Snow White (1916)

Silent version of the classic fairy tale (or, more accurately, a stage adaptation of said tale) is most important for its influence: It's said that this film inspired Walt Disney to become a filmmaker. A place in history, however, is no guarantee of quality, and so it goes with this film. It's ornate and well-designed, but it makes no effort to hide its stage origins, thus robbing it of any measure of vitality it could conceivably have. A handsomely mounted yet completely dead thing, this may be cinema's first Mantlepiece Movie.

Grade: C+