Report from Cleveland: 'The Lost World' (1925) highlights sci-fi marathon. Next up: 'Way Down East' on Sunday, Jan. 26 in Wilton, N.H.

Rules are posted prominently at the Case Western Reserve University Film Society's annual science-fiction marathon.

Cleveland may have the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame, but it also has the Case Western Reserve University Film Society. 

And Rock 'n' Roll may be about rebellion, but I'm here say that this past weekend, the real rebels in Cleveland attended the CWRU Film Society's annual Science Fiction Marathon—all 30 hours of it.

It being the event's 50th year, steps were taken to commemorate this remarkable milestone. One of those steps: including a silent film with live music in the line-up.

That's where I came in: on Saturday afternoon, after the 1951 sci-fi classic 'The Day The Earth Stood Still' (with its Bernard Herrmann) score, I had the privilege of doing live music for 'The Lost World' (1925).

And let me tell you—nothing compares to the audience response of several hundred hardcore sci-fi buffs for this kind of film. Everyone supplying dinosaur noises was just the start. People reacted to everything and anything. Comments were shouted at the screen throughout the movie.

To a silent film accompanist, it's a special experience—one worth driving 700 miles one-way for, which is what I did this weekend. (What do silent film accompaniment and long-haul trucking have in common?)

I've scored silent films for previous editions of the marathon, so arrival and set-up followed a well-established pattern: driving onto the Case Western campus sidewalks to reach the back entrance of the Strosacker Auditorium; unloading my gear and staging it in a back hallway; waiting for the previous film to wrap, then helping attendees relocate their inflatable mattresses and whatever else might be in the way; setting up and plugging in all my stuff.

It takes about 15 minutes, and before I know it, the lights go down and off we go! First up was "Koko in 1999," an 'Out of the Inkwell' cartoon from 1927 that was a new one to me. In it, Koko the Clown gets chased by Father Time all the way to the far-off future year of 1999, where he experiences robotic barbering, a mechanized wedding, and futuristic marital strife. 

I used a modest pipe organ sound for Koko, but switched to full orchestra for 'The Lost World.' 

And it really was quite a ride. Right from the start, there was no shortage of marathon attendees ready to pile on with "witty" shouted commentary. And then there was the "dinosaur noises," which started with one person, but soon everyone was doing it. It never let up. 

Another thing was clapping. If I played using any kind of regular rhythmic pattern, people would start clapping. This happened during the opening titles, and for the remainder of the film I tried to avoid triggering a similar reaction.

It was all good-natured, of course—but then, what effect does the clapping and shouting have on the film, which itself is from "a lost world?"

Sometimes I say that I accompany an audience as much as the film on screen—that the audience influences how the music unfolds. But that definitely wasn't the case with 'The Lost World.' Because of the over-the-top audience reaction, I felt it was important to play the film straight, to plow through the  audience reactions, to give the film a fighting chance.

I think it worked. As the film progressed, you could tell that people were following it and buying it. The noise never quite let up, but it seemed to fade over time. To the film's credit, it does a solid job storytelling in a way that causes viewers to let it in, even after all these years.

So I tried hard to accompany the film without reference to the audience, and in the end everyone got a great experience: those at the marathon got to contribute dinosaur noises, while I was created a score that supported the film and kept things together.

Next up is the great D.W. Griffith melodrama, which I'm accompanying on Sunday, Jan. 26 at 2 p.m. at the Town Hall Theatre, Wilton, N.H.

Press release is pasted in below. Hope to see you at the movies!

Jeff R.

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Original promotional art for 'Way Down East' (1920).

MONDAY, JAN. 6, 2025 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com

Silent film classic 'Way Down East' at Town Hall Theatre on Sunday, Jan. 26

D.W. Griffith blockbuster starring Lillian Gish, filmed partly in New England, to be screened with live music

WILTON, N.H. — The iconic image of actress Lillian Gish trapped on an ice floe and headed straight for a waterfall will once again fill the big screen when 'Way Down East' (1920) is revived on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025 at 2 p.m. at the Town Hall Theatre, 40 Main St., Wilton, N.H.

Live musical scoring will be provided by silent film accompanist Jeff Rapsis. Admission is free; donations are accepted, with $10 per person suggested to defray expenses.

