The enthusiastic promotion of Avatar’s success only gets it half right. James Cameron’s sci-fi film is only the most successful film of all time right now. Gone With The Wind was the single most successful film ever . . . when one takes inflation into account. Taking inflation into account, Avatar is merely the 14th most successful film ever. (Doesn’t exactly look good in a Blu-ray/DVD com...

By the time sound was heard in the movies, silent film had outgrown its awkward childhood to become a mature medium, an expressive art form in its own right. One of the last silent films deserves to be ranked with the great movies of its kind. The Wind (1928) was also the Hollywood finale for Swedish director Victor Seastrom (or Sjöström, as he was known in his homeland). Irked by having to add a happy ending to The Wind, which...