Top 10 Films of 1917

1. "Il Fauno" (Febo Mari, Italy)

2. "The Merry Jail" (Ernst Lubitsch, Germany)

3. "Rebecca Of Sunnybrook Farm" (Marshall Neilan, Artcraft)

4. "A Romance Of The Redwoods" (Cecil B.DeMille, Paramount)

5. "King Of Paris" (Yevgeni Bauer, Russia)

6. "For Happiness" (Yevgeni Bauer, Russia)

7. "The Poor Little Rich Girl" (Maurice Tourneur, Artcraft)

8. "Aladdin And The Wonderful Lamp" (Sidney Franklin, Fox)

9. "Bestia" (Aleksander Hertz, Poland)

10. "The Clown" (A.W. Sandberg, Denmark)

Other great films:

Cleopatra

Short Top 10:

1. "Easy Street" (Charles Chaplin, Mutual)

2. "The Immigrant" (Charles Chaplin, Mutual)

3. "The Adventurer" (Charles Chaplin, Mutual)

4. "Teddy At The Throttle" (Mack Sennett, Keystone)

5. "The Butcher Boy" (Roscoe Arbuckle, Paramount)

6. "Max et le sac" (Max Linder, France)

7. "The Cure" (Charles Chaplin, Mutual)

8. "A Clever Dummy" (H. Raymaker, Ferris Hartman, Robert P. Kerr, Keystone)

9. "His Wedding Night" (Roscoe Arbuckle, Paramount)

10. "Pimple's The Whip" (Fred Evans, Joe Evans, UK)

Other great shorts:

The Chief Cook
The Rough House

Cartoon Top 3:

1. "Bobby Bump's Fourth" (Earl Hurd, Bray)

2. "Colonel Heeza Liar On The Jump" (Vernon Stallings, Bray)

3. "Bobby Bumps Starts For School" (Earl Hurd, Bray)

Weak films of 1917:

The Dying Swan (Russia)
Malombra (Italy)
Pride Of The Clan
Il Processo Clemenceau (Italy)
Raffles The Amateur Cracksman
Terje Vigen (Sweden)

Weak shorts:

Bliss
By The Sad Sea Waves
Coney Island
The Flirt
Max entre deux feux (France)
Max In A Taxi
Move On
Oh, Doctor!
Over The Fence
Thais (Italy)
When Ben Bolted
The Wrong Mr Fox

Il Fauno (1917) ****

Beautiful and poetic Italian film about a statue coming to life.

Cleopatra (1917) ***

Only a very brief fragment of this legendary film has been preserved.

For Happiness (1917) ***

A love triangle involving a mother and her daughter.

The Clown (1917) ***

King Of Paris (1917) ***

The Merry Jail (1917) ***

One of Ernst Lubitsch's first films.

Aladdin And The Wonderful Lamp (1917) ***

Bestia (1917) ***

Il Processo Clemenceau (1917) **

Italian silent film.

Malombra (1917) **

Italian melodrama set in a haunted castle.

The Dying Swan (1917) **

Russian melodrama about a doomed balerina. Dated, but quite impressive.

Terje Vigen (1917) **

Swedish melodrama about love, hate and revenge. Thematically dated, but visually ahead of its time.

Raffles The Amateur Cracksman (1917) *

Inept silent film about a thief.

Pride Of The Clan (1917) *

A mediocre Mary Pickford vehicle, set in Scotland.

Max et le sac (1917) ***

His Wedding Night (1917) ***

This Fatty Arbuckle comedy is worth a look just to see Buster Keaton in drag.

The Chief Cook (1917) ***

Pimple's The Whip (1917) ***

A very silly farce.

Max entre deux feux (1917) **

Max is flirting with two girls in Switzerland.

Max In A Taxi (1917) **

The sight of a carriage pulled by a horse walking backwards is priceless, but the rest of this Max Linder comedy is singularly forgettable.

Move On (1917) **

Harold is a cop flirting with a nanny.

Thais (1917) **

Italian silent short.

By The Sad Sea Waves (1917) *

Sad indeed.

Bliss (1917) *

Definitely not for the viewers of this mediocre early Harold Lloyd's comedy.

The Flirt (1917) *

A Harold Lloyd comedy. One of his worst.

Over The Fence (1917) *

Harold Lloyd's comedy about fighting on a baseball field.

Rebecca Of Sunnybrook Farm (1917) ***

Unlike the 1938 version starring Shirley Temple, this is a faithful adaptation of the classic novel. Mary Pickford is excellent.

The Poor Little Rich Girl (1917) ***

Mary Pickford plays a lonely girl from a rich family.

The Immigrant (1917) ****

Immigrant Charlie tries to find success and happiness in America.

The Adventurer (1917) ****

Frantic comedy about an escaped convict (Charlie) hiding from police.

Teddy At The Throttle (1917) ***

An excellent Mack Sennett comedy starring Gloria Swanson (as an innocent, but rich heiress) and Wallace Beery (as her guardian trying to get her fortune). Good production values enhance this seriocomic melodrama, whose amorous intrigues lead to a climactic rescue sequence (with Gloria tied to the railroad tracks).

The Butcher Boy (1917) ***

Buster Keaton's first film, directed by Roscoe Arbuckle.