Sunday, May 22: 'The First Auto' in Wilton, N.H., plus notes on three earlier screenings featuring John Gilbert, Harold Lloyd, and Buster Keaton

An original poster for 'The First Auto' (1927).

This weekend, in honor of the upcoming Indianapolis 500, we're screening 'The First Auto' (1927), a Warner Bros. drama set at the turn of the previous century, at the dawn of the auto era.

Showtime is Sunday, May 22 at 2 p.m. at the Town Hall Theatre in Wilton, N.H. A lot more info is in the press release below, including the ironic death of actor Charles Emmett Mack in a car accident prior to the film's completion.

Now, a look back at some recent shows. It's been a busy month and I'm behind on keeping up this diary, so here goes.

• A screening of the John Gilbert swashbuckler 'Bardelys the Magnificent' (1926) drew cheers, surprisingly, from the audience on Wednesday, May 11 at the Flying Monkey Moviehouse in Plymouth, N.H.

I say "surprisingly" because the cheers came during the film's climax towards the end of a screening that otherwise elicited practically no audible response from those attending.

Well, you never know. I think part of it is that the climax to 'Bardelys' is truly top-notch: Gilbert's title character, condemned to death and actually on the gallows, suddenly makes a break for it.

What follows is a remarkable sequence of choreographed action in which Gilbert eludes his pursuers, matching swashbuckling legend Douglas Fairbanks in creative and athletic stunting.

To me, the cheers and applause was music to my ears, as it meant people were following the story and cared about this character's fate after all. 

Also, it was very nice to have a regular attendee of the Flying Monkey silent series come up afterwards to say the music I came up with for the famous "boating romance" scene in 'Bardelys' really fit the scene and gave it extra depth. 

I assume she was talking about the music, and not the pond that John Gilbert and Eleanor Boardman are seen gliding over.

• Harold Lloyd's 'For Heaven's Sake' (1926) opened this year's silent film series in Brandon, Vt., preceded by a Weiss Bros. short 'Danger Ahead' (1926) just to show two contrasting types of silent comedy. 

I've accompanied 'For Heaven's Sake' several times recently (in celebration of its new 'public domain' status) and I've noticed something strange about the film that I've not read anything about.

The picture clocks in at 58 minutes, or just under an hour—rather short for a Lloyd feature in between 'The Freshman' (1925, 76 minutes) and 'The Kid Brother' (1927, 84 minutes).

I know Lloyd had trouble with it in production, and even finding a suitable title was difficult. The material just didn't gell, which I guess will happen when you make films in the semi-improv way the silent clowns employed.

And critics have sometimes pointed out that the climactic "race to the altar" lacks drama or suspense because there's no real reason in the story for Harold to hurry, other than he doesn't want to be late. 

I mean, he's already phoned his bride before commencing on a wild ride across the unnamed city. Along the way, the antics of Harold's five sozzled roughneck friends are amusing, but are no match for other high-stakes situations such as the iconic building climb of 'Safety Last' (1923).

Contrast the climax of 'For Heaven's Sake' that with 'Girl Shy' (1924), where Lloyd absolutely MUST get to the church as fast as possible, as his girl is already at the altar, exchanging vows with a bigamist. I've accompanied screenings of this film where people are literally shouting "Hurry up!" at the screen.

Alas, this doesn't happen in 'For Heaven's Sake,' as the stakes aren't nearly so high. 

And I wonder if something didn't quite go right in the oven, and if something larger and more sinister was originally planned for the film, but somehow got cut. 

For starters, there's the film's stunted length. 

And then there's also the credits: getting top billing is James Mason—the silent one, not the James Mason who later starred in '20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.' Mason is billed as 'The Gangster,' presented as one of the lead roles.

But Mason barely appears in the film, and always on the sidelines.

Much more prominent is reliable celluloid bully Noah Young, who interacts regularly with Lloyd throughout the film and plays what turns out to be the film's key heavy. But unlike Mason, he doesn't merit any mention or credit in the opening titles.

