Tonight: 'Mystery of the Eiffel Tower' (1927) at Aeronaut Brewing Co. in Somerville, Mass.

A scene from the climax of 'The Mystery of the Eiffel Tower.

Happy Eiffel Tower Day!

Yes, on this day in 1889, Gustav Eiffel's eponymous tower was declared open to the public!

And what better way to celebrate the 130th birthday of this iconic landmark than with a movie that features it in a starring role?

"Mr. Eiffel, I'm ready for my close-up!"

So that's what we'll do tonight at 7:30 p.m., when we'll screen 'The Mystery of the Eiffel Tower' (1927) at the Aeronaut Brewing Co., 14 Tyler St. in Somerville, Mass.

Admission to this event, the first "volume" of the Aeronaut's new Silent Film Club, is $10 per person.

More info about this remarkable early thriller is in the press release tacked onto the end of this post. Hope to see you there!

For now, let me share a few pictures of Friday's night's excursion to Winchester, N.H., where I accompanied a screening of Harold Lloyd's 'Safety Last' (1923) sponsored by the local Grange chapter and the historical society.

The venue was Winchester Town Hall, which is a surprisingly imposing structure built in the style of a Gothic fortress.

Welcome to my castle!

Set-up was fairly straightforward, with the local folks providing a snazzy movie screen cleverly engineered out of a Queen-sized sheet from Wal-Mart.

.Ready for the show.

I think the key to the screen was the use of sturdy plastic zip ties to keep the sheet stretched out tight as a drum:

I improvise the music, so why not improvise the screen?

Alas, turnout was a bit light. But that might be due to how much else seems to be going on in town lately. In the picture below, try to find our poster:

But the good news was that even with just a handful of people, Harold's work produced a good amount of strong laughter. That's quite an achievement for a film made nearly a century ago!

And I had to be careful with the music, because the Winchester Town Hall is one of those venues with extremely lively acoustics. It would be really easy for music to overwhelm the comedy, which in turn would prevent people from hearing each other laughing.

But a good time was had by all, and I hope that will be the case with 'The Mystery of the Eiffel Tower' down at the Aeronaut Brewing Co. this evening.

Here's the press release. Hope to see you there!

* * *
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6, 2019 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com

Celebrate 'Eiffel Tower Day' on Sunday, March 31 at Aeronaut Brewing Co.

Vintage silent thriller 'Mystery of the Eiffel Tower’ to be screened with live music on iconic structure's 130th birthday

SOMERVILLE, Mass.—When you turn 130, it's time to party.

That's the thinking behind 'Eiffel Tower Day,' celebrated every year on March 31 in honor of the iconic Paris structure, which was completed on March 31, 1889.

The Aeronaut Brewing Co. will celebrate this year's 'Eiffel Tower Day' on Sunday, March 31 with the screening of a rare silent adventure movie with a thrilling climax actually filmed on the tower.

'The Mystery of the Eiffel Tower' (1927), directed by Julien Duvivier, will be screened on Sunday, March 31 at 7:30 p.m. at the Aeronaut Brewing Co., 14 Tyler St. (near Union Square), Somerville, Mass.

Admission is $10 per person and seating is limited; for tickets and information, visit www.aeronautbrewing.com, or www.eventbrite.com at this address:

www.eventbrite.com/e/aeronaut-silent-film-club-vol-1-well-always-have-paris-tickets-58304749074

The event is also on Facebook: www.facebook.com/events/619207078520181/

The screening will feature live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis, a New Hampshire-based silent film musician.

Duvivier’s late-silent adventure served as an inspiration for the original Tintin comics, and delivers much of the same charm, inventiveness, and visual delight.

Set in France of the 1920s, 'The Mystery of the Eiffel Tower' follows a carnival performer who is half of The Mironton Brothers, a supposed Siamese twin act.

The performer sees a chance to claim a massive inheritance by pretending to be a missing heir.

The scheme makes him fabulously wealthy. He leaves the circus, but also crosses a secretive cabal which has its own plans for the fortune.

Harried by mysterious threats, the imposter uses his identical partner from the old carnival act to suffer in his place.

Lots of laughs and exciting close calls follow as the unsuspecting double is drawn into a struggle with the secret organization.

The climax is a death-defying chase up through the skeleton of the Eiffel Tower that anticipates the later work of director Alfred Hitchcock.

"This is an astounding film with sequences shot high up on the Eiffel Tower and without trick photography," said Rapsis, a silent film accompanist who will improvise a musical score for the movie.

"This vintage film, like a fine champagne, is a great way to celebrate the 130th birthday of this landmark, one of the world's most recognizable structures," Rapsis said.

