Silent movie clips in 'Under Pressure' by Queen and David Bowie

(My personal approach) I've known the Under Pressure video since 1992 when my sister brought home the Box of Flix, a 2 VHS collection of (more or less) the videos of Queen's Greatest Hits I and II. We were both avid Queen fans at the time, half children who wanted to see the band perform in a music video. 
So I wasn't thrilled at all with the Under Pressure video. It featured neither Queen nor David Bowie, instead showing old clips of people and objects literally or metaphorically under pressure and then some movie clips from days of yore. 

Still, that video stayed in my mind and recently I remembered it again. Apparently the internet still knows only a few sources of that video. Time for me to step in.

(Call for help) Please help me identify these movies. The screenshot sources are this official music video for 'Under Pressure' by Queen & David Bowie (which unnecessarily has parts of the picture cut from the top and the bottom) and this version from the Queen video collection Greatest Flix II (which has the whole picture), respectively.

(THE Source) I found out that the Elvis Costello video for 'Everyday I Write the Book' (1983, directed by Don Letts) shared some black and white clips with Under Pressure (1981, directed by David Mallet). Apparently they used a common source. This source has now been identified: It is probably Filmfinders. Filmfinders is the video collection of Philip Jenkinson (1935-2012), who was responsible for the makeshift music videos on the BBC show The Old Grey Whistle Test.

(Different version) There's another (more or less unreleased) video for Under Pressure that has different, more recent (1950s) movie clips. It was broadcast at least once between 1998 and 2009 on the Canadian music station Much More Music, judging by this Youtube video. It's hard to tell which version came first. Here are some screenshots.

For more details, also see the the IMDb page and the Wikipedia page about 'Under Pressure'.

The identified movies are named at the bottom.

(Click images to enlarge.) Please comment.



1: Scary man - source known.


 2: Woman on telephone silenced by hairy hand

3: Skinny man - could this be Conrad Veidt in 'Der Januskopf (1920)'?

4: Scary man - source known.

5: Fearful woman

6: Drowning woman trying to hold on to riverbank

7: Hairy man - source known.

8: Disheveled man - source known.

9: Woman in agony - source known.

10: Hypnotist with man - source known.

11: Floating man, same movie as 10 -  source known.

12: Skull in wooden box - source known.

13: Skull floating on water - source known.

14: Man in bed visited by vampire - source known.

15: Raven silhouette in the sky - look below for context.

16: Moon - source found. The following 3 shots from the same source are not in Under Pressure:




17: Kiss, woman with cap - source known.

18: Kiss, man with cap - possible source found.

19: Kiss in tuxedo - probable source found.

20: Same movie as 19 - probable source found. The following 4 shots are not in Under Pressure:





21: Shy flirt - source known.

22: Same movie as 21 - source known.

23: Violent grab -  source known.

24: Man with cigarette and woman - source known.

25: Woman kisses soldier - source probably found. Look below for context.

26: Same movie as 25; additional screenshots (not in Under Pressure) follow:









Already identified:
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1: John Barrymore as Mr. Hyde in 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde' (1920). Proof


7: Fredric March as Mr. Hyde in 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde' (1931)Proof

8: Sheldon Lewis as Mr. Hyde in 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde' (1920). Proof

9: Beatrice Vitoldi as Woman with baby carriage in 'Battleship Potemkin/Bronenosets Potemkin' (1925), Minute 54:06. Proof

10+11: Lupino Lane and Wallace Lupino in the short 'Good Night Nurse' (1929). Movie available here on archive.org. The scene starts at Minute 5:27.


12: 'Fog Island' (1945).


13: 'Fog Island' (1945).

14: Gustav von Wangenheim as Hutter in 'Nosferatu/Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens' (1922). Proof


15: Clip is from this compilation. It seems to be from 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde' (1920) starring Sheldon Lewis.


16: Moon from a scene with Elinor Fair and William Boyd in 'The Yankee Clipper' (1927). Clip is from this compilation which features man and woman looking at the moon and kissing. Clip is mirrored.

17: Clara Bow and Donald Keith in 'My Lady of Whims' (1925). Proof

18: Clip looks like movie poster for 'Red Lips' (1928).


19+20: Probably Jack Buchanan and Annette Benson in 'Confetti' (1928). Longer clip in this kissing compilation. Compare this photo (Buchanan's outfit is matching) and this photo (Benson's outfit is matching).


21: Rudolph Valentino aVladimir Dubrovsky in 'The Eagle' (1925), clip is mirrored. Proof


22: Vilma Bánky as Mascha Troekouroff in 'The Eagle' (1925), clip is mirrored. Proof


23: Gloria Swanson as Tessie McGuire and Ian Keith as Robert Brandt in 'Manhandled' (1924). Proof

24: Greta Garbo and John Gilbert in 'Flesh and the Devil' (1926), clip is mirrored. Proof

25+26: Most probably Pola Negri and Charles de Rochefort in 'Shadows of Paris' (1924). Compare this movie poster. More from this scene found in a compilation on Youtube: Here and here.

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