To me, it seems likely that Lloyd and his team intended to develop the "gangster" theme more thoroughly to create a situation to bring real danger to our protagonist J. Harold Manners, the richest man in town.

Lloyd's "meet-cute" with Jobyna Ralston in 'For Heaven's Sake' (1926). 

And the potential is there. If there was a reason for a gangster to stop Lloyd's wedding to Jobyna Ralston's mission worker (maybe a romantic rivalry?), then maybe Lloyd could have been kidnapped by the bad guys (not his rich friends), creating suspense on the level of 'Girl Shy' or 'Safety Last.'

Maybe that's the role Mason was intended to play. After all, he played a similar baddie (with designs on Ralston) in Lloyd's comedy 'Why Worry?' (1923). 

Even better, Mason could have kidnapped Ralston, not Lloyd, forcing our Hero to race to her rescue, maybe with his drunken friends in tow along the way. Great suspense could be generated, with Lloyd striving to rescue Jobyna while keeping five inebriated friends from danger.

But there are signs that whatever role Mason was supposed to play, most of it wound up on the cutting room floor.

Instead, in 'For Heaven's Sake,' Lloyd gets kidnapped by his fellow rich twits, which doesn't lead to any significant peril for our hero, and little edge-of-the-seat suspense for an audience. 

There are accounts that the "gangster" angle planned for 'For Heaven's Sake' wound up being reworked for 'Speedy' (1928), But it's really too that a way wasn't found to use it to amp up the tension in 'For Heaven's Sake.' 

I mean, for heaven's sake.

• Sunday, May 15 brought Buster Keaton's 'Our Hospitality' (1923), which I accompanied at the Center for the Arts in Natick, Mass. 

Great screening, audience with the picture all the way. Lots of questions during a very extended Q & A following the film. 

An original lobby card promoting 'Our Hospitality' (1923). 

One attendee observed that Keaton was very hard on the South and its people. This prompted an interesting discussion, with me saying that Keaton wasn't trying to "say" anything, but just using a family feud and what would have been seen as antiquated customs even in the 1920s to drive a story.  

Keaton wasn't a political artist in the same way that his rival, Mr. Charles Chaplin, was, especially later in life. With Keaton, I said it would be a misstep to read anything like a contemporary political agenda into his work, which was produced a century ago. (And in the case of 'Our Hospitality,' was set 100 years before that.)

And that led into a discussion of 'The General' (1926), and how Keaton's Civil War epic portrayed the South as heroes and the North as villains—again, just for story-telling purposes, not to promote any kind of agenda, hidden or otherwise.

Speaking about 'The General' later in life, Keaton observed that "you can always make a villain out of the North, but you can never make a villain out of the South." 

It's my theory that he was talking about box office: in the 1920s, with the Civil War still within living memory, any film in which the South was portrayed as the bad guys and the North as triumphant wouldn't do business in a big part of the nation.

And now, it's on to 'The First Auto' (1927), which I'll accompany on Sunday, May 23 at 2 p.m. at the Town Hall Theater in Wilton, N.H. 

Let me know if you need a ride!

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An original lobby card for 'The First Auto' (1927).

WEDNESDAY, MAY 11, 2022 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com

'The First Auto,' silent car racing drama with live music, on Sunday, May 22 in Wilton, N.H.

Movie's leading man ironically killed in car crash during filming, but Warner Bros. still completed and released the picture

WILTON, N.H.—It was intended to be a nostalgic drama about the transition from horses to automobiles in the early 1900s.

But during filming, 'The First Auto' (1927) took a tragic behind-the-scenes turn when leading man Charles Emmett Mack was killed in a car accident.

Mack, a popular 1920s star, died in a crash while driving to a racetrack to shoot sequences for the nearly completed movie.

Despite Mack's death at age 26, Warner Bros. finished the picture, altering the ending so that his character didn't need to appear on-screen.