The Eiffel Tower was constructed in 1889 for the International Exhibition of Paris, during the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution, and was named after the principal engineer, Gustave Eiffel.

‘The Mystery of the Eiffel Tower’ (1927) will be shown on Sunday, March 31 at 7:30 p.m. at the Aeronaut Brewing Co., 14 Tyler St. (near Union Square), Somerville, Mass. Admission is $10 per person and seating is limited; for tickets and information, visit www.aeronautbrewing.com or www.eventbrite.com at this address:

www.eventbrite.com/e/aeronaut-silent-film-club-vol-1-well-always-have-paris-tickets-58304749074

The event is also on Facebook: www.facebook.com/events/619207078520181/

Accompaniment from small town to big city: it's a 'Safety Last' kind of silent film weekend

In Harold Lloyd's thrill comedy 'Safety Last' (1923), the story follows our hero from small town to big city as he pursues success and fulfillment.

This weekend, I'll follow a similar path.

On Friday, March 29, I'll accompany a silent film (in this case, 'Safety Last') in the town hall of Winchester, N.H.

The screening is at 7 p.m. and sponsored by the Arlington Grange No. 139, and you don't get much more small town than that.

Then, on Sunday, March 31, it's down to the big city (in this case Boston, or actually Somerville, Mass.) for a screening at the Aeronaut Brewing Co.

The film is 'The Mystery of the Eiffel Tower' (1927), which we're showing in honor of the 130th birthday of the iconic Parisian landmark.

And in the spirit of Harold Lloyd's high altitude stunting, the film climaxes with a chase among the tower's upper beams and girders.

Thus my journey from small town to big city, all in service of silent cinema.

Will I find film scoring success in my own journey this weekend?

Come and find out. Below is a press release about Friday night's screening of 'Safety Last' in Winchester. Hope to see you there.

And I'll be back with info about 'The Mystery of the Eiffel Tower' in a soon-to-follow post.

* * *

TImeless comedy: Lloyd in 'Safety Last.'

TUESDAY, MARCH 19, 2019 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com

Silent film classic 'Safety Last' on Friday, March 29 in Winchester, N.H.

Thrill comedy climaxed by Harold Lloyd's iconic building climb; with live music at Town Hall

WINCHESTER, N.H.—It's an image that's so powerful, people who've never seen the movie it came from still instantly recognize it.

The vision of Harold Lloyd hanging from the hands of a clock high above downtown Los Angeles, from the climax of his silent comedy 'Safety Last,' (1923), has emerged as a symbol of the "anything goes" spirit of early Hollywood and the magic of the movies.

See how Harold gets into his high-altitude predicament in a screening of 'Safety Last,' one of Lloyd's most popular films, on Friday, March 29 at 7 p.m. at Winchester Town Hall, 1 Richmond Road, Winchester, N.H.

The program, sponsored by Arlington Grange #139 of Winchester, will be accompanied live by silent film musician Jeff Rapsis. The show is open to the public, with $7 per person donation requested to help defray costs.

The program aims to recreate the experience of movie-going when motion pictures were a brand new art form.

"Put the whole experience back together, and you can see why people first fell in love with the movies," said Rapsis, one of the nation's leading silent film accompanists. Rapsis performs on a digital synthesizer that reproduces the texture of the full orchestra, creating a traditional "movie score" sound.

Lloyd and feathered friend.

The story of 'Safety Last' follows young go-getter Lloyd to the big city, where he hopes to make his mark in business and send for his smalltown sweetheart. His career at a downtown department store stalls, however, until he gets a chance to pitch a surefire publicity idea—hire a human fly to climb the building's exterior.

However, when the human fly has a last-minute run-in with the law, Harold is forced to make the climb himself, floor by floor, with his sweetheart looking on. The result is an extended sequence blending comedy and terror designed to hold viewers spellbound.

"Seeing 'Safety Last' with an audience is one of the great thrill rides of the cinema of any era, silent or sound," Rapsis said. "Harold's iconic building climb, filmed without trick photography, continues to provoke audience responses nearly 100 years after film was first released."

Tributes to the clock-hanging scene have appeared in several contemporary films, most recently in Martin Scorsese's 'Hugo' (2011), which includes clips from 'Safety Last.'

Lloyd, along with Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, is regarded as one of the silent screen's three great clowns. Lloyd's character, a young go-getter ready to struggle to win the day, proved hugely popular in the 1920s. While Chaplin and Keaton were always favored by the critics, Lloyd's films reigned as the top-grossing comedies throughout the period.

