Opening Night for 2026 Brandon Vt. Silent Film Series features 'Annie Laurie' (1927) Saturday, 5/2

A promotional lobby card for 'Annie Laurie' (1926) starring Lillian Gish.

This year's silent film series at the Brandon (Vt.) Town Hall and Community Center opens with a screening of the MGM historical blockbuster 'Annie Laurie' (1926) on Saturday May 2 at 7 p.m.

I'll be at the keyboard for the 16th year of silent films and live music in Brandon.  It's turned into quite a run, which is good because I very much enjoy presenting silent films with live music in this venue.

Why? Well, the hall has great acoustics for music. But the main reason is that the audience is always really into the experience. The audience is a crucial part of any successful silent film screening—and in Brandon, it's always there. 

I'm looking forward to the reaction to 'Annie Laurie,' a film made at the peak of the silent film era, with its lavish settings, great cast, and vivid visual story-telling.

See for yourself by joining the crowd up in Brandon for what promises to be a great shared movie-going experience! More details about the screening and the rest of this year's silent film series is in the press release below. 

*     *     *

Lillian Gish and Norman Kerry in 'Annie Laurie' (1927).

MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2026 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com

New restoration of MGM blockbuster 'Annie Laurie' to screen at Brandon Town Hall on Saturday, May 2

Lillian Gish stars in title role as Scottish clans do battle in epic historical drama; accompanied by live music; film opens 2026 silent film series

BRANDON, Vt.— Return to the days of warring Scottish clans when 'Annie Laurie,' a rarely screened MGM epic featuring silent-era megastar Lillian Gish, opens the 2026 silent film series in Brandon, Vt.

A newly restored and remastered version of 'Annie Laurie' will be screened on Saturday, May 2 at 7 p.m. at Brandon Town Hall and Community Center, Conant Square, Route 7, Brandon, Vt.

The program is free and open to the public; donations are accepted to support Brandon Town Hall's silent film programming. 

Live music will be provided by Jeff Rapsis, a New Hampshire-based silent film accompanist who performs regularly at screenings around the nation.

 

Lillian Gish in 'Annie Laurie' (1927).
 

In 'Annie Laurie,' Lillian Gish plays a diplomat's daughter caught in the violent 17th-century feud between the Scottish Campbell and MacDonald clans. 

Gish, a Campbell, falls in love with rival clan chief Ian MacDonald (Norman Kerry) complicating peace efforts between the two warring sides.

As the clans prepare for battle, the romance forces Gish to choose between loyalty to her family or to warn the rival MacDonalds in advance of the infamous Massacre of Glencoe. 

The film's spectacular climax features Gish in a dramatic "race to the rescue" sequence filmed in an early version of Technicolor.

'Annie Laurie,' a major 1927 release for top studio MGM, has not been available for public viewing since its original release. In 2024, the U.S. Library of Congress transferred a pristine 35mm print in their collection to digital media, doing restoration work when needed,

The story of 'Annie Laurie' takes place in the late 1690s amid a backdrop of clans battling fiercely for supremacy in the years before Scotland joined England to form the United Kingdom.

To tell the tale on an epic scale on screen, MGM director John S. Robertson pulled out all the stops, staging enormous battle scenes set among the craggy Scottish landscape.

 

From 'Annie Laurie' (1927): It wouldn't be a film set in Scotland without this!
 

Sumptuous period costumes (yes, including men in kilts!) are a highlight of the 'Annie Laurie,' which was released at the peak of silent film artistry, just prior to the introduction of talking pictures.

At the time, Gish was among MGM's biggest stars, having arrived at the studio after playing iconic leading roles in early D.W. Griffith features including 'The Birth of a Nation' (1915), 'Way Down East' (1920), and 'Orphans of the Storm' (1921).

Leading man Norman Kerry was a popular silent-era performer who often played the heroic dashing swashbuckler or the seductive lothario. He was extremely popular with female fans and was at the peak of his career in 'Annie Laurie.'

Among those in the large cast of supporting players was a very young John Wayne in one of his earliest roles as an extra.

'Annie Laurie' marks the first 2026 screening of the Brandon Town Hall's annual silent film series.

