Celebrate 'Silent Movie Day' with 'Way Down East' (1920) tonight in Greenfield, Mass.

A dramatic poster promoting 'Way Down East' (1920).

Happy 'National Silent Movie Day' to one and all. Yes, Sept. 29 is the day we should all stop for...what, a moment of silence?

No! How about 2½ hours of silence, but with live music throughout?

That's what you'll get if you're anywhere near Greenfield, Mass. this evening (Monday, Sept. 29) and can make it over to the Garden Cinemas downtown.

That's where we're screening the great D.W. Griffith melodrama 'Way Down East' (1920) with live music by me. Showtime is 6:30 p.m.; a lot more info is in the press release below.

Hope to see you there!

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Lillian Gish wanders the ice floes in 'Way Down East' (1920).
 

MONDAY, SEPT. 15, 2025 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com

Silent film classic 'Way Down East' at Garden Cinemas on Monday, Sept. 29

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

GREENFIELD, Mass. — 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 Monday, Sept. 29 at 6:30 p.m. at the Garden Cinemas, 361 Main St., Greenfield, Mass.

Admission is $10.50 adults, $8:50 for children, seniors, and students. Tickets are available online or at the door.

Live musical scoring will be provided by silent film accompanist Jeff Rapsis, a New Hampshire-based composer who specializes in creating scores for silent films.

The screening is in honor of National Silent Movie Day, which occurs each year on Sept. 29.

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?

 

A poster for a later international re-release of 'Way Down East' (1920).

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.

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 gives her all for the part, and for "Mr. Griffith."

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 directs the cast during the shooting of '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 Monday, Sept. 29 at 6:30 p.m. at the Garden Cinemas, 361 Main St., Greenfield, Mass.

Admission is $10.50 adults, $8:50 for children, seniors, and students. Tickets available at the door; advance tickets are available at www.gardencinemas.net. For more information, call the box office at (413) 774-4881.

 

Back to the future with 'Metropolis' (1927) on Friday, Sept. 26 in Derry (N.H.) Opera House

Me under the marquee of the Flying Monkey Moviehouse prior to a screening last week.

Up next, it's 'Metropolis' (1927) at the Derry (N.H.) Opera House on Friday, Sept. 26. Showtime is 7 p.m.; lots more info is in the press release pasted in below.

Recent screenings included 'Risky Business' (1925) on Wednesday, Sept. 17 at the Leavitt Theatre in Ogunquit, Maine; Buster Keaton's comedy 'Seven Chances' (1925) at the Flying Monkey Moviehouse and Performance Center; and Abel Gance's seminal drama 'J'Accuse' (1919) at the Town Hall Theatre in Wilton, N.H.

I had thought it was the first time I'd scored 'J'Accuse,' but in checking my records it turns out I did music for it in 2015 at the Harvard Film Archive. 

Wow! I've been doing this for nearly 20 years, and this is the first time I have absolutely no recollection about a screening or a film that I've scored. 

One thing about 'J'Accuse' was it marked the debut of a new speaker for my digital synthesizer output. The pair of old Roland studio monitors have been great, but they've lately been showing their age. 

Audience response afterward was highly favorable to the sound, so looks I'll be going through with the update.  

Okay, hope you can make it to 'Metropolis' (1927) on Friday. Here's a press release with more info.

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A scene from 'Metropolis' (1927).

 

TUESDAY, AUG. 26, 2025 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For more info, contact: Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com

Restored classic sci-fi epic 'Metropolis' to screen in Derry on Friday, Sept. 26

Landmark early futuristic fantasy, with half-hour of rediscovered footage, to be shown with live music at Derry Opera House

DERRY, N.H.—A silent film hailed as the grandfather of all science fiction fantasy movies will soon return to the big screen at the Derry Opera House.

'Metropolis' (1927), an epic adventure set in a futuristic world, will be shown with live music on Friday, Sept. 26 at 7 p.m. at the Derry Opera House, 29 West Broadway, Derry, N.H.

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

The event is organized by the Derry Public Library, the Taylor Library, and the Greater Derry Arts Council.

Admission is free; advance registration is requested. To register, visit the Derry Public Library's website at derrypl.org and click on the online 'Events' calendar.

'Metropolis' (1927), regarded as German director Fritz Lang's masterpiece, is set in a society where a privileged elite pursue lives of leisure while the masses toil on vast machines and live in poverty.

