The double edged sword of silent movies is keeping track of that line where acting goes from honest to overwrought. Emil Jannings goes from a wooden man in the first half of the film to a convulsing child in the second half, while Werner Krauss plays Iago as a gay man with a see through shirt and tight spandex bottoms. As a matter of fact, everyone is dressed oddly. Cassio wears a metal helmet, Roderigo looks like he is wearing floral curtains, and Iago has a Mongol mustache. The music is all menace all the time, which gets old fast. The high point is that this is one of Shakespeare's best plays, but even that is undercut by the slicing of many depth providing scenes like Emilia and Desdemona's marital talk which gives Desdemona more of a personality and all of the Bianca's scenes as well as scenes between Iago and Emilia. The result is a superficial version of the play with acting, while big and flashy, that doesn't hold up to today's standards.
Review of Othello
