Why do men in early films look ghostly white?

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I was watching an old movie that was from the 1920s and I noticed that the men in the movie looked ghostly white. I thought it was just the movie until I looked at other old films on Netflix streaming and saw the same thing. The white women don't look like that, but all the white men in the movies look very ghostly like they had lots of white makeup on or something.

Why is that?
 
Because makeup artists back then didn't put blush on the men, so it was just that white pasty cake makeup they used. Plus the film quality was not as advanced.
 
When they took those films/pictures the films were not as sophisticated as they are now and couldn't capture the broad contrasts needed to give an accurate representation of the image. Simply put, contrast was higher giving very start blacks and whites rather than the graduated images that we are used to.

As the films got better the pictures got better.
 
It may be due to over whie make up.
Over a period of time there is wear and tear. The natural chemicals on film will be eroded or it looses its original. The film also becomes old or aged. Hence many faces look very white or over makeupped.
Another reason is due to lack of technology in those days as in now a days.
 
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