For National Silent Movie Day this year, the National Film Preservation Foundation hired me to score two rare silent features that they’ve posted to their online screening room. One of these is the Charles Ray melodrama Paris Green (1920), which was produced by Thomas H. Ince and released by Artcraft through Paramount.
Charles Ray’s work deserves to be seen more, even if some of the films may not hold up all too well, as he was a big star during the silent era. His films’ popularity in the late ‘teens and early ‘twenties are sort of a “missing link” between the light comedies of Douglas Fairbanks and Harold Lloyd’s move into features, bridged slightly by the Thomas H. Ince-produced features starring Douglas MacLean (another of Ince’s discoveries). Ray usually plays a charming young man from a rural background who finds himself in a variety of scrapes and ultimately must face up to the situation at hand and be the big hero and win the day. In some ways, Lloyd’s Grandma’s Boy (1922) is a Charles Ray picture with slapstick and sight gags.
Paris Green is well made, and to some extent feels like it’s caught up in post-war enthusiasm and awe of all who served in battle overseas. Its overall structure is a tad uneven, with some scenes lingering on character and charm moments without moving the story ahead, and its climactic chase and rescue almost comes out of nowhere. Regardless, a Charles Ray film that survives and is available for fans to see is a good thing, because of his stardom’s and his films’ place in the arc of light comedies and melodramas during the silent era.
The film is posted on the NFPF’s Screening Room with excellent film notes, and I’ll leave you to read them yourself rather than try to write up something more detailed about the film for you here. On the next episode of my Silent Film Music Podcast, which will be posted during October 2026, I talk about my process of scoring this film also include an excerpt from my live theatre organ score for this film from when it was shown at Capitolfest in August 2026.
To watch Paris Green click/tap here or on the image below.
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