"It's a great way for audiences to experience the magic of silent film in the way it was intended: on the big screen, in restored editions, with live music, and with an audience," said Jeff Rapsis, who provides live musical accompaniment for each program.

"Early movie-making was a shared experience that took place in a theater," Rapsis said. "Filmmakers at the time created motion pictures with that in mind—and when you can present them the way they were intended, their impact remains uniquely powerful."

Upcoming programs in the Brandon Town Hall's silent film series include:

• Saturday, June 13, 2026, 7 p.m.: "The Kid" (1921) starring Charlie Chaplin, Jackie Coogan. Chaplin's breakthrough comedy/drama finds the Tramp raising an infant against all odds. Highlighted by amazing work of five-year-old Coogan, who delivers one of the most remarkable child performances in all of cinema. As the film tells us: "A story with a smile, and perhaps a tear."

• Saturday, July 18, 2026, 7 p.m.: "The Black Pirate" (1926) starring Douglas Fairbanks Sr. The granddaddy of all pirate films, with Fairbanks as an athletic young aristocrat who seeks revenge by joining the pirate band responsible for his father's death. Filmed in color! 

• Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026, 7 p.m.: "Son of the Sheik" (1926) starring Rudolph Valentino. We mark the 100th anniversary of Valentino's untimely death with his final picture: a rip-roaring sequel to 'The Sheik,' full of romance, adventure, and thrills! 

• Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026, 7 p.m.: "Hot Water" (1924) starring Harold Lloyd. Unusual for Lloyd, a domestic comedy in which he's already married the girl of his dreams, but now must deal with a house full of dreadful in-laws. Great silent film comedy! 

• Saturday, Oct. 24, 2026, 7 p.m.: "The Bat" (1926) directed by Roland West. A masked criminal who dresses like a giant bat terrorizes the guests at an old house rented by a mystery writer. Early horror film thought lost until recent rediscovery!

• Saturday, Nov. 14, 2026, 7 p.m.: "The Navigator" (1924) starring Buster Keaton. Set sail with Buster Keaton in his classic comedy about a spoiled rich couple marooned all alone on a drifting ocean liner. Visual comedy at its finest! 

'Annie Laurie' (1927) starring Lillian Gish and Norman Kerry will be shown with live music on Saturday, May 2 at 7 p.m. at Brandon Town Hall and Community Center, Route 7, in Brandon, Vt. Admission is free; donations are welcome to support the Town Hall's silent film series. 

On Wednesday, April 29: Buster Keaton's 'The General' at the Regent Theatre in Arlington, Mass.

Buster and his co-star in 'The General' (1926).

I'm back on the road this week to the Regent Theatre in Arlington, Mass., where they're screening Buster Keaton's 'The General' (1926) on Wednesday, April 29, with music by me.

It's the third visit to the Regent this month, as the venue pursues a mini-series of silent screenings that included Cecil B. DeMille's 'King of Kings' (1927) and Harold Lloyd's 'Safety Last' (1923).

'Safety Last' was part of a 110th anniversary show (the Regent opened in 1916) that included live stage acts. It's the first time I've ever shared the bill with a belly-dancer, a bag-piper who could flip a hat from his foot onto his head, a Judy Garland impersonator, a man who could play three recorders at once, and a visibly pregnant hula-hoop artist.

Me with a poster listing all my co-stars at the Regent Theatre's 110th birthday celebration.

They were all fantastic, by the way. Collectively, it was a tough act for Harold to follow. But 'Safety Last' never fails to grab an audience, and that's what happened at the Regent last Friday night.

No stage acts are planned for Wednesday night's screening of 'The General,' unless someone convinces me to do my trick of flinging coins balanced on my elbows, and then catching them before they hit the ground. I'll bring some Kennedy half dollars (which work the best) just in case.

For now, more info about Wednesday's screening can be found in the press release pasted in below. See you at the Regent!

*     *     *

Buster Keaton in 'The General' (1926).

MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2026 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com

Buster Keaton's 'The General' with live music at Regent Theatre on Wednesday, April 29

100th anniversary screening! Civil War railroading comedy/adventure film lauded as stone-faced comic moviemaker's masterpiece 

ARLINGTON, Mass.— He never smiled on camera, earning him the nickname of "the Great Stone Face." But Buster Keaton's comedies rocked Hollywood's silent era with laughter throughout the 1920s.

