We Had Faces Then

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

The Norma Desmond character said in Sunset Boulevard on the art of silent film: “We didn’t need words; we had faces!”

Buddy Rogers in Wings (William Wellman, 1927)
 

Gardner McKay, 1959
 

 

Joan Crawford in Dance, Fools, Dance (Harry Beaumont, 1931)