'The First Auto' will be screened on Sunday, May 22 at 2 p.m. at the Town Hall Theatre, 40 Main St., Wilton, N.H.

Admission is free; a donation of $10 per person is suggested to help defray expenses.

The screening will feature live accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis, a New Hampshire-based composer who specializes in creating music for silent films.

'The First Auto' is being shown in honor of the upcoming Indianapolis 500, the classic road race that takes place each Memorial Day weekend.

Opening in 1895, 'The First Auto' follows the story of a prosperous stable owner (Russell Simpson) whose son (Charles Emmett Mack) becomes fascinated with the then-new "horseless carriages," or automobiles.

After the two clash repeatedly, the son moves to Detroit to work in the auto business. By 1905, he's become a successful race car driver.

Things come to a head when the son secretly enters a race back in his old hometown—a race that the father intends to sabotage.

Leading man Charles Emmett Mack (at left) broke into the movies as a young prop man for director D.W. Griffith.

Griffith began using Mack in small on-screen parts, which led to a career in front of the camera as a popular 1920s star.

He co-starred in several films with fellow young actor Neil Hamilton, who would much later go on to play Commissioner Gordon in the 1960s 'Batman' TV series.

Among the large cast in 'The First Auto' is actor William Demarest, who would go on to play Uncle Charlie in the long-running sitcom 'My Three Sons.'

The movie also features a cameo appearance by legendary race car driver Barney Oldfield, who first broke the 60 mph speed mark in 1903.

Oldfield served as technical advisor for the race sequences to ensure period authenticity.

The film was directed by Roy Del Ruth; writers included a young Darryl F. Zanuck, who would go on to create 20th Century Fox, a studio he ran for many decades.

'The First Auto' is part of the Town Hall Theatre's silent film series, which aims to show early movies as they were meant to be seen—in high quality prints, on a large screen, with live music, and with an audience.

"All those elements are important parts of the silent film experience," said Rapsis, who will improvise a musical score for 'The First Auto.'

"Recreate those conditions, and the classics of early Hollywood leap back to life," he said.

‘The First Auto’ will be shown with live music on Sunday, May 22 at 2 p.m. at the Town Hall Theatre, 40 Main St., Wilton, N.H.

Admission is free; a donation of $10 per person is suggested to help defray expenses.

For more info, visit www.wiltontownhalltheatre.com or call (603) 654-3456.

Once-lost swashbuckler 'Bardelys' this week in Plymouth; report on 'The Kid' in Newport, R.I.

Portrait of the artist taking a photo of the poster for 'The Kid.' I'm visible as a reflection at left. 

This week it's off to Plymouth, N.H., where I'll accompany a screening of the lost-but-rediscovered MGM swashbuckler 'Bardelys the Magnificent' (1926) on Wednesday, May 11.

Show time is 6:30 p.m. I'd forgotten how much fun this film was, as I hadn't seen it since it was re-issued about 10 years ago after a nearly complete print was discovered in France. 

Lots more info in the press release below. For now, a few thoughts about a screening of 'The Kid' (1921) in Newport, R.I. and the excitement of performing for an audience where silent films aren't a regular part of the programming.

In Newport, the screening of Chaplin's 'The Kid' at the historic Jane Pickens Theatre (a single screen downtown moviehouse 100 years old this year!) was a direct outgrowth of a screening of 'The General' last February.

The venue ran Keaton's Civil War epic in partnership with a local bookstore, which had brought in author Dana Stevens to speak about her new book 'Camera Man.' I came down to do live music, and so made my first-ever visit to Newport, despite being a life-long New Englander. (I'm more of a "North of the Mass. Pike" kind of guy, but that's another story.)

Although the "JPT" (as it's called) runs all kinds of film (first-run, classics, foreign, independent), it seems silents with live music haven't been on the menu, despite the console of the venue's original theater organ still in place. (The pipes are still there as well, mummified in the walls.)

