It’s hard to sum up the work silent film historian Ben Model does under one profession; he’s a preservationist, a lecturer and teacher, an author, and accompanist and composer who performs his own scores live at silent movie screenings all over the world. As someone with a deep love of silent cinema and an evangelical fervor for sharing the movies he adores, Model sums what he does up by referring to something his mentor Walter Kerr once told him.
“Walter said that showing silent films was like missionary work,” Model told IndieWire. “Everything that I’ve done in my adult life has come from a similar place wanting to spread the gospel of silent film.” To that end, Model has now collected his thoughts on the art form in “The Silent Film Universe,” a book that breaks down all the things silent movies do beautifully and explores why and how they work on audiences in ways that are different from sound features.
“These ideas are all things that have been percolating for many, many years, and that crystallized in the course I teach at Wesleyan,” Model said. “There’s this question I would always be asked: ‘Why do you think people like silent movies?’ I never really had an answer that I thought was appropriate. I thought this book would be an opportunity to come up with a language where we can talk about silent film and understand it a little better.”
Model addresses everything from the narrative economy silent filmmaking encouraged to the role that projection speed plays in the movies’ impact, stopping along the way to pay tribute to movies both popular (“Steamboat Bill Jr.,” “Safety Last”) and obscure (“Local Showers,” “Move Along”) as he clearly and concisely delineates why these movies are important and worthy of attention.
Through his company, Undercrank Productions, Model has made many important silent films available in pristine transfers on physical media, often with new scores and sourced from exquisite restorations. Since Undercrank began 12 years ago, the label has released over 30 DVDs and Blu-rays of silent movies from Douglas Fairbanks swashbucklers and Lon Chaney rarities to a collection of films by John Ford’s influential but less famous brother, Francis Ford.
The latest Undercrank release is a double feature disc containing two 1929 Westerns starring Tom Tyler, “The Man from Nevada” and “Law of the Plains.” Neither film has been widely seen in over 90 years, but Undercrank’s disc contains new 2K restorations from original 35mm nitrate prints that make the movies come alive as though they were made yesterday, and they’re made all the more rousing by new scores composed and performed by Model himself.
“Tom Tyler was very popular,” Model said. “He was the original Captain Marvel, and he was in ‘Stagecoach.’” Indeed, after his heyday in silent films, Tyler became a favorite of “Stagecoach” director John Ford, who also cast him in “Drums Along the Mohawk,” “They Were Expendable,” and “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.” Tyler’s filmography also included small roles in big movies like “Gone With the Wind” and “The Westerner” and lead roles in a plethora of B-pictures.
“The Man from Nevada” and “Law of the Plains” are two of Tyler’s last silent features, and they’re real discoveries, rich in atmosphere and dynamic action filmmaking achieved with a fraction of the resources bigger studio movies of the era had. “These movies are extremely well made,” Model said. “The folks who made them had to work a little harder to make them look good on short schedules and tight budgets. The cinematography on the two films is excellent, and the use of locations is very creative.”
“The Silent Film Universe” argues for the relevance of movies like Tyler’s and others, though as Model points out, the films themselves are really the only argument that’s needed — their pleasures are self-evident to anyone who takes the time to watch them. “My work is about getting people to check out films that, on the surface, might not sound like much fun,” Model said. “But they’re actually very entertaining and satisfying, and anybody can appreciate them and have a good time. Everything I do feeds into that purpose of discovery, whether I’m playing the TCM Classic Film Festival or a small middle school library somewhere.”
“The Silent Film Universe” and “Tom Tyler Silent Film Collection” are now available at Undercrank’s website.
