I have not seen this but would like to. Thanks for the reminder.
Hand-held camerawork was not wholly uncommon in the silent era, but it certainly became rarer with the coming of synchronized sound. The only example I can think of off the top of my head from 1932 is a single shot in the William C. de Mille - directed Miriam Hopkins film Two Kinds of Women.
Les Croix de Bois (Wooden Crosses)
Has anybody else seen Raymond Bernard's 1932 WWI film Les Croix de Bois (Wooden Crosses)? I just saw it last night (and posted a review on my blog; it's an absolutely magnificent film, brilliantly directed--the battle sequences, with its use of hand-held cameras (were they used in any other film so early?) and symbolic dissolves, are among the finest I've ever seen.
"...it is the weak who are cruel, and...gentleness is only to be expected from the strong." - Leo Reston
"Cruelty might be very human, and it might be cultural, but it's not acceptable." - Jodie Foster
"Cruelty might be very human, and it might be cultural, but it's not acceptable." - Jodie Foster