Best movies like Paul Merton's Weird and Wonderful World of Early Cinema

Italian immigrant Rudolph Valentino makes it big in silent Hollywood, but he ends up struggling between his career and the woman he loves.

In 1920s New York City, W. C. Fields is a successful headlining entertainer, but when his girlfriend leaves him and his broker loses his money, Fields begins anew in California. Working at a wax museum, Fields eventually lands a film role that ascends him to stardom. Back in the limelight and palling around with John Barrymore and the like, Fields meets an aspiring actress Carlotta Monti at a party, with whom he forms a rocky relationship.

This documentary recounts the life and work of one of most famous, and yet reviled, German film directors in history, Leni Riefenstahl. The film recounts the rise of her career from a dancer, to a movie actor to the most important film director in Nazi Germany who directed such famous propaganda films as Triumph of the Will and Olympiad. The film also explores her later activities after Nazi Germany's defeat in 1945 and her disgrace for being so associated with it which includes her amazingly active life over the age of 90.

A 60-year-old lumber supply businessman is dismayed to learn his 50-year-old wife is pregnant. A film adaptation of the hit Broadway comedy, with Paul Ford repeating his stage role as the flabbergasted papa-to-be.

In a luxurious seaside villa, a modest young woman finds herself in the company of a strange family : an unknown and wealthy father, his extravagant wife, his daughter, an ambitious woman, a rebellious teenager, and their creepy maid.

Robert Altman's life and career contained multitudes. This father of American independent cinema left an indelible mark, not merely on the evolution of his art form, but also on the western zeitgeist. With its use of rare interviews, representative film clips, archival images, and musings from his family and most recognizable collaborators, Altman is a dynamic and heartfelt mediation on an artist whose expression, passion and appetite knew few bounds.

Two boys follow in their late fathers foot steps by inventing weird and wonderful gadgets. Trouble lies ahead when after a halloween party the spirit of their father ends up in the latest invention, a robot.

This movie chronicles the life and times of R. Crumb. Robert Crumb is the cartoonist/artist who drew Keep On Truckin', Fritz the Cat, and played a major pioneering role in the genesis of underground comix. Through interviews with his mother, two brothers, wife, and ex-girlfriends, as well as selections from his vast quantity of graphic art, we are treated to a darkly comic ride through one man's subconscious mind.

A woman and her closeted brother meet a man sunbathing on a gravestone and invite him to be their lodger. Their elderly father, however, recognises him as the killer of his old boss. Past sins could be forgiven if he agrees to the siblings' demands.

The story of former Hollywood star Grace Kelly's crisis of marriage and identity, during a political dispute between Monaco's Prince Rainier III and France's Charles De Gaulle, and a looming French invasion of Monaco in the early 1960s.

A celebration of the life and career of one of America's most influential and celebrated filmmakers and comedians—Buster Keaton—whose singular style and fertile output during the silent era created his legacy as a true cinematic visionary.

H₂O (1929) is a short silent film by photographer Ralph Steiner. The film serves as a cinematic tone poem, showcasing the dynamic nature of water through its various forms.

A traveler stays the night at a rural inn, but gets no rest as he is tormented by various spectres and mysterious happenings.

A cartoonist draws faces and figures on a blackboard - and they come to life.

This short experimental film tells the story of a man who comes to Hollywood to become a star, only to fail and be dehumanized. He is identified by the number 9413 written on his forehead.

An exploration of the history, artistry and emotional power of cinema sound, as revealed by legendary sound designers and visionary directors, via interviews, clips from movies, and a look at their actual process of creation and discovery.

This weird short manages to pack in fraud, murder, alcoholism and transvestitism, with two somewhat obvious plot twists but a acertain amount of interest in the characterisation and mise-en-scene. You can see Losey's long-take style in its early stages. If anything, his filming is TOO articulate, tipping his hand and giving away plot turns before they happen.