See for yourself with a 100th anniverary screening of 'The General' (1926), one of Keaton's landmark feature films, on Wednesday, April 29 at 7:30 p.m. at the Regent Theatre, 7 Medford St., Arlington, Mass.

General admission is $25 per person, with discounts for seniors/veterans. Tickets available at the door or online at www.regenttheatre.com.

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

The screening is a chance to experience this landmark film as it was intended to be seen: in a high quality print on the big screen, with live music and with an audience.

'The General,' set during the U.S. Civil War, tells the story of a southern locomotive engineer (Keaton) whose engine (named 'The General') is hijacked by Northern spies with his girlfriend on board.

Keaton, commandeering another train, races north in pursuit behind enemy lines. Can he rescue his girl? And can he recapture his locomotive and make it back to warn of a coming Northern attack?

Critics call 'The General' Keaton's masterpiece, praising its authentic period detail, ambitious action and battle sequences, and its overall integration of story, drama, and comedy.

It's also regarded as one of Hollywood's great railroad films, with much of the action occurring on or around moving steam locomotives.

Accompanist Jeff Rapsis will improvise an original musical score for 'The General' live as the movie is shown, as was typically done during the silent film era.

"When the score gets made up on the spot, it creates a special energy that's an important part of the silent film experience," Rapsis said.

With the Regent Theatre's screening of 'The General,' audiences will get a chance to experience silent film as it was meant to be seen—in a high quality print, on a large screen, with live music, and with an audience.

"All those elements are important parts of the silent film experience," Rapsis said. "Recreate those conditions, and the classics of early Hollywood leap back to life in ways that can still move audiences today."

Keaton, along with Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd, stands today as one of the silent screen's three great clowns. Some critics regard Keaton as the best of all; 

Roger Ebert wrote in 2002 that "in an extraordinary period from 1920 to 1929, (Keaton) worked without interruption on a series of films that make him, arguably, the greatest actor-director in the history of the movies."

A remarkable pantomime artist, Keaton naturally used his whole body to communicate emotions from sadness to surprise. And in an era with no post-production special effects, Keaton's acrobatic talents enabled him to perform all his own stunts.

Critics review 'The General':

"The most insistently moving picture ever made, its climax is the most stunning visual event ever arranged for a film comedy."
—Walter Kerr, author of 'The Silent Clowns'

"An almost perfect entertainment!"
—Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

"What makes the film so special is the way the timing, audacity and elegant choreography of its sight gags, acrobatics, pratfalls and dramatic incidents is matched by Buster's directorial artistry, his acute observational skills working alongside the physical élan and sweet subtlety of his own performance."
—Time Out (London)

Keaton on location shooting 'The General' (1926) near Cottage Grove, Oregon.

The Keaton films are a great introduction to silent films for modern audiences, accompanist Rapsis said.

"Keaton's comedy is as fresh today as it was a hundred years ago — maybe more so, because his kind of visual humor is a lost art," Rapsis said.

‘The General’ (1926) starring Buster Keaton will be shown with live music on Wednesday, April 29 at 7:30 p.m. at the Regent Theatre, 7 Medford St., Arlington, Mass.

General admission is $25 per person, with discounts for seniors/veterans. Tickets available at the door or online at www.regenttheatre.com. For more information, call the theater at (781) 646-4849.

Next up: Lillian Gish stars in 'Annie Laurie' (1927) on Sunday, April 26 at Natick, Mass.

An original lobby card promoting 'Annie Laurie' (1927).

More than a month since I last posted anything on this blog. Wow!

I've still been accompanying as many films as ever. It's just that I've gone through a period where real life exceeded my capacity for writing about it.

But here I am again. And we'll pick up with a preview of an upcoming screening: the MGM epic 'Annie Laurie' (1927), starring Lillian Gish, which I'm accompanying this afternoon in at the Center for the Arts in Natick, Mass.

The Natick venue is a converted firehouse, which is appropriate, because this is one hot picture! Seriously—I think the climax (which, yes, involves fire) ranks right up there with Gish's near-death experience on the ice floes in 'Way Down East' (1921) a few years earlier. 

