From KCRW in Santa Monica, this is The Treatment.

Welcome to The Treatment.

I'm Elvis Mitchell.

You can also hear the show at KZRW.com.

Treasures 3, Social Issues issues in American film, is an astonishing

compilation of work from the old part of the

20th century. The kind of film

that you probably not seen before,

it was curated and assembled by

Scott Simmons, who's an English

professor at UC Davis, and author one of my

favorite books, King Vidor American.

Scott, thanks so much for being here.

Well, thanks for having me, especially since silent film on radio is not the most natural combination.

It forces you to talk about it, which is the good thing, you know?

Yes.

And what's fascinating about all this stuff to me is that it shows how much this country was in transition.

And even during the silent days,

when everybody obviously thinks that most films about entertainment,

that these were films that courted conversation, didn't they?

That's right.

One of the sort of motivations for putting this together is I think people have a kind of typical idea about silent film.

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