CAUTION: These movies contain no knife-carrying, mask-wearing, blood-curdling, dismembering monsters. There are no Freddys, no Michaels and no Jasons. You won’t see the slightest hint of blood and you won’t even hear a scream … but you’ll still be scared.



What you will find in these movies is a revengeful phantom, a grotesque vampire, a hypnotist, a lonely bell-ringer and a mad doctor. Each of the actors who play these characters brings them to life with tenderness and ferocity and they do it so well you won’t even hear them doing it. Yes, there will be title cards to fill in the gaps and set the scenes but again, you won’t hear a single scream because each of these films is silent!



This Halloween season check out these classic silent horror films. All are available on home video in pristine, restored versions. OK, they’re not quite silent. They do feature musical accompaniment just as if you were at the local bijou watching the films of nearly 100 years ago. They’re a lot of fun and a real treat for the movie buff.



My personal favorite is 1925’s "The Phantom of the Opera" with Lon Chaney and Mary Philbin. One of the greatest of all silent films, this chillingly atmospheric adaptation of the classic horror tale stars Chaney in a tour de force performance as the masked composer haunting a Parisian opera house as he reveals his secret to Philbin, the one he loves. Remakes of this film have been pale imitations of the original.



"Nosferatu," a 1922 symphony of horror, was the first and most macabre of the film versions of the legendary vampire, Count Dracula. Max Schreck’s loathsome count, with pointed ears, skeleton-like frame and talons will chill the most callous viewer.



1919’s "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari," the great Expressionist classic, stars Werner Krauss as Caligari, the fairground showman who hypnotizes his servant (Conrad Veidt) into committing murder at night. Famous for its distorted painted sets, its grotesque camera angles and its atmospheric horror, this film has become a cinematic landmark.



Lon Chaney also stars in 1923’s "The Hunchback of Notre Dame." He enthralled a generation of filmgoers in this impressive silent film of the Victor Hugo classic about the deformed bell-ringer Quasimodo and his love for a beautiful Gypsy girl. Chaney’s characterization and makeup effects are outstanding. Unfortunately, I don’t feel this is the best of the many screen versions. My vote goes to the 1939 talkie with Charles Laughton.



John Barrymore stars in 1920’s "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." Barrymore gives a virtuoso performance as Robert Louis Stevenson’s tormented doctor in this classic thriller of split personality and dementia. Again this film has been remade many times over. And again, this is not the best version of the story. While the silent film is fun to watch, my vote must go to the 1932 version with Frederic March as the mad doc. March won the Oscar for Best Actor for this role.



Now, if we can move ahead a few years to a couple of talkies (you still won’t hear any screams), two of my perennial all-time Halloween favorites both starring Cary Grant. First is 1937’s "Topper" with Grant and Constance Bennett as George and Marion Kerby, a fun-loving couple who find themselves in limbo as ghosts after an unfortunate auto accident. Deciding that heaven is just one good deed away, they turn their attention toward their dull friend Cosmo Topper. But Topper is one stodgy banker, and it’ll take all the high jinks the Kerby’s can muster to haunt Topper into loosening up and living it up.



Next is 1944’s tale of mirthful murder cary-ed off in slapstick, slap-happy style, "Arsenic and Old Lace." Cary Grant and a stellar cast romp through this classic farce based on Joseph Kesselring’s 1941 Broadway hit and breezily directed by Frank Capra. Frazzled drama critic Mortimer Brewster (Grant) has two aunts (Josephine Hull and Jean Adair) who ply lonely geezers with poisoned libations, one sociopathic brother (Raymond Massey) who looks like Boris Karloff, one bonkers brother (John Alexander) who thinks he’s Teddy Roosevelt, one impatient new bride (Priscilla Lane) and only one night to make it turn out all right. In this circus’ center ring is Grant, twisting his face into a clown’s gallery of flabbergasted reactions and transforming his natural athletic grace into a rubber-legged comic ballet.



CAUTION: You could die laughing.



Here’s looking at you kid.