The turbulent life and professional career of vaudeville actor and silent screen horror star Lon Chaney (1883-1930), the man of a thousand faces; bearer of many personal misfortunes that even his great success could not mitigate.

Farce about the casting of a gay actor in a gay role on a television series which had previously been played by a straight man. When the original star of a fictional gay-themed action series called "Espionage" unexpectedly dies, network executives go looking for a new actor. They cast Kerry Mitchell (Scott Victor Nelson), unknown, but also openly gay. They spin the idea of an openly gay actor playing a gay role is something new and refreshing. As Kerry gets prepared for the media onslaught, he is also hiding something which could ruin everything! Also starring Matthew Jett Schaefer and Gabrielle Docktor in this independent "mocumentary" style film co-written and co-directed by Mike Heim and Christopher Long.

A documentary about the life of Carl Laemmle, early cinema pioneer and founder of Universal Studios, documenting his life in Hollywood and his efforts in the 1930s to save Jewish families in Nazi Germany.

Poor Ella Cinders is much abused by her evil step-mother and step-sisters. When she wins a local beauty contest she jumps at the chance to get out of her dead-end life and go to Hollywood, where she is promised a job in the movies. When she arrives in Hollywood, she discovers that the contest was a scam and the job non-existent. But through pluck, luck, and talent, she makes it in the movies anyway, and finds true love.

Starting in 1913 movie director Connors discovers singer Molly Adair. As she becomes a star she marries an actor, so Connors fires them. She asks for him as director of her next film. Many silent stars shown making the transition to sound.

On location in Portugal, a film crew runs out of film while making their own version of Roger Corman's The Day the World Ended (1956). The producer is nowhere to be found and director Munro attempts to find him in hopes of being able to finish the film.

Everyone has a skeleton or two in his or her closet, but what about the director behind some of the most successful thrillers ever to hit the silver screen? Could M. Night Shyamalan be hiding a deep, dark secret that drives his macabre cinematic vision? Now viewers will be able to find out firsthand what fuels The Sixth Sense director's seemingly supernatural creativity as filmmakers interview Shyamalan as well as the cast and crew members who have worked most closely with him over the years. Discover the early events that shaped the mind of a future master of suspense in a documentary that is as fascinating as it is revealing.

An account of the rise and fall of a silent film comic, Billy Bright. The movie begins with his funeral, as he speaks from beyond the grave in a bitter tone about his fate, and takes us through his fame, as he ruins it with womanizing and drink, and his fall, as a lonely, bitter old man unable to reconcile his life's disappointments. The movie is based loosely on the life of Buster Keaton.

This documentary traces the history of the B-Western from it's silent movie origins to its demise in the early 1950s. The film contains a large number of scenes from early silents and seldom seen films, as well as old photographs of the stars and one-sheet advertisements for lost films.

In Round One - FIGHT!: Ryu and Ken find themselves setting out to investigate the murder of their martial arts master. Their search for answers takes them to Japan where M. Bison and his assorted minions including Cammy, Vega, and Sagat keep a close eye on Ryu for reasons unknown.

For sixty years, Elizabeth II has met each of her twelve Prime Ministers in a weekly audience at Buckingham Palace, a meeting like no other in British public life, it is private.

The updated autobiography of Britain’s most controversial film director, the maker of Women in Love, The Devils, The Music Lovers, Tommy and The Rainbow, is as unconventional and brilliant as his best films. Moving with astonishing assurance through time and space, Russell recreates his life in a series of interconnected episodes – his thirties childhood in Southampton, his first sexual experience (watching Disney’s Pinocchio), his schooldays at the Nautical College, Pangbourne, early careers in the Merchant Marine and the Royal Air Force, dancing days at the Shepherds Bush Ballet Club and of course his career as a film-maker, beginning with an extraordinary interview with Huw Weldon for a job on Monitor. Full of marvellously funny anecdotes and fascinating insights into the realities of the film director's life, A British Picture is a remarkable autobiography.

