The 12 Most Sizzling Starlets Of Silent Film (VIDEO)

In the age of silent cinema, emotions were dramatized and expressed using the face and body as vehicles. Though today the acting style of early film may appear campy or overdone, there is undeniably an art and a magic to speaking without speaking. Nobody understood this better than the sexy sirens who made silent film what it was. Through their gorgeous faces, alluring expressions and bold body movements these women did not need to talk to make audiences listen.

In the following group of 12 silent film vixens we have stars of all types: dangerous, frail, crazy, sweet and erotic. The collection includes femme fatales, vamps and divas. Sorry, Greta Garbo, but these are the girls who most entranced us, even if they didn't end up achieving mass fame. These are the ladies who dazzled us, scared us, and made us fall in love without ever saying a word.

Comments

[Harveyboy]

04:20 PM on 02/08/2012

How about Norma Talmadge? Or what about Colleen Moore?

[AnonymousToo]

04:10 PM on 05/16/2012

Norma Talmadge was pudgy and ugly. However, you're right about Colleen Moore.

[hungryghost]

02:05 AM on 02/08/2012

No Clara Bow? Who are you kidding! She's the queen!

[mouseleen]

12:30 AM on 02/08/2012

It's Brigitte "Helm", not "Helms"!!

[Aitch5]

11:51 AM on 02/07/2012

Mary Miles Minter!

[drednm]

09:17 PM on 02/05/2012

If this is about silent films, why is the Betty Compson clip from a talkie "Street Girl"?

[drednm]

09:12 PM on 02/05/2012

Stupid piece. Whoever wrote the headline didn't read any of the "article" and never saw a silent film. Lillian Gish and Mae Murray were never starlets. Nor was Pauline Frederick. And it's Brigitte Helm, not Helms.

[zuzuzpetals]

11:00 PM on 02/04/2012

Love the way Menichelli throws her head back constantly, like she's in the throes of an orgasm just standing there, or at the sight of herself in the mirror!

And the Bridget Helms piece is fantastic--the world is being threatened by Nazisim--but the great sin is a sexy woman tempting men!! It's chilling and hysterically funny all at once.

What a legacy of gender construction.

Great compilation. I learned things. Thanks.

[regulargal]

09:28 PM on 02/04/2012

Saw the The Artist tonight, was wondering about such. Good timing. ; )

[muckster]

04:05 PM on 02/04/2012

Nice list -- but who the hell is Brigitte Helms?

[Violinhunter]

01:31 PM on 02/04/2012

Silent or not, I'm for Hedy Lamarr - always and forever!!!

[dtroppy]

11:54 AM on 02/04/2012

Loved watching the video clips, what a great part of cinema history...

[mamacat]

06:30 AM on 02/04/2012

Greta Garbo was the big siren that I remember.

[butchcliff]

06:25 AM on 02/04/2012

Where's Mary Pickford?

[donnyraindog]

12:18 AM on 02/04/2012

The ninth clip featuring the beautiful chinese star Ruan Lingyu is well worth watching.Her short and tragic life ended in a suicide at which there was a possibly fraudulant note blaming tabloid gossip.At her funeral procession which streched for over two miles three woman were said to have killed themselves,Ruan was all of 24 years old at her death.

[Palafox]

08:52 PM on 02/03/2012

No one knows this stuff like Robert Osborne. His movie introductions on Turner Classic Movies are like 2-minute cinema history lessons.

[e-cat]

12:23 PM on 02/04/2012

How very true. Sometimes I just watch his micro-bio's of the movie, even if I don't watch the movie per se. This man is a gold mine of information.

Backatcha w/ a fan!