Here are three of D. W. Griffith's early shorts edited together. Although it mocks the story-telling techniques of early movies, it does point out the real performers, including Lilian Gish and Lionel Barrymore, who show up in these movies.
Making fun of old movies was a longtime Hollywood tradition, with the first batch coming out in 1933, and RKO had a series of them in 1945 under the supervision of Richard Fleischer. But the attitude towards silent movies was shifting. It had begun with an article by James Agee in a major magazine, continued with another by theater critic Walter Kerr, and then producer Robert Youngson began to produce compilations of old comedies.
This one is pitched midway between those two appraisals. It thinks, as the current slogan goes, that movies are still better than ever, but admits there were some good performers in those days.