When I commenced this project, I thought I'd be lucky to find around 200 silent films available on DVD. I mean individual titles. I knew there were six or seven versions of cult classics like Fritz Lang's "Metropolis", Lon Chaney's "Phantom of the Opera" and Buster Keaton's "Steamboat Bill, Jr."

To my surprise, the actual number of silent features now available on DVD is close to 500 -- and this number is growing at the rate of around 100 a year. So what we have here in 320 pages is really the first volume in what will be a continuing project.

I have tried to steer a middle course between selecting simply the most popular titles to rate and review, or leaving the mainstream to hunt up neglected and forgotten treasures. I often find in my viewing that the over-praised "masterpiece" sometimes proves a little disappointing. My expectations are too high. On the other hand, the movie that no-one seems to know anything about, often proves to be an unexpected pleasure.

Shorts are another world again. A great many one and two-reelers are available on DVD, both as collections or as bonus material. In general, I have steered clear of shorts, although I couldn't resist Harry Langdon's "Saturday Afternoon" and "Soldier Man" or Buster Keaton's "One Week" or Charles Chaplin's "Easy Street" or Lloyd Hamilton's "Doubling in the Quickies".

I've also tended to concentrate on Hollywood product. In addition to "Metropolis", I've included only five foreign films: Alfred Hitchcock's "The Lodger", Pabst's "Secrets of a Soul", Lubitsch's "Sumurun", Arthur Robison's "Warning Shadows", and Paul Czinner's marvelous "The Woman He Scorned" with the great Pola Negri in the title role.

As for my own personal favorites, here, in no particular order are eight of the 178 in the book: "When Knighthood Was In Flower", "The Winning of Barbara Worth", "Tumbleweeds", "The Notorious Lady", "Sparrows", "Mantrap", "Don Q, Son of Zorro", and "City Girl".