The film, with its visions of futuristic factories and underground cities, set new standards for visual design and inspired generations of dystopian fantasies from Ridley Scott's 'Blade Runner' to Terry Gilliam's 'Brazil.'

In 'Metropolis,' the story centers on an upper class young man who falls in love with a woman who works with the poor. The tale encompasses mad scientists, human-like robots, underground spiritual movements, and industrial espionage, all set in a society divided between haves and have-nots.

The version of 'Metropolis' to be screened at the Derry Opera House is a newly restored edition that includes nearly a half-hour of missing footage cut following the film's premiere in 1927. The lost footage, discovered in 2008 in an archive in Argentina, has since been added to the existing 'Metropolis,' allowing plot threads and characters to be developed more fully.

When first screened in Berlin, Germany on Jan. 10, 1927, the sci-fi epic ran an estimated 153 minutes. After its premiere, the film's distributors (including Paramount in the U.S.) drastically shortened 'Metropolis' to maximize the film's commercial potential. By the time it debuted in the U.S. later that year, the film was only about 90 minutes long.

Even in its shortened form, 'Metropolis' became a cornerstone of science fiction cinema. Due to its enduring popularity, the film has undergone numerous restorations in the intervening decades in attempts to recover Lang's original vision.

Restoration work continues to this day. In 2008, the curator of the Buenos Aires Museo del Cine discovered a 16mm dupe negative of 'Metropolis' that was considerably longer than any existing print.

It  contained 25 minutes of "lost" footage, about a fifth of the film, that had not been seen since its Berlin debut.

The discovery of such a significant amount of material called for yet another restoration, a 2½-hour version that debuted in 2010 to widespread acclaim. It's this fully restored edition that will be screened at the Derry Opera House.

A scene from 'Metropolis' (1927).

" 'Metropolis' stands as an stunning example of the power of silent film to tell a compelling story without words, and reach across the generations to touch movie-goers from the real future, which means us," said accompanist Jeff Rapsis, who provides live music for silent film screenings throughout New England and beyond.

To accompany a silent film, Rapsis uses a digital synthesizer to recreate the texture of the full orchestra. The score is created live in real time as the movie is screened. Rather than focus exclusively on authentic music of the period, Rapsis creates new music for silent films that draws from movie scoring techniques that today's audiences expect from the cinema.

The restored 'Metropolis' will be shown with live music on Friday, Sept. 26 at 7 p.m. at the Derry Opera House, 29 West Broadway, Derry, N.H. Admission is free; advance registration is requested. To register, visit the Derry Public Library's website at derrypl.org and click on the online 'Events' calendar.

For more information on the music, visit www.jeffrapsis.com.

CRITIC'S COMMENTS on ‘METROPOLIS’

“'Metropolis' does what many great films do, creating a time, place and characters so striking that they become part of our arsenal of images for imagining the world.”
—Roger Ebert, 2010, The Chicago Sun-Times

“If it comes anywhere near your town, go see it and thank the movie Gods that it even exists. There’s no star rating high enough.”
—Brian Tallerico, Movieretriever.com

Next up: 'Risky Business' (1925) on Wednesday, Sept. 17 at Leavitt Theatre in Ogunquit, Maine

Outside Brandon Town Hall on Saturday, Sept. 12 prior to accompanying 'Spies' (1928).

This week, I accompany 'Risky Business' (1925) in Ogunquit, Maine, Buster Keaton's 'Seven Chances' (1925) in Plymouth, N.H., and then—a new one for me—Abel Gance's 'J'Accuse!' (1919) in Wilton, N.H.

The press release for 'Risky Business' is below. It's a nifty comedy that holds up well, I think. So if you're anywhere close to Ogunquit, Maine, I hope you'll join us at the Leavitt Theatre, which continues to celebrate its 100th season.

This past weekend's adventures included accompanying 'Spies' (1928), Fritz Lang's sprawling espionage epic, on Friday night in Brandon, Vt. 

It's the 14th season we've been screening silent films with live music in the Brandon Town Hall and Community Center, and the audiences keep on coming!

It's the longevity of the series that prompted me to program 'Spies' this year. I told Friday night's audience that 'Spies' wouldn't work if we hadn't been "training" ourselves for the past 14 years, which got a nice laugh.

The film lends itself to some big musical gestures. Although all went well, it's become increasingly clear that my trusty Roland speakers are no longer up to the task. After dragging them all over creation for nearly 20 years, they've just about had it.  