However, Lloyd's public image faded after his retirement in the 1930s, as Lloyd turned his energies to charitable causes such as the Shriners. He retained control over his films, refusing to release them for television and only rarely allowing them to be screened at revivals, fearing modern audiences wouldn't know how to respond to his work or to silent films in general. Lloyd died in 1971.

In recent years, Lloyd's family has taken steps to restore Harold's reputation and public image. They've released his work on DVD, and arranged for more frequent screenings of his films in the environment for which they were made: in theaters with live music and a large audience.

Despite Lloyd's fears, audiences continue to respond just as strongly to his work as when the films were new, with features such as 'Safety Last' embraced as timeless achievements from the golden era of silent film comedy.

Critics review 'Safety Last':

"Impossible to watch without undergoing visitations of vertigo, Safety Last's climactic sequence is all it's reputed to be.”
—TV Guide

"Harold Lloyd manages to make the characters sympathetic enough to carry the audience's concern on his journey of crazy stunts and mishaps. One of the best of this era."
—David Parkinson, Empire Magazine

"The climb has both comic and dramatic weight because it is both a thrilling exercise in physical humor and a thematically rich evocation of the pressures men feel to succeed, lest they be viewed as less than a man."
—James Kendrick, Q Network Film Desk

See Harold Lloyd's iconic thrill comedy 'Safety Last' (1923), to be shown on Friday, March 29 at 7 p.m. at the Winchester Town Hall, 1 Richmond Road, Winchester, N.H. Sponsored by Arlington Grange #139, the program is open to the public; a donation of $7 per person is requested to defray expenses.

In which we start with 'Peter Pan' (1924) and end nearly 100 years in the future on a miniature golf course in Cambodia

An original poster for 'Peter Pan' (1924).

Just one more screening to go before I embark on an extended journey to Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia.

I'll accompany the silent film version of 'Peter Pan' (1924) on Wednesday, July 11 at 7 p.m. at the Groton Public Library, 99 Main St., Groton, Mass.

Very excited as it's a new venue for me, and everyone's been very helpful in making it happen. Admission is free and hope you can make it!

And then the next day, I'll board a self-propelled heavier-than-air machine that will fling itself down a long paved strip at a place called JFK airport.

Thanks to physics, it will rise into the air. And thanks to people smarter than me (and liquid biomatter pumped from deep underground), it will head due north, up the Hudson River Valley and keep going right up over the North Pole, and then down to Beijing, China.

There, we'll board another heaver-than-air machine that will carry us to Bangkok, Thailand. All in less than one day!

Science fiction? I don't need to read it, as I feel like it surrounds me all the time.

Here's an observation: spending a lot of time with movies from a century ago can really help preserve a sense of wonder about the current age we live in, which is 100 years in the future!

And now, a word about recent audiences.

I don't know what it is, but the past month brought healthy attendance, and great reactions, at silent film screenings around the region.

Selfie outside the Somerville Theatre.

Just yesterday, we enjoyed a strong turnout for 'The Docks of New York' (1928) at the Somerville (Mass.) Theatre, despite a spectacular mid-summer Sunday afternoon.

And last night, a good crowd at the Aeronaut Brewery (also in Somerville) hooted and hollered through a double feature of William S. Hart in 'Hell's Hinges' and Buster Keaton's 'Go West.'

And earlier this week, 'The Beloved Rogue' got a big reaction at the Capitol Theatre in Arlington. I forgot how funny that film is!

On the marquee of the Capitol: right up there with 'The Ant and the Wasp.'

And at the Leavitt Theatre in Ogunquit, Maine, a group of hardy film fans forsook getting good advance spots for the local 4th of July fireworks in favor of taking in 'The Yankee Clipper.'

'Yankee Clipper,' by the way, turned out to be a great flick for Independence Day, with its 1850s American-vs.-British clipper ship race from China to Boston.

The thread running through each of these screenings was audience reaction. Each produced a noticeably strong response from those in attendance.

I don't know if it's fatigue from current events or fallout from global warming or something science has not yet uncovered.

But for some people, lately there's definite need for the silent film experience, at least from the reactions I've been witnessing.

So, although it'll be nice to be away from the keyboard for a spell, I'm already looking forward to jumping back on the silent film merry-go-round when I get back next month. See you then!

The ultimate goal of my journey: to play miniature golf at Angkor Wat. Talk about 'Peter Pan'!

Swanson and Keaton and Jerry Herman, and 'Metropolis' Thurs., 2/15 at Merrimack College

An iconic scene from 'Metropolis' (1927), which I'm accompanying on Thursday, Feb. 15.