But 'The General' was so well-received, manager Alex Whitney was open to the idea of running other silent-era titles. He readily programmed a screening of 'Nosferatu' next October, right before Halloween, which I can't wait to accompany and which I'm sure will fill the house. 

So we talked about perhaps other silents in between, with me making the case that such programming was in keeping with the theater's roots as a silent movie house, but also an experience that can't be duplicated at home or via streaming. I also advocated for some kind of regular series as a way to build an audience over time.

My fellow silent film accompanist Ben Model often speaks of "audience preservation," a big part of keeping the silent film experience going. In the case of Newport, it's "audience development"—trying to create and sustain enough interest in the form so that it's worth it for a theater to program.

The marquee showing eclectic programming typical of the Jane Pickens Theatre in Newport, R.I.

Alex wasn't ready to commit to a regular slate of silents, but he was intrigued enough to program 'The Kid,' with everyone crossing their fingers that an audience would materialize, even without the added attraction of a book-signing. 

And I'm pleased to report that it did: about 60 paid admissions. The result was an audience that responded strongly throughout Chaplin's comedy/drama, and was full of questions before and after the show. Most had never experienced a silent film with live music. 

And the questions were really basic, ground-level inquiries (Where do you get these films? Are you playing the original score?) that reminded me that many attendees were right at the beginning of a wonderful journey of discovery, if they chose to pursue it.

Comedies such as 'The Kid' were the "gateway drug," I said, to a world of cinema that is of course not new anymore, but is new to us. It's a different kind of cinema that at its best is a very different movie-going experience that what you're used to—with stories told visually (by necessity) that tend to be more abstract and universal and more about the big emotions such as Love (with a capital L) or Fear or Joy or Jealously, and with no dialogue to get in the way, and with music helping stir your own reactions to the story as it unfolds on-screen, and with not just comedies, but dramas, thrillers, adventures, and more, and all with the added bonus today of showing us (in many films) what life was life for ordinary people just living their day-to-day life, but in narratives underpinned by stories driven by universal elements of the human experience that speak to us even today, because we're still human beings. And so on.

Wow! Didn't mean to go all William Faulkner there, but that's what happens when I get excited. And how exciting to think that the Newport film-going community was on the threshold of experiencing a world of movies—silent ones—but which can still speak to us today.

And it helped that the Jane Pickens has excellent acoustics for what I do and how I do it. The sound from my two ancient Roland speakers bounces right off the wooden stage floor and really fills the house. Nice!

You could tell by the questions that people were into it. The back-and-forth continued in the theater long after the public Q & A finished. One gentleman (another Jeff) came up with greetings from film accompanist Donald Sosin, an old school chum of his with whom he keeps in touch, and who was on the other coast at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. I considered that a good omen for Newport.

So what's next? Other than 'Nosferatu' in October, nothing specific right now. But we've managed to build regular silent film series in locations as disparate as Brandon, Vt. (our 11th season starts this weekend!) Ogunquit, Maine (another seaside community with a vintage theater) and Plymouth, N.H., where I'm accompanying 'Bardelys the Magnificent' tomorrow night.

So I'm hoping Newport can be a good home for silent cinema, too. Time will tell.

And now it's time for info about 'Bardelys the Magnificent'—the press release is below, and hope to see you at the Flying Monkey in Plymouth, N.H.

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John Gilbert, Eleanor Boardman, and executioner in 'Bardelys the Magnificent' (1926).

MONDAY, MAY 2, 2022 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com

Rediscovered silent film swashbuckler to 're-premier' in Plymouth, N.H. on Wednesday, May 11

'Bardelys the Magnificent' (1926), long thought lost until a copy was found in Europe, to be screened with live music

PLYMOUTH, N.H.—A major Hollywood feature—considered lost for decades until a copy surfaced in France in 2006—will soon return to the big screen.

'Bardelys the Magnificent' (1926), a big-budget MGM release starring John Gilbert and Eleanor Boardman, will be screened on Wednesday, May 11 at 6:30 p.m. at the Flying Monkey Moviehouse and Performance Center, 39 South Main St., Plymouth, N.H.