Documentary telling the little-known story of how Darwin came to write his great masterpiece, On the Origin of Species, a book which explains the wonderful variety of the natural world as emerging out of death and the struggle of life. In the twenty years he took to develop a brilliant idea into a revolutionary book, Darwin went through a personal struggle every bit as turbulent as that of the natural world he observed. Fortunately, he left us an extraordinary record of his brilliant insights, observations of nature, and touching expressions of love and affection for those around him. He also wrote frank accounts of family tragedies, physical illnesses and moments of self-doubt, as he laboured towards publication of the book that would change the way we see the world. The story is told with the benefit of Darwin's secret notes and correspondence, enhanced by natural history filming, powerful imagery from the time and contributions from leading contemporary biographers and scientists.

A hard-boiled love triangle between a private eye and two bloodsucking dames. The film was actually shot in 1984 and was considered lost and unfinished for decades before being rediscovered and completed by Greg Travis, the film's star, co-writer and director. It was then briefly screened in theaters and ushered out onto VOD.

On the brink of their beloved single screen independent movie theater being shut down forever, a misfit band of theater workers face the corporate evil, foreclosure and the unthinkable...having to decide what they want to be when and if they ever grow up. Concessionaires Assemble!

In 1915, Kansas theatre usher Merton Gill is a rabid silent-movie fan. When he brings Mammoth Studios free publicity by imitating star Lawrence Rupert's heroics, they bring him to Hollywood to generate another headline; he thinks he'll get a movie contract. Disillusioned, he haunts the casting offices, where he meets and is consoled by Phyllis Montague, bit player and stunt-woman. When Merton finally gets his "break," though, it's not quite what he envisioned.

Do you know who George Peele is? Do you enjoy horror parodies? If you answered yes to either of these, this film is for you. If you answered yes to both. What are you waiting for?! From the team that was told repeatedly, "I can't sell a black and white horror movie!" Comes their next masterpiece, Silent But Deadly, A killer mime is on the loose, taking out a troupe of teen tropes in this outrageous horror comedy. If the meta jokes, and absurd references don't do it for you, the low brow fart jokes will. It's got something for everyone, unless of course you are a child, my mother, or have any taste.

Blues Story presents an impressionistic history of one of the most lasting art forms America has ever produced - as told for the first time through the eyes of the artists who lived it. Combining exclusive interview and performance footage with vintage clips and the music of many Blues legends long gone, the history of this richly felt music is illuminated - from its African roots to its American urban expression - along with its profound place in our cultural heritage. The result is a rare, first-hand glimpse into the lives of these vanishing artists, and a moving, insightful and informative look into a music that continues to be loved by millions throughout the world.

Among the pieces featured in Fragments are the final reel of John Ford's The Village Blacksmith (1922) and a glimpse at Emil Jannings in The Way of All Flesh (1927), the only Oscar®-winning performance in a lost film. Fragments also features clips from such lost films as Cleopatra (1917), starring Theda Bara; The Miracle Man (1919), with Lon Chaney; He Comes Up Smiling (1918), starring Douglas Fairbanks; an early lost sound film, Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929), filmed in early Technicolor, and the only color footage of silent star Clara Bow, Red Hair (1928). The program is rounded out with interviews of film preservationists involved in identifying and restoring these films. Also featured is a new interview with Diana Serra Cary, best known as "Baby Peggy", one of the major American child stars of the silent era, who discusses one of the featured fragments, Darling of New York (1923).

In this hour-long documentary, Dr Janina Ramirez tells the incredible story of a book hidden for centuries in the shadows of history, the first book ever written in English by a woman, Julian of Norwich, in 1373. Revelations of Divine Love dared to present an alternative vision of man's relationship with God, a theology fundamentally at odds with the church of Julian's time, and for 500 years the book was suppressed. It re-emerged in the 20th century as an iconic text for the women's movement and was acknowledged as a literary masterpiece.

