky, Paul Leni, 1924).


German collectors card by Ross Verlag in the series Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst - Der Stumme Film, picture no, 113, group 43. Photo: Ufa. Paul Hartmann in Der Evangelimann/The evangelist (Holger-Madsen, 1924). Caption: "Paul Hartmann in der verfilmten Oper 'Der Evangelimann' von Wilhelm Kienzl".(Paul Hartmann in the filmed Opera 'The Evangelist' by Wilhelm Kienzl.)


German or Austrian postcard by FM, no. 5155. Photo: Studium Film. Carlo Aldini as Achilles in the German two-part epic film Helena (Manfred Noa, 1924).


German postcard by Ross-Verlag, Berlin, no. 699/6, 1919-1924. Photo: Filmhaus Bruckmann. Rina de Liguoro in Quo Vadis? (Gabriellino D'Annunzio, Georg Jacoby, 1924).


Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano. Photo: Cines / U.C.I. Still from Quo vadis? (Gabriellino D'Annunzio, Georg Jacoby, 1924). Caption: Lygia and Vinicius at Nero's banquet. British actress Lillian Hall-Davis played Lygia while Austrian actor Alphons Fryland played Vinicius. While the film premiered in Italy in March 1925, it had already had its Austrian and German premiere in October 1924.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 279. Livio Pavanelli as Turiddu and NOT Mary Cléo Tarlarini but Lia Di Marzio as Lola in Cavalleria rusticana (Mario Gargiulo, 1924), based on Giovanni Verga's text. At the entrance to the church, Turiddu has a long stare at Lola, his former fiancee but now married to Alfio (Giovanni Grasso). They have a secret relationship. When Santuzza (Tina Xeo), Alfio's present girlfriend, begs him not to follow her, he throws her on the ground. Revenge is the result...


Italian postcard by Ed. Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze, no. 212. Photo: Alba Film. Annibale Betrone as The Jester, Oreste Bilancia as Floridoro, and Alberto Collo as Giano in L'arzigogolo (Mario Almirante, 1924), based on a play by Sem Benelli. Caption: The Jester: Oh my pumpkin!... I could switch your head with that of a cow.


Italian postcard by Ed. Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze, no. 222. Photo: Alba Film. Annibale Betrone as The Jester in L'arzigogolo (Mario Almirante, 1924), based on a play by Sem Benelli. Caption: The Jester in prison.


Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano, no. 737. Rina de Liguoro in the Italian silent film Maremma (Salvatore Aversano, 1924).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1064/3, 1927-1928. Photo: DeWesti Film-Verleih. Ivan Mozzhukhin in Kean (Alexandre Volkoff, 1924).


Romanian postcard. Photo: Dorian-Film. Maria Corda and Adelqui Migliar in Die Sklavenkönigin/The Moon of Israel (Mihaly Kertesz aka Michael Curtiz, 1924).


French postcard in the Collection Magie Noire by Editions Hazan, no. 6073, 1988. Photo: Madame L'Herbier / SPADEM, Paris. Jaque Catelain in L'inhumaine/The New Enchantment (Marcel L'Herbier, 1924). Architect Robert Mallet-Stevens designed the exterior of the house of inventor Einar Norsen (Catelain).


German postcard. Photo: Svenska Film of the Trianon-Film-Konzern, Berlin (also in Leipzig, Frankfurt a.M., Düsseldorf and Hamburg). Lars Hanson in Gösta Berlings saga/The Saga of Gösta Berling (Mauritz Stiller, 1924). The film was an adaptation of the famous novel by Selma Lagerlöf. The cinematography was by Julius Jaenzon and the art direction was by Vilhelm Bryde (with Edgar Ulmer collaborating on the set design). Trianon made this postcard for the German premiere of the film on 20 August 1924, at the Berlin Theater am Nollendorfplatz.


Danish postcard by J. Chr. Olsens Kunstforlag, Eneret, no. 536. Photo: Milton Sills and Enid Bennett in The Sea Hawk (Frank Lloyd, 1924).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 40/3. Photo: IFA / United Artists. Douglas Fairbanks in The Thief of Bagdad (Raoul Walsh, 1924).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 839/3. Photo: Terra Film A.G., Berlin. Mary Pickford in Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall (Marshall Neilan, 1924).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 897/2, 1925-1926. Photo: First National Pictures, New York. Corinne Griffith in Single Wives (George Archainbaud, 1924).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1523/3, 1927-1928. Photo: Parufamet. Pola Negri in Forbidden Paradise (Ernst Lubitsch, 1924).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1587/1. Photo: Ufa. John Gilbert and Norma Shearer in He Who Gets Slapped (Victor Sjöström, 1924).


German postcard for Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1767/2, 1927-1928. Photo: Famous Players-Lasky Corporation. Rudolph Valentino and Louise Lagrange in A Sainted Devil (Joseph Henabery, 1924).


Hungarian postcard by FMSI, no. 84. Photo: Mûvèsz Film. In 1924 Jackie Coogan visited Budapest during his grand European tour. The photo refers to Coogan's outfit in A Boy of Flanders (Victor Schertzinger, 1924). Mûvèsz Film may have been the Hungarian distributor of that film.


Swiss-German-British postcard by News Productions, Baulmes / Filmwelt Berlin, Bakede / News Productions, Stroud, no. 56545. Photo: MGM / Collection Cinémathèque Suisse, Lausanne. Buster Keaton and Kathryn McGuire in Sherlock Junior (Buster Keaton, 1924).


Swiss-German-British postcard by News Productions, Baulmes / Filmwelt Berlin, Bakede / News Productions, Stroud, no. 56544. Photo: Collection Cinémathèque Suisse, Lausanne. Harold Lloyd in Hot Water (Sam Taylor, Fred Newmeyer, 1924) by Harold Lloyd Corporation and Pathé Exchange.