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Silent films that express an era - latimes.com

Warner Bros. caused a seismic sensation Oct. 6, 1927, when the studio premiered "The Jazz Singer," the first feature that included sound using synchronized dialogue sequences. But while the Al Jolson drama proved to be the death knell of silent movies, some of the most artistic silent films were released in 1928 as studios were beginning the transition to talkies.

Two of MGM's masterworks from 1928 — King Vidor's heartbreaking "The Crowd" and Ernst Lubitsch's lushly romantic "The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg" — are screening this week at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science's Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

The programs mark the second "Mary Pickford Celebration of Silent Film," a collaboration between the academy and the Mary Pickford Foundation to showcase classics of the era.

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