While the Silent Era may be most commonly associated with slapstick gags, piano trills, and tiny mustaches, the early days of film had another claim to fame — featuring the most insane stunts in all of cinema.
From actors danging from clocks and swinging from trains, here are 12 pictures from the silent era that prove that OSHA didn't exist yet.
1
In her serial ‘Hazards of Helen,’ stuntwoman Helen Gibson lived up to her program’s name, doing several death defying stunts including jumping from a moving train.
2
The only thing harder than navigating a pirate ship? Sliding down its mast using a machete. Just ask Douglas Fairbanks who performed this stunt in 1926’s ‘The Black Pirate.’
3
“In 1923's Safety Last!, Harold Lloyd was hanging onto a building clock with only eight fingers.”
4
In 1927’s Play Safe, Monty Banks was tasked with dangling from a train.
5
Though it’s too hard to pick a single stunt from 1927’s wings to feature on this list, the entire film defined by death-defying aerial work, the flick required all of the actors and cameramen to serve as pilots too, tasked with crashing their planes.
6
In 1936, Charlie Chaplin proved himself to be a master skater after flying backwards towards a “ledge” — that was actually a flat surface covered in a photorealistic painting of a toy department — in Modern Times.”
7
The most expensive shot in silent film history, this iconic train crash from 1922’s ‘The General’ cost an eye-popping $42,000 or roughly $600,000 in todays money.
8
While it remains unclear whether or not Easter Walters hopped up on her motorcycle for the film camera, her daring stunt was at least caught on film — the stationary kind.
9
Buster Keaton brought a new meaning to “I do my own stunts” in 1928’s ‘Steamboat Bill,’ where his character survived a two-ton facade off a home falling on top of him through a lone window.
10
In 1922’s ‘Cops,’ Keaton brought a city-wide police chase to a screeching halt through a high-stakes game of see-saw, one that sent him flying through the air.
11
In 'Chasing Choo Choos,' Banks was yet again tasked with dangling from a train, this time, with a distressed damsel by his side.
12
In 1924's 'Girl Shy," Harold Lloyd found himself between a trolley and a hard place — specifically a pole.
