[7] In 1995, Brownlow and Gill produced the followup series, Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood, which explores the rise of the silent film industry in Sweden, Germany, France and Great Britain.

The actor James Mason, an enthusiast of the period, supplied the narration[8] while a lilting and expressive score was contributed by Carl Davis.

Silent films had often been screened on television from poor-quality copies running at an inaccurate speed, usually accompanied by honky tonk piano music.

For instance, the first episode features a clip of Life of an American Fireman, produced in 1903 with the aforementioned stereotypical poor quality print and music and then compares that with a clip of The Fire Brigade, produced over two decades later in 1926, in a high quality print run at the proper speed with full orchestral accompaniment.

[10] Among the notable people who contributed interviews were: Also interviewed were choreographer Agnes de Mille, writer Anita Loos, writer Adela Rogers St. Johns, press agent/writer Cedric Belfrage, organist Gaylord Carter, cinematographers George J. Folsey, Lee Garmes, and Paul Ivano, writer Jesse L. Lasky, Jr., special effects artist A. Arnold Gillespie, Lord Mountbatten, agent Paul Kohner, producer/writer Samuel Marx, editors William Hornbeck and Grant Whytock, property man Lefty Hough, stuntmen Bob Rose, Yakima Canutt, Paul Malvern, and Harvey Parry, Rudolph Valentino's brother Alberto Valentino, Valerie von Stroheim, and English set designer Laurence Irving.