They can no longer carry bass notes without fluttering, and notes in the treble range don't sound as smooth as they used to. 

So time to get new speakers! Hope to have them in hand prior to hauling out to Pittsburgh next month, when I'll accompany 'The Big Parade' (1925) as part of the Pittsburgh Silent Film Festival.

Speakers weren't a problem this past Saturday at the Harvard Film Archive, where I played the house grand piano for Yasujiro Ozu's 'I Was Born, But...' (1932).

Some of the young cast members in 'I Was Born, But...' (1932).

The piano (I forget the make) had just been tuned that week, and was a dream to play! I hadn't been asked to do music for any HFA programs in quite some time, so it was great to be back.

The screening made use of the archive's own 35mm print, which led to the screening's only mishap.

At the very end of the movie, with maybe less than a minute of footage left, the screen just went dark. 

Just black. No warning, no nothing.

I knew we were very close to the end, and I was already winding up the music so it would come to a stop in a very light and elegant way.

So when the screen went blank, I assumed the print was missing the last few feet, which sometimes happens. I kept the music going for just a bit, but then artfully climbed to the keyboard's upper registers, bringing the score to a halt.

This was followed by a generous ovation from those in attendance. I found myself waiting for house lights to come up so I could acknowledge it.

But the lights stayed off, and the applause was starting to die down—and then the film started up again!

So we got the final minute, and once again I climbed the keyboard to attempt an elegant finish, Take 2.\

Later I was told the print was riddled with splices, but that it had held until the last possible minute, when it jumped the sprockets.

There was another strange mishap right at the start, when something happened that I'd never experienced before.

The HFA's house piano light was attached over the keyboard. Just 15 seconds into the film, the spring-loaded clip let go, causing the lamp to be catapulted into the darkness somewhere off to my right.

Fortunately, I had my junky old brass piano light was standing by on the other side of the keyboard. 

So I just reached over and switched that on,  and away we went.

Shortly after, an audience member brought the errant light back to the keyboard. I was still working, so now it became the back-up.

Final note: I often open up piano benches because you never know what you'll find. At the HFA, the bench was clearly weighed down by something with substantial heft to it.

Inside I found...two copies of the 2007 Greater Boston Yellow Pages, each as big as 

So if you're ever attending a Harvard Film Archive screening and need to look up a good plumber, I know just what you should do.

Okay, onward to 'Risky Business' (1925) at the Leavitt Theatre in Ogunquit, Maine. Press release below. Hope to see you there!

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An original lobby card promoting 'Risky Business' (1925).

TUESDAY, AUG. 26, 2025 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com

'Risky Business' to screen in Ogunquit—but NOT the version starring Tom Cruise

Leavitt Theatre celebrates 100th season by screening vintage 1925 silent comedy 'Risky Business' with live music on Wednesday, Sept. 17

OGUNQUIT, Maine—It's not the 1980s version with Tom Cruise, but a 1925 comedy/drama about a rich socialite in love with a poor country doctor.

It's 'Risky Business,' starring 1920s starlets Vera Reynolds and Zasu Pitts, to be screened on Wednesday, Sept. 17 at 7 p.m. at the Leavitt Theatre, 259 Main St., Route 1 in Ogunquit, Maine.

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

Tickets are $15 general admission and available at the door.

The Leavitt is celebrating its 100th anniversary, having served the community continuously since 1925. To honor this long record, the venue has programmed a season of vintage silent movie classics from 1925 with live music.

The series gives area film fans a chance to see movies from the pioneering days of cinema as they were intended to be shown—on the big screen, with an audience, and accompanied by live music.

"Put the whole experience back together, and you can see why people first fell in love with the movies," Rapsis said.

In 'Risky Business,' widowed Mrs. Stoughton wants a good match for her only daughter, Cecily, for whom she's chosen the rich and debonair Richard Coults-Browne. 

Cecily, however, only has eyes for the handsome and compassionate country doctor Ted Pyncheon. 

When Cecily announces her engagement to the doctor, her mother still believes she knows best—and decides a taste of country life is just the medicine to bring her little girl back around to her way of thinking.

Vera Reynolds started in movies as a Bathing Beauty for Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios, and starred in a number of short films before appearing in features such as 'Prodigal Daughters' (1923), directed by Sam Wood, and Cecil B. DeMille's 'Feet of Clay' (1924).

