WordNet
n. a movie without a soundtrack [syn: silent picture, silents]
Wikipedia
Silent Movie is a 1976 American satirical comedy film co-written, directed by, and starring Mel Brooks, and released by 20th Century Fox on June 17, 1976. The ensemble cast includes Dom DeLuise, Marty Feldman, Bernadette Peters, and Sid Caesar, with appearances by Anne Bancroft, Liza Minnelli, Burt Reynolds, James Caan, Marcel Marceau and Paul Newman playing themselves.
While indeed silent (except for one word, music and numerous sound effects), the film is a parody of the silent film genre, particularly the slapstick comedies of Charlie Chaplin, Mack Sennett, and Buster Keaton. Among the film's most famous gags is the fact that the only audible word in the movie is spoken by Marcel Marceau, a noted mime.
Sound is a big factor in the film's humor, as when a scene that shows the New York City skyline begins with the song " San Francisco", only to have it come to a sudden stop as if the musicians realize they are playing the wrong music. They then go into " I'll Take Manhattan" instead.
A play on the current trend of large corporations buying up movie studios is parodied in this film by the attempt of the Engulf and Devour Corporation to take control of a studio (a thinly veiled reference to Gulf+Western's takeover of Paramount Pictures).
Usage examples of "silent movie".
He'd turned up two photographs from the archives of some silent movie enthusiast.
Later it would occur to Ralph just how carefully crafted this little silent movie had been.
The reverse of this is The Running Man, which may be the best of them because it's nothing but storyit moves with the goofy speed of a silent movie, and anything which is not story is cheerfully thrown over the side.
From behind the glass of the picture by the door leading into the bedroom, the twenties woman with the bleeding nipples and grinning cannibal-teeth whirled around and ran back up the stairs, going with the jerky delirious high knee-pistoning of a vamp in a silent movie.
The worst part about being deaf-mute was not living in the silent movie world.
Unable to hear the conversations across the street, he felt it was like watching a fine silent movie performance, all pantomime and expression: the old security guard was gruff, earnest-a little bumbling perhaps, but enormously well-meaning.
Don't miss the restored 1907 steam-powered sawmill, with the kind of huge spinning blade you'd use to kill a silent movie heroine tied to a log.