In 'Mack & Mabel,' Jerry Herman's 1974 musical comedy about film pioneer Mack Sennett, there's a lyric that goes like this:

And Swanson and Keaton and Dressler and William S. Hart
No one pretended that what we were doing was art

One of these days, I'll put a "Mack & Mabel" silent film program together that includes all four of those names.

For now, I'll have to be satisfied with this past weekend, when a pair of pre-Valentine's Day screenings brought together the first two stars on Herman's list; Swanson on Saturday, Feb. 10, and Keaton on Sunday, Feb. 11.

Gloria Swanson was the featured star in a program at the Campton (N.H.) Historical Society, which for a few years now has doing its part to fight off cabin fever by running a pot-luck-and-silent-movie-night in the dead of winter.

This year I accompanied 'Zaza' (1923), Gloria's recently re-released drama that I scored last year for Kino-Lorber, preceded by Gloria's early Mack Sennett short 'Teddy at the Throttle' (1916).

With the Sennett comedies, I never know what to expect. They're sometimes so random, and if the mood isn't right, all the frantic goings-on generate nothing more than dead silence.

In this case, however, the reaction was explosive—right from the start, everything on screen was greeted by raucous laughter.

Never mind Jerry Herman—this would have given old Mack something to really sing about. Wonder if it was something they served at the pot luck supper?

More likely it's because some uninhibited soul began laughing early, and it caught on, soon spreading throughout the room. Nice!

Gloria Swanson in 'Zaza.'

Reaction to 'Zaza' was more muted but no less intense. You could tell people bought into Gloria's character and were along for the ride. Really generous ovation at the end!

For the recorded score, I used an acoustic grand piano. But for this screening, I used a piano sound with strings that could be sustained depending on how you struck and held the notes. It added a warmth that I think helped the film seem less over-the-top and allowed people to more naturally buy into Gloria's state of mind.

Sunday actually brought two showings: Keaton's 'The Cameraman' (1928) at the Aeronaut Brewing Co. down in Somerville, Mass., but also a matinee screening of Greta Garbo in 'Wild Orchids' (1929) at the Wilton (N.H.) Town Hall Theatre.

The Garbo film is a stunner. It's one of those late MGMs in which the technique of telling a story visually is so smooth and fluid and second-nature to all involved.

But it's also a tightly coiled drama about a love triangle that spans the globe, but stays focused on the three main characters, and it topped by a climax that's genuinely surprising and thrilling.

Perhaps not the ideal choice for a pre-Valentine's Day program, but what the heck?

Original promotional art for 'Wild Orchids' (1929).

The music came together very well, I felt. Using only a small cell-like signature of three notes, I was able to stitch together a score that I thought kept up with the film's ever-rising temperature.

Highlights included faux Javanese dance music (thanks to the synthesizer's library of "World Music" patches) and, for some reason, part of the melody of Bach's "Little Fugue" in G minor for organ, which for some reason seemed to perfectly capture the squareness of Garbo's much-older businessman-husband.

Later that same day, it was immensely satisfying to do music for Keaton's 'Cameraman' before a modest turnout (school night, anyone?) at the Aeronaut, where the commitment to the performing arts extends to silent film with live accompaniment.

(And where my race from rural New Hampshire to downtown Boston was something out of the Keystone Cops playbook.)

It being the big city, the Aeronaut can draw quite an eclectic turnout. Last night's attendees included familiar faces, curious newbies, and a tourist from Spain.

We all joined Buster for his onscreen adventures behind the newsreel camera, and in front of Marceline Day.

Poster for 'The Cameraman' (1928).

Having done three screenings in the past three days (including the Garbo one that afternoon), the music came fluently and effortlessly. After a big crashing start during the opening titles and then brief montage depicting adventures of newsreel cameramen, I quickly dialed it down to nursery rhyme texture for Keaton and his antics.

It all seemed to fall together, as things sometimes do. Keaton's film was greeted by generous laughter throughout, and sober silence in the moments when things don't go quite his way.

So Swanson and Keaton, but not Dressler nor William S. Hart.

But as usual, I did my very best to live up the follow-up lyric: "No one pretended that what we were doing was art."

Looking ahead: it's an interesting week.

Tomorrow (Tuesday, Feb. 13), I take a break from setting up a wholesale food distribution business (that's currently my day job as our newspaper publishing company expands in new direction) to visit with students at Kingswood Regional High School in Wolfeboro, N.H.