Lots more info in the press release pasted in below. Hope you'll be able to join us on Sunday, April 26 at 4 p.m. for a grand experience from the silent era. And I'll be back with more thoughts and reports before long. 

*     *     *

Lillian Gish stars in 'Annie Laurie' (1927), an MGM epic about Scottish clan battles.

MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2026 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com

New restoration of MGM blockbuster 'Annie Laurie' at Natick Center for the Arts on Sunday, April 26

Lillian Gish stars in title role as Scottish clans do battle in epic historical drama on the big screen; accompanied by live music

NATICK, Mass.— Return to the days of warring Scottish clans with 'Annie Laurie,' a rarely screened MGM epic featuring silent-era megastar Lillian Gish.

A newly restored and remastered version of 'Annie Laurie' will be screened on Sunday, April 26 at 4 p.m. at TCAN Center for the Arts, 14 Summer St., Natick, Mass.

The screening, the latest in the Center for the Art's silent film series, will feature live accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis, a New Hampshire-based composer who specializes in creating music for silent films.

Admission is $12 per person for members; $14 for non-members. Tickets are available online at www.natickarts.org or at the door.

In 'Annie Laurie,' Lillian Gish plays a diplomat's daughter caught in the violent 17th-century feud between the Scottish Campbell and MacDonald clans. 

Gish, a Campbell, falls in love with rival clan chief Ian MacDonald (Norman Kerry) complicating peace efforts between the two warring sides.

As the clans prepare for battle, the romance forces Gish to choose between loyalty to her family or to warn the rival MacDonalds in advance of the infamous Massacre of Glencoe. 

 

This intertitle from 'Annie Laurie' provides an clue about what kind of music you'll be hearing during the screening.

The film's spectacular climax features Gish in a dramatic "race to the rescue" sequence filmed in an early version of Technicolor.

'Annie Laurie,' a major 1927 release for top studio MGM, has not been available for public viewing since its original release. In 2024, the U.S. Library of Congress transferred a pristine 35mm print in their collection to digital media, doing restoration work when needed.

The story of 'Annie Laurie' takes place in the late 1690s amid a backdrop of clans battling fiercely for supremacy in the years before Scotland joined England to form the United Kingdom.

To tell the tale on an epic scale on screen, MGM director John S. Robertson pulled out all the stops, staging enormous battle scenes set among the craggy Scottish landscape.

Sumptuous period costumes (yes, including men in kilts!) are a highlight of the 'Annie Laurie,' which was released at the peak of silent film artistry, just prior to the introduction of talking pictures.

At the time, Gish was among MGM's biggest stars, having arrived at the studio after playing iconic leading roles in early D.W. Griffith features including 'The Birth of a Nation' (1915), 'Way Down East' (1920), and 'Orphans of the Storm' (1921).

 

Lillian Gish and Norman Kerry in a strange background-less still promoting 'Annie Laurie' (1927).
 

Leading man Norman Kerry was a popular silent-era performer who often played the heroic dashing swashbuckler or the seductive lothario. He was extremely popular with female fans and was at the peak of his career in 'Annie Laurie.'

Among those in the large cast of supporting players was a very young John Wayne in one of his earliest roles as an extra.

'Annie Laurie' is the latest in TCAN's silent film series, in which classic motion pictures from Hollywood's silent film era are screened with live music.

"It's a great way for audiences to experience the magic of silent film in the way it was intended: on the big screen, in restored editions, with live music, and with an audience," said Jeff Rapsis, who provides live musical accompaniment for each program.

"Early movie-making was a shared experience that took place in a theater," Rapsis said. "Filmmakers at the time created motion pictures with that in mind—and when you can present them the way they were intended, their impact remains uniquely powerful."

'Annie Laurie' (1927) starring Lillian Gish and Norman Kerry will be shown with live music on Sunday, April 26 at 4 p.m. at TCAN Center for the Arts, 14 Summer St., Natick, Mass.

Admission is $12 per person for members; $14 for non-members. Tickets available online at www.natickarts.org or at the door. For more info, call (508) 647-0097.