I'm sorry to report that due to incoming inclement weather, members of the Blazing Star Grange of Danbury, N.H. have decided to postponed a screening of 'Straight is the Way' (1921) from Saturday, March 29 to Saturday, April 5.
I'm pasting in the revised text of the press release with the new date. Hope you'll be able to make it to the screening, which includes a "soup and bread" supper. So whether you're hungry for silent cinema or just plain hungry, this event as something for everyone.
However, this weekend's planned screening of the two Douglas Fairbanks 'Zorro' films is still a go at the Town Hall Theatre in Wilton, N.H.. On Saturday, March 29 at 2 p.m., we'll run 'The Mark of Zorro' (1920); and then on Sunday, March 30 at 2 p.m., it's the sequel 'Don Q, Son of Zorro' (1925).
It's a great chance to see the two films back-to-back. Not only can you appreciate the many connections between the two, but you can also see how much the technique of movie-making had advanced in just five years.
Okay, below is info on 'Straight is the Way.' Hope to see you at the movies!
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FRIDAY, MARCH 28, 2025 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com
Contact Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com
Vintage feature film with story set in Granite State to be screened in Danbury, N.H. on Saturday, April 5
Rare surviving silent comedy/drama 'Straight is the Way' (1921) to be shown with live music at Blazing Star Grange
DANBURY, N.H. — It's a film not seen in theaters since its original release more than a century ago. And it's set in fictional 'Hampton Center, N.H.,' a small town where a pair of big-city crooks hide out from the law.
It's 'Straight is the Way,' a Paramount release that proved a modest box office success in the spring of 1921.
The film then completely disappeared—until now.
On Saturday, April 5, the Blazing Star Grange of Danbury, N.H. will host a screening of 'Straight is the Way,' which boasts a screenplay by two-time Academy Award-winning writer Frances Marion.
The event takes place at the Blazing Star Grange Hall, 15 North Road in Danbury, N.H.
The evening begins with a "soup and bread dinner" served at 6 p.m., cost $5 per person.
The film starts at 7 p.m. Admission is free, with donations gladly accepted; suggested amount is $5 per person.
Live music for the silent film program will be provided by silent film accompanist Jeff Rapsis.
Exposed to small town values, the pair resolve to change their ways.
'Straight is the Way' was promoted with the tagline: "They came to lift the silver, but they stayed to lift the mortgage."
"It should be a fun screening because the filmmakers depict 'Hampton Center' as a small rural Granite State community—rather like Danbury today," Rapsis said.
The film, a comedy/drama, features scenes in which a Ouija board is used to contact the spirits of long-dead relatives.
Ouija boards had become popular in the years following World War I, when 'Straight is the Way' was released.
How does a film disappear for 100 years, and then resurface?
Produced by Cosmopolitan Pictures, 'Straight is the Way' was one of dozens of titles on Paramount's 1921 release schedule. After its initial run, the film was never reissued or re-released.
This was the fate of nearly all motion pictures of the era, most of which were lost to neglect, decay, or accident. Today, about 75 percent of all silent films no longer exist in any form.
But 'Straight is the Way' is among the survivors. A single 35mm print of the film is in the collection of the U.S. Library of Congress. The print was part of a hoard of film material donated long ago by 1920s star Marion Davies, whose pictures were produced by Cosmopolitan.
However, the print is on fragile and flammable nitrate cellulose film stock, meaning it can't be safely projected or loaned out. To keep the film from deteriorating, the print is kept in long-term storage at the Library of Congress media center in Culpeper, Va.
In 2021, Maine-based film archivist Ed Lorusso organized an online Kickstarter program to raise funds to transfer the surviving print of 'Straight is the Way' to digital media. The fundraiser was successful, and the transfer was completed earlier this year.
Lorusso made the film available on DVD to fellow vintage film enthusiasts, including accompanist Rapsis, who felt the film's Granite State setting merited a revival, complete with live music.
The film's "world re-premiere" took place in December 2021 at Red River Theatres in Concord, N.H., which hosted the first theatrical showing of the film since its original run.
"Very few films are set in New Hampshire, then or now," Rapsis said. "What's interesting about 'Straight is the Way' is that it shows how the state was viewed at the time—a place of small towns and old-fashioned ways, including a constable patrolling the town in a horse and buggy."
Although 'Straight is the Way' contains authentic details such as New Hampshire license plates on the few autos that appear, Lorusso has found no evidence that any part of the film was shot in the state.
Instead, 'Straight is the Way' was produced in New York City, where Cosmopolitan Pictures was based, and which continued to host film production even after most movie-making moved to California in the 1910s.
'Straight is the Way' features several location shots of Manhattan scenes such as Washington Square in Greenwich Village as it appeared in 1921.
Lorusso believes the New Hampshire scenes were most likely filmed in the rural countryside of Long Island or New Jersey, just outside the city, as was common practice at the time.
Lorusso has identified one location: the mansion shown in the film is the summer home of author Ethel Watts Mumford in Sands Point, Long Island. Mumford wrote 'The Manifestations of Henry Ort,' on which 'Straight is the Way' was based.
The screenplay was by Frances Marion, the one recognizable name associated with the production.
Marion, a prolific writer, authored more than 300 screenplays in a career that spanned three decades. Her credits include silent classics such as 'The Wind' (1928); she would later win Academy Awards for writing the prison drama 'The Big House' (1930) and the iconic boxing story 'The Champ' (1931).
'Straight is the Way' features a cast of solid performers, all unknown today: Matt Moore, Mabel Bert, Gladys Leslie, George Parsons, Henry Sedley, Van Dyke Brooke, and Emily Fitzroy.
The film was directed by Robert Vignola; the following year, he would direct Marion Davies in 'When Knighthood Was in Flower' (1922) a big budget costume drama.
Rapsis said the Blazing Star Grange screening of 'Straight is the Way' is a rare chance to see the film as it was meant to be experienced—on the big screen, with live music, and with an audience.
'Straight is the Way' (1921), a silent comedy/drama set in New Hampshire, will be screened with live music on Saturday, April 5 at 7 p.m. at the Blazing Star Grange Hall, 15 North Road in Danbury, N.H.
The
evening begins with a "soup and bread dinner" served at 6 p.m., cost $5
per person. The film starts at 7 p.m. Admission is free, with donations
gladly accepted; suggested amount is $5 per person.
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