Zasu Pitts began her career on the stage; she was a notable comic actress in movies during the silent and talkie eras, and best known for her roles in 'Better Times' (1919) and for an unusual dramatic role in Erich Von Stroheim's epic 'Greed' (1924). She continued to appear in films into the 1960s, with a bit part in 'It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.' (1963).

Alan Hale was both a director and a prolific character actor who worked in silents and early talkies. His notable roles include Little John in 'The Adventures of Robin Hood' (1938) and Danger in 'It Happened One Night' (1934). His son, actor Alan Hale Jr., played the Skipper in the 1960s television sitcom 'Gilligan's Island.'

'Risky Business' was released by Cecil B. DeMille's Producers Distributing Corporation.

Following 'Risky Business' on Wednesday, Sept. 17 at 7 p.m., other programs in this year's Leavitt silent film series include:

• Monday, Oct. 27, 2025, 7 p.m.: "Phantom of the Opera" (1925). Long before Andrew Lloyd Webber created the hit stage musical, this silent film adaptation starring Lon Chaney helped place 'Phantom' firmly in the pantheon of both horror and romance. See it if you dare!

See the original silent comedy/drama 'Risky Business' (1925), to be shown with live music by Jeff Rapsis on Wednesday, Sept. 17 at 7 p.m. at the Leavitt Theatre, 259 Main St. Route 1, Ogunquit, Maine; (207) 646-3123; admission is $15 per person, general seating. For more information, visit www.leavittheatre.com. 

 

 

This month: I play at Harvard, make my Pittsburgh debut, and do music for a film made in Maine

I have a few unusual gigs coming up, including a return to accompanying films at the Harvard Film Archive and my debut at this year's Pittsburgh Silent Film Festival. Here's a quick round-up of upcoming screenings. See you at the movies!

A scene from 'Spies' (1928), Fritz Lang's thriller.

• Friday, Sept. 12, 2025, 7 p.m.: "Spies" (1928) directed by Fritz Lang; Brandon Town Hall and Community Center, Main Street/Route 7, Brandon, Vt. Director Fritz Lang's tale of espionage was the forerunner of all movie spy sagas, packed with double agents, hi-tech gadgets, beautiful (and dangerous) women, and an evil genius with a plan to take over the world, mwah-ha-ha-ha! Join us for a series of silent films and live music in a wonderfully restored town hall in Brandon Vt. that features great acoustics. Admission free, donations accepted with proceeds to help support the silent film series. Rescheduled from Saturday, Sept. 20. 

A scene from Yasujiro Ozu's 1932 film 'I Was Born, But...'

• Saturday, Sept. 13, 2025, 2 p.m.: "I Was Born, But..." (1932) directed by Yasujiro Ozu; Harvard Film Archive, 24 Quincy St., Cambridge, Mass. (617) 496-3211. Part of the Harvard Film Archive's, "New Dog, New Tricks: Youth in Cinema" film series. A blithe portrait of the financial and psychological toils of one Japanese family, as told from the rascally point of view of a couple of stubborn little boys. For two brothers, the daily struggles of bullies and mean teachers is nothing next to the mortification they feel when they realize their good-natured father’s low-rung social status. Admission: $10 general public, discounts for students/seniors/members; Harvard students admitted free.

An original lobby card promoting 'Risky Business' (1925).

• Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025, 7 p.m.: "Risky Business" (1925) starring Vera Reynolds, Zazu Pitts; Leavitt Theatre, 259 Main St. Route 1, Ogunquit, Maine; (207) 646-3123. No, not the 1986 film starring Tom Cruise. In this silent-era 'Risky Business,' Zasu Pitts (from Parsons, Kansas) stars with Vera Ralston in a tale of a society girl's love for a country doctor in a film that is by turns harrowing, hilarious, and heart-warming. Join us for a summer season of movies and entertainment at the historic Leavitt Theatre, celebrating its 100th anniversary. See great silent films with live music in a summer-only theater opened in 1925 and barely changed since. 

Buster Keaton and an army of would-be prides in 'Seven Chances' (1925).

