Film
A Girl's Folly
A 1917 silent comedy about a small-town girl who abandons her quiet life after meeting a film crew, chasing stardom in the picture business. It's a brisk, affectionate look at ambition and disillusionment wrapped in the era's light-hearted comedy. Perfect for silent film newcomers seeking something breezy and genuinely funny, not reverential.
If you liked this
Singin' in the Rain1952
The gold standard for Hollywood dreaming: joyful, gorgeously made, and honest about the gap between the fantasy of show business and its messy reality. A pure pleasure.
But If you're not moved by spectacular dance sequences or Golden Age charm, the plot's fairly thin and the sentimentality won't carry you.
Sunset Boulevard1950
Dark, brilliant, and brutally funny about a woman destroyed by her desperate hunger for Hollywood stardom. Billy Wilder's masterpiece captures the exact disillusionment at the heart of ambition.
But It's cynical and bleak in ways that can feel punishing. Gloria Swanson's performance is intense rather than comfortable to watch.
The Bad and the Beautiful1952
A ruthless, glamorous examination of how the film industry chews up and spits out talented people. Gorgeously shot and wickedly entertaining about the cost of making it.
But It's a Hollywood insider story that assumes you care about studio politics and career machinations. Can feel a bit airless if that doesn't grab you.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from A Girl's Folly
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Variety1925
Both track the cost of performing ambition, but Variety shows it through the body and the camera itself—a silent film about the machinery of show business, not just its dreams.
A backstage drama about desire and desperation in vaudeville, filmed with such visual invention that it feels like pure cinema. The camera moves like a character; the tragedy is earned.
But It's a German Expressionist film—geometrical, stylised, emotionally distant. If you want naturalism or warmth, this aesthetic will alienate you.
More like this (8)
Merton of the Movies1924
Another silent film about a small-town kid trying to break into pictures. It's sympathetic and genuinely funny, with a performer who commits fully to the absurdity.
But Silent comedy relies on physical humour and timing that doesn't always land a century later. The pacing will feel slack if you're used to modern cuts.
The Phantom of the Opera1925
Lon Chaney gives one of cinema's most magnetic performances in this lush, eerie romance. The production design is staggering; the passion is real.
But It's operatic and slow-burning. If you need plot momentum or modern pacing, you'll find it ponderous and overwrought.
The Crowd1928
King Vidor's heartbreaking portrait of ordinary people trying to make it in the big city. It captures the specific loneliness of urban ambition with stunning emotional clarity.
But It's bleak and deeply sad. The ordinary desperation it depicts can feel relentlessly hopeless rather than cathartic.
Foolish Wives1922
Erich von Stroheim's epic comedy about con artists and desire in post-war Europe. It's stylish, cynical, and surprisingly modern in its treatment of manipulation.
But At nearly four hours and incomplete in most versions, it's a difficult watch. The cynicism is corrosive rather than funny to some.
Way Down East1920
A girl from the country falls victim to a smooth talker and must rebuild her life. It's melodrama, but handled with real feeling and extraordinary ice-floe action sequences.
But The melodrama is heavy-handed and the sexual politics are archaic. The pace staggers unevenly between scenes.
Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages1916
D.W. Griffith's ambitious, visually stunning four-story epic about injustice across history. Technically revolutionary and genuinely moving, ambitious in scope.
But It's exhausting, three hours long, and Griffith's politics are offensive by any standard. The pacing is glacial and the stories feel disconnected.
Greed1924
Like *A Girl's Folly*, it's about rural people corrupted by their encounters with cities and ambition, but Stroheim shows you the destruction in unrelenting, almost documentary detail.
Erich von Stroheim's massive, obsessive adaptation of *McTeague* about ordinary people destroyed by wanting. Shot with unflinching detail; morally serious without preaching.
But It's a fragment of Stroheim's original cut, nearly nine hours in the full version. The bleakness is absolute; nothing is redeemed or forgiven.
Show People1928
The only film here that matches *A Girl's Folly*'s tone—light, self-aware, amused by its own subject. A direct spiritual successor, seventy years before most people knew the original existed.
A satirical comedy about a girl who climbs from bit player to star, with cameos from real Hollywood figures playing themselves. Sharp, funny, and genuinely affectionate about the absurdity.
But It's deeply embedded in 1920s Hollywood gossip and in-jokes that don't survive. The comedy can feel flat if you don't know who these people are.
People
Cast
Robert WarwickKenneth Driscoll
Doris KenyonMary Baker
June ElvidgeVivian Carleton- Janet AdairMrs. Baker
Chester BarnettJohnny Applebloom
Johnny HinesHank
Josef von SternbergCameraman (uncredited)
Maurice TourneurDirector (uncredited)
Directing
- Maurice TourneurDirector
Writing
- Frances MarionWriter
- Maurice TourneurWriter