A clean getaway in THE KINGDOM OF THE FAIRIES (1903). Like all Georges Melies films of this period, it was hand-colored by Mme. Élisabeth Thuillier, who was considered to be the greatest of the French colorists.

Thuillier also colored A TRIP TO THE MOON but all colored prints were thought to be lost before one turned up in a Spanish archive.

(You would not believe how many times I have been lectured and ordered to post this GIF in the "original" black and white!)

And when I type "hand-colored" I mean literally that. A staff of colorists (almost exclusively women) would apply color to every frame of every print with teeny-tiny brushes.

The original colors were often lost when silent films were transferred to black and white safety film but a full 90% of silent films had some form of color (mostly tinting). It's an essential part of the presentation and should be restored wherever possible.

Unfortunately, the backlash against Ted Turner's hideous computer colorization has created the misconception that black and white is always the most authentic choice.

With most silent films, it is the LEAST authentic choice.

Tinting became less common as the silent era ended but it survived into the talkies. (THE WIZARD OF OZ's sepia was no outlier.)

Appreciating the applied color processes of the silent era is essential for any serious student of film history.

So, to recap the types of applied color (as opposed to natural color like Technicolor) here we go:

Hand-colored means dyes applied freehand with tiny brushes.

Stecil-colored means stencils were hand-cut for each color on each frame and then the dyes were stamped on. (Almost exclusively French.)

Tinting means that the color saturates the lighter, brighter areas of the frame.

Toning means that the color saturates the darker, shadowy areas of the frame.

Tinting and toning could be used at the same time to stunning effect. For example, gold tinting and blue toning enhances the feel of a house illuminated in the nighttime.

Tinting and toning could be used to convey literal meaning (red for a fiery scene, blue for night) or they could be symbolic (rose for romance, green for eeriness).

The French were considered to be the best colorists, though other countries did use hand-color in early films. It was considered to be an added draw and full-color prints cost more than prints that were merely tinted or spot-colored.

I would be remiss not to mention Handschiegl color, which was a kind of stamped color used to great emotional effect during the burning scene in JOAN THE WOMAN.