The Big Parade is a 1925 American silent war drama film directed by King Vidor, starring John Gilbert, Renée Adorée, Hobart Bosworth, Tom O'Brien, and Karl Dane. Written by World War I veteran Laurence Stallings, the film is about an idle rich boy who joins the U.S. Army's Rainbow Division, is sent to France to fight in World War I, becomes a friend of two working-class men, experiences the horrors of trench warfare, and finds love with a French girl. A sound version of the film was released in 1930. While the sound version of the film has no audible dialog, it featured a synchronized musical score with sound effects using both the sound-on-disc and sound-on-film process.
Theatrical release poster
Renée Adorée and John Gilbert
The Big Parade, Lower right front (R to L): Renée Adorée, John Gilbert, Karl Dane, Tom O'Brien
L to R Tom O'Brien, John Gilbert, Karl Dane
A silent film is a film without synchronized recorded sound. Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements or key lines of dialogue may, when necessary, be conveyed by the use of inter-title cards.
A still from 1921's The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, one of the highest-grossing silent films
Charlie Chaplin, widely acclaimed as one of the most iconic actors of the silent era, c. 1919
Roundhay Garden Scene, which has a running time of just over two seconds, was filmed in 1888. It is believed to be the world's earliest surviving motion-picture film. The elderly lady in black is Sarah Whitley, the mother-in-law of filmmaker Louis Le Prince; she died ten days after this scene was filmed.
Aziza Amir in Laila (1927)