Live music for the movie will be provided by silent film accompanist Jeff Rapsis. Admission to the screening is $10 per person.

Based on a novel by prolific Italian/English author Rafael Sabatini, 'Bardelys the Magnificent' is a tale of romance, honor, and derring-do set during the reign of King Louis XIII of France.

The story follows the adventures of French nobleman Bardelys, who assumes the identity of a dead man to be close to the woman he loves.

The ruse backfires, however, when it turns out the dead man is wanted for treason against the King. This propels Bardelys into a series of swashbuckling adventures as he must avoid being caught and executed, all the while pursuing his beloved.

The title role is played by legendary leading man John Gilbert, then at the height of his 1920s stardom and popular for his good looks, magnetic personality, and athletic stunts.

Actress Eleanor Boardman plays Roxalanne, his love interest; the huge cast includes many silent film-era stars and supporting players.

'Bardelys the Magnificent' was directed by King Vidor, who was responsible for several well-known silent-era classics, including 'The Big Parade' (1925), 'The Crowd' (1928), and 'Show People' (1928).

The picture was a solid hit in its original release, making money and enhancing the reputations of everyone involved.

Later, MGM's rights to the Sabatini novel expired in 1936, and the studio destroyed all copies per the licensing agreement. It was only later that archivists realized that no other copies of the film were known to have survived anywhere.

 
For seven decades, the only footage of 'Bardelys the Magnificent' known to exist was in the form of a brief clip included in a movie theater scene in 'Show People,' another Vidor picture. 'Bardelys' was regarded as a major lost feature film from the silent era.

Then, in 2006, researchers in France discovered an almost complete copy of 'Bardelys the Magnificent' in a private collection. The print was missing about 10 minutes of footage, but was otherwise intact and in excellent condition. 

The missing footage is replaced with still photos taken on the set, written descriptions, and by footage recovered from a 'Coming attractions' trailer for the film.

Restoration was completed in 2008; the film was subsequently released on DVD, and has since been screened at several festivals around the country.

Silent films were produced until 1929, when talkies arrived. About 80 percent of all movies made during the silent era are now lost due to decomposition, carelessness, fire, or neglect.

But copies of "missing" films still occasionally turn up in archives and collections around the world, so researchers and archivists continue to make discoveries.

Jailhouse love scene from 'Bardelys the Magnificent' (1926).

For 'Bardelys the Magnificent,' Rapsis will improvise a score using original musical material that he creates beforehand. For a movie score to support 'Bardelys,' Rapsis will use a digital synthesizer to recreate the sound and texture of a full orchestra.

"What I try to do," Rapsis said, "is create music that bridges the gap between a film that might be 90 or 100 years old, and the musical expectations of today's audiences."

The screening of 'Bardelys the Magnificent' is the latest in the Flying Monkey's series celebrating films that recently entered the public domain.

Copyright protection for all U.S. films released in 1926 expired on Jan. 1, 2022.

To mark the occasion, the Flying Monkey is showcasing vintage 1926 comedies, dramas, and adventure films, all with live music, and all now in the public domain.

Upcoming screenings in the Flying Monkey's "Public Domain Extravaganza" series include:

• Wednesday, June 8, 2022, 6:30 p.m.: "The Black Pirate" (1926) starring Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. The original pirate swashbuckler, with Fairbanks sword-fighting his way through a period adventure tale set during the age of sailing ships.

"By 1926, the movies had matured enough to offer a wide range of great entertainment that still holds up today," Rapsis said. "Come see for yourself as we screen some of the year's best flicks, all of which recently entered the public domain and now belong to us all."

'Bardelys the Magnificent' will be shown on Wednesday, May 11 at 6:30 p.m. at the Flying Monkey Moviehouse and Performance Center, 39 South Main St., Plymouth, N.H.

Admission is $10 per person. For more info, call (603) 536-2551 or visit www.flyingmonkeynh.com.