Joy of Silence

I salute Dennis Hunt’s March 30 article about silent films on home video. But I feel the need to make a few comments. (1) Silent films are not “like watching a crude, subtitled foreign movie.” Watch any film by Keaton, F. W. Murnau or Stroheim for proof. (2) Actors such as Lillian Gish, Garbo or Chaplin never had to resort to “operatic excesses,” and with good directors they produced subtleties unmatched in many films today.

I do agree that watching a silent film requires patience; you can’t read a book or gab. You have to watch , and that is why I believe silent cinema is the purest form of film. “Silents” are golden.

J. D. HEISE, Member, the Silent Society, Los Angeles