Martin Scorsese is among those paying tribute to Gene Tierney, the Academy Award-nominated American actress who was a leading lady in Hollywood throughout the 1940s and '50s.

Author Arthur C. Clarke and the cast and crew of Stanley Kubrick's 1968 masterpiece "2001: A Space Odyssey" star in this documentary, released in the film's long-anticipated title year. The origins of the production are traced as we see how the early days of the space race influenced Kubrick and Clarke's vision of a far more optimistic 21st century than we've managed to achieve - at least so far.

Andrew Graham-Dixon explores the ancient Christian practice of preserving holy relics and the largely forgotten art form that went with it, the reliquary. Fragments of bone or fabric placed inside a bejewelled shrine, a sculpted golden head or even a life-sized silver hand were, and still are, objects of religious devotion believed to have the power to work miracles. The documentary features interviews with art historian Sister Wendy Beckett and Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum.

Long treated with indifference by critics and historians, British silent cinema has only recently undergone the reevaluation it has long deserved, revealing it to be far richer than previously acknowledged. This documentary, featuring clips from a remarkable range of films, celebrates the early years of British filmmaking and spans from such pioneers as George Albert Smith and Cecil Hepworth to such later figures as Anthony Asquith, Maurice Elvey and, of course, Alfred Hitchcock.

The trials and tribulations of David O. Selznick as he attempts to find an actress to play the role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939).

One summer's evening, two ageing writers, Hirst and Spooner, meet in a Hampstead pub and continue their drinking into the night at Hirst's stately house nearby. As the pair become increasingly inebriated, and their stories increasingly unbelievable, the lively conversation soon turns into a revealing power game, further complicated by the return home of two sinister younger men.

A feature-length multimedia performance in which filmmaker Zia Anger interacts with media on screen and the audience using real-time text, spontaneous Google searches, audience directives and AirDrops. Through the performance, Anger probes and dissects her “abandoned” works to re-imagine the relationship between the audience, the filmmaker, the movie theater and cinema and erases the line between a filmmaker’s corporeal body and their body of work. A vital, singular, innovative work that explores what it means to be a woman and an artist, the project showcases Anger’s sensibilities and pushes the boundaries of cinematic experience.

A woman is driven to the unthinkable by her desperate desire to have a child in Simon Stone’s radical production of Lorca’s achingly powerful masterpiece.

"Journey Through the Black Sun" (1982) made by ITC New York combined the first season episodes "Collision Course" and "Black Sun" from the TV series "Space: 1999".

In the Old Stone Age, a disparate gang of early humans band together in search of a new land. Following their leader’s promise of a better life, the tribe take their chances and embark on a perilous quest across unknown and treacherous terrains. But when they suspect a malevolent, potentially mystical, being is hunting them down, the terrified clan are forced to confront a danger they never envisaged. Shot in an isolation bubble in the Scottish Highlands during the pandemic, Andrew Cumming’s visionary survival horror is a masterclass in expansive world-building that belies its humble origins. With committed performances from its cast, who speak in a fictional prehistoric language (don’t worry, there are subtitles), this is genre filmmaking at its most breathtakingly ambitious. And it’s bloody scary too.

Take an intergalactic trip with the cast and crew of "The Marvels" as they tell their experiences making this weird and wonderful film. Step into all the departments of production and discover how they created complex fight scenes, countless alien life forms, and some of the most elaborate sets ever. From dance parties to kitten days, the cast and crew had an unforgettable time making the movie.

The ultimate deep dive into the world of shark cinema: filmmakers, critics, scholars and conservationists explore the weird, wild cinematic legacy of sharks on film and audiences' undying fascination with these misunderstood creatures.

When a mysterious letter calls James back to Silent Hill in search of his one true love, he finds a once-recognizable town transformed by an unknown evil. As James descends deeper into the darkness, he encounters terrifying figures both familiar and new and begins to question his own sanity as he struggles to make sense of reality and hold on long enough to save his lost love.