The movie, a blockbuster melodrama directed by D.W. Griffith, is set in old-time rural New England, and was partly filmed on location in New Hampshire and Vermont. It stars Gish in an acclaimed performance as a wronged woman trying to make her way in an unforgiving world. Can she find love and redemption, or will she ride to her doom on the raging river's ice floes?

In 'Way Down East,' Gish stars as a poor New England country girl who travels to Boston to visit her rich relatives in the hopes of getting financial help. While there, she's dazzled by upper class society and romanced by a rich womanizer (Lowell Sherman) who takes advantage of her innocence by tricking her into bed with a fake marriage ceremony.

Lillian Gish on the ice-bound Connecticut River in 'Way Down East' (1920).

Convinced she's found the husband of her dreams, Gish returns home to the country, only to be abandoned. She informs her faux husband she's pregnant; he orders her to get an abortion. Instead, Gish goes into exile to have the baby, finds herself persecuted for giving birth out of wedlock, and flees into the rural countryside to seek refuge. The film was noteworthy in its time for addressing such topics as abortion and women's rights.

Modern critics hail 'Way Down East' for Gish's performance, which continues to mesmerize audiences nearly a century after the film's release. "Gish provides an abject lesson in screen acting and brings home the importance and effectiveness of seeing a film in a theater with a crowd," wrote Paul Brenner on www.filmcritic.com in 2007. "If you are not moved at the scene of Gish baptizing her dead baby, then you should check the obituaries of your local paper to see if you are listed."

The film also stars silent era heartthrob Richard Barthelmess. In the film's climax, Barthelmess must dash to rescue Gish from being carried away on the ice floes.

Lillian Gish on location near White River Junction, Vt.

Much of the acclaimed ice floe sequence was filmed in March 1920 on location on the Connecticut River in New Hampshire and the White River in Vermont, as the winter pack ice was breaking up. No process shots or post-production special effects were available to filmmakers at the time, so Griffith and his crew had no choice but to stage and shoot it all on a real river, with the players out on the ice. To get the floes to break up and float down the river, Griffith's crew dynamited pack ice upstream.

Gish later said that she suffered frostbite by following director Griffith's command to always keep one hand in the water during the shooting.

Despite such hardships, 'Way Down East' cemented Gish's reputation as one of the silent era's major stars. Gish would continue to work in films and, later, television, until the 1980s. She died in 1993 at age 99.

Accompanist Jeff Rapsis specializes in creating music that bridges the gap between an older film and the expectations of today's audiences. Using a digital synthesizer that recreates the texture of a full orchestra, he improvises scores in real time as a movie unfolds, so that the music for no two screenings is the same.

"It's kind of a high wire act, but it helps create an emotional energy that's part of the silent film experience," Rapsis said. "It's easier to follow the emotional line of the movie and the audience's reaction when I'm able to follow what's on screen, rather than be buried in sheet music," he said.

Because silent films were designed to be shown to large audiences in theaters with live music, the best way to experience them is to recreate the conditions in which they were first shown, Rapsis said.

"Films such as 'Way Down East' were created to be shown on the big screen to large audiences as a communal experience," Rapsis said. "With an audience and live music, silent films come to life in the way their makers intended. Not only are they entertaining, but they give today's audiences a chance to understand what caused people to first fall in love with the movies."

D.W. Griffith (in bowler hat) directs the cast of his blockbuster melodrama 'Way Down East' (1920).

'Way Down East' was based on a popular stage drama, for which director Griffith paid the then-astounding sum of $175,000 to turn into a movie. The picture proved to be a huge moneymaker, taking in $4.5 million, making it the fourth-highest grossing movie of the silent film era. 

'Way Down East' would be the last of Griffith's great blockbusters; tastes changed as the 1920s rolled on and Griffith's Victorian style fell out of favor. Receipts from 'Way Down East' kept Griffith's studio afloat during a subsequent series of box office flops.

"This picture was a monster hit when it was released," Rapsis said, "and it still holds up well today. As a melodrama, it's a great film for an audience to cheer on the good folks and boo and hiss the bad guys. But there's an additional level of interest now because the film captured a way of life that's long since disappeared."

'Way Down East' will be shown with live music on Sunday, Jan. 26 at 2 p.m. at the Town Hall Theatre, 40 Main St., Wilton, N.H.

Admission is free; donations are accepted, with $10 per person suggested to defray expenses. For more information, call the theater at (603) 654-3456.