Silent Cinema

Forgotten Faces

+ intro

An impressive early precursor of film noir, with an atypical performance by William Powell.

  • Director

    Victor Schertzinger

  • With

    Clive Brook, Mary Brian, Olga Baclanova

  • USA 1928. 83min

  • Digital

  • Certificate

    Advised 12A

  • With live piano accompaniment

Film noir didn’t come from nowhere, as this cynical silent thriller proves. Forgotten Faces follows gentleman thief ‘Heliotrope’ Harry Harlow, played by Clive Brook (fresh from his success in von Sternberg’s crime drama Underworld), as he tries to save his daughter from his vengeful wife and mother from hell, the latter played with evil brilliance by Russian actor Olga Baclanova. Sordid and shocking, the film also features William Powell in an unusual role as Heliotrope’s partner in crime, before he developed his suave Thin Man persona.

Restored by the Library of Congress from the original nitrate negative and a 16mm reduction print from The Museum of Modern Art.