• Thursday, Sept. 18, 2025, 7 p.m.: "Seven Chances" (1925) starring Buster Keaton; The Flying Monkey Movie House and Performance Center, 39 South Main St., Plymouth, N.H.; (603) 536-2551. Buster is about to be saved from bankruptcy by an unexpected inheritance of $7 million—but only if he gets married by 7 p.m. that very day. Can Buster somehow find the girl of his dreams while being pursued by an army of women eager to marry a soon-to-be millionaire? One of Buster's best comedies, climaxed by one of the great chase scenes in all silent film comedy. Silent film series at a restored moviehouse in Plymouth, N.H. Tickets $15 per person.

A scene from Abel Gance's World War I film 'J'Accuse' (1919).

 • Sunday, Sept. 21, 2025, 2 p.m.: "J'Accuse" (1919) directed by Abel Gance; Wilton Town Hall Theatre, Main Street, Wilton, N.H.; (603) 654-3456. French silent film directed by Abel Gance that juxtaposes a romantic drama with the background of the horrors of World War I. Work on the film began in 1918, with some scenes filmed on real battlefields. The film's powerful depiction of wartime suffering, particularly its climactic sequence of the "return of the dead," made it an international success and confirmed Gance as one of the most important directors in Europe. Silent film with live music at a theater where movies have been shown since 1912. Admission free, donations of $10 per person encouraged. 

Yesterday's vision of the future is now in Fritz Lang's epic 'Metropolis' (1927)

• Friday, Sept. 26, 2025, 7 p.m.: "Metropolis" (1927) directed by Fritz Lang; Derry Opera House, 29 W. Broadway, Derry; sponsored by Derry Public Library.  The eye-popping silent film sci-fi masterpiece of German filmmaker Fritz Lang is a vintage look at things to come. 'Metropolis' stands as an stunning example of the power of film to tell a compelling story without words, and reach across the generations to touch movie-goers from the real future that came to pass: us! Timeless silent film on the big screen and with live music. Free admission! For more information, contact the Derry Public Library at (603) 432-6140.   

Lillian Gish is up a creek as she heads down the Connecticut River via ice floes.

• Monday, Sept. 29, 2025, 6:30 p.m.: "Way Down East" (1920) directed by D.W. Griffith, starring Lillian Gish; Greenfield Garden Cinemas, 361 Main St., Greenfield, Mass.; call (413) 773-9260 or visit www.gardencinemas.net. Celebrate 'Silent Movie Day' (Sept. 29) with one of the genre's all-time classics. Griffith's enduring box-office smash sees Lillian Gish pitted against small town New England and one very large waterfall. Features Gish as a wronged woman who can't escape her past. Still-thrilling climax on ice floes heading towards the falls was filmed on the Connecticut River! Engrossing melodrama, and the silent era's fifth-highest grossing motion picture; an audience favorite for more than a century. Tickets $10.50 adults; $8.50 students, seniors, and veterans.  

Meet-cute between John Gilbert and Renee Adoree in 'The Big Parade' (1925).

• Friday, Oct. 3, 2025, 7 p.m.: "The Big Parade" (1925) directed by King Vidor, starring John Gilbert, Renee Adoree; Lawrenceville/Row House Cinema, 4115 Butler St., Pittsburgh, Penn. 100th anniversary screening of sweeping World War I saga about U.S. doughboys signing up and shipping off to France, where they face experiences that will change their lives forever—if they return. Shown as part of this year's Pittsburgh Silent Film Festival, organized by the Pittsburgh Silent Film Society and sponsored by the Pittsburgh Classic Movie Club. Tickets $16.

 

Promotion for a screening of 'In The River,' a silent film by Edgar Jones shot in Maine.

• Saturday, Oct. 4, 2025, 2 p.m.: "In The River" (1920) and other films by Edgar Jones; Colonial Theater, 139 Water St., Augusta, Maine; (207) 209-3525. More than a century ago, Edgar Jones set up a studio in Augusta, Maine. From 1919 to 1921, Jones produced a series of two-reel films shot at the studio and on location in Augusta and the Kennebec River. Most have vanished, but a few have recently been unearthed by film preservation advocate Ed Lorusso, a local resident. Three films produced by Jones will be screened at the Colonial Theater in Augusta, Maine, a moviehouse that was in operation when the films were produced, and which is currently undergoing restoration. Besides the world re-premiere of "In the River" (which Lorusso recently located in a private collection at the U.S. Library of Congress), the program will also include "Cupid, Registered Guide" and "Caught in the Rapids." 

Well, that's enough! Something for everyone—so hope to see you at the movies in the next month before the annual "Halloween Silent Film Screening Staplechase" kicks in with a vengeance!