They're rehearsing a home-grown theater production about the silent film era. It goes up in March, and as part of the process of learning about the era, I've been invited to present a program of silent film with live music. My choice: Keaton's 'Seven Chances' (1925), which in my experience seems to go over particularly well with teens and the high school crowd.

Thursday, Feb. 15 brings the big gulp of 'Metropolis' (1927) at the Rogers Center for the Performing Arts in North Andover, Mass. More info is in the press release tacked on at the end of this post; start time is 7 p.m. and admission is free.

On Saturday, Feb. 17, I have the honor of doing music for Buster Keaton's 'The General' (1927), which is being shown as part of a surprise anniversary party for a silent-film-loving couple. As it's a surprise, I can't get into too many details, but will report how it went afterwards.

And then, on Sunday, Feb. 18, I get to make the long strange trip to the annual Boston Sci-Fi Marathon, a 24-hour binge-watching nerd/geek fest held every President's Day weekend at the Somerville (Mass.) Theatre.

Every other year or so, organizer Garen Daly throws a vintage silent sci-fi flick into the line-up, and since 2011 it's been my privilege to be bought in to do live music.

It's always a hoot because the audience of 500 to 700 people do not attend to just sit there passively. They really get into it. And they react.

Prior years have seen the original 1916 '20,000 Leagues Under the Sea'; the Danish trip-to-Mars allegory "Himmelskibit' (1918); and even 'The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari' (1919).

Emil Jannings plots to take over a cardboard world in 'Algol' (1920).

This year it's 'Algol: Tragedy of Power' (1920), a recently rediscovered German sci-fi melodrama starring Emil Jannings, of all people.

'Algol' is slated to screen around dinner time on Sunday night, about six hours into the 24-hour event. Cross your fingers!

For a dose of celebrated silent sci-fi, check out 'Metropolis' (1927) on Thursday, Feb. 15 at the Rogers Center in North Andover, Mass.

Here's the press release:

* * *

Original poster for Fritz Lang's 'Metropolis.'

THURSDAY, FEB. 1, 2018 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For more info, contact: Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com

Restored classic film 'Metropolis' to screen at Rogers Center on Thursday, Feb. 15

Landmark early sci-fi fantasy epic, with half-hour of rediscovered footage, to be shown with live music

NORTH ANDOVER, Mass.—A silent film hailed as the grandfather of all science fiction fantasy movies will be screened with live music this month at the Rogers Center for the Performing Arts.

'Metropolis' (1927), an epic adventure set in a futuristic world, will be shown on Thursday, Feb. 15 at 7 p.m. as part of the Rogers Center's Tambakos Film Series.

The screening is open to the public and admission is free.

Original music for 'Metropolis' will be performed live by Jeff Rapsis, a New Hampshire-based composer and silent film accompanist who performs at venues around the nation.

The Rogers Center is located on Walsh Way on the campus of Merrimack College, 315 Turnpike St., North Andover, Mass.

'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 reviving 'Metropolis' and other great films of cinema's early years, the Rogers Center aims to show silent 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 an original live score for 'Metropolis' on the spot. "Recreate those conditions, and the classics of early cinema leap back to life."

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.

Inventor Rotwang shows off his machine man to industrialist Frederson in 'Metropolis.'

The version of 'Metropolis' to be screened at the Rogers Center 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.

In 1984, the film was reissued with additional footage, color tints, and a pop rock score (but with many of its intertitles removed) by music producer Giorgio Moroder. A more archival restoration was completed in 1987, under the direction of Enno Patalas of the Munich Film Archive, in which missing scenes were represented with title cards and still photographs. More recently, a 2001 restoration combined footage from four archives and ran 124 minutes.

It was widely believed that this would be the most complete version of Lang's film that contemporary audiences could ever hope to see. But, in the summer of 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 included not merely a few additional snippets, but 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 Rogers Center.

" '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.

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 on Thursday, Feb. 15 at 7 p.m. at the Rogers Center for the Performing Arts. The Rogers Center is located on Walsh Way on the campus of Merrimack College, 315 Turnpike St., North Andover, Mass. Admission to the program is free. For more information, call the Rogers box office at (978) 837-5355.

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

Harold, Gloria, Greta and Buster all wish you a very happy Valentine's Day

Harold Lloyd displays one reaction to romance in 'Never Weaken' (1921).

Every year I have such high hopes for Valentine's Day.

As a silent film accompanist, I imagine doing music for great old films while surprised couples find them so beguiling that the deal is sealed right there.

They love each other! Or they love silent film! I'll take either outcome.

So, will my latent Yente find satisfaction this time around?

We'll know soon, as here comes yet another Valentine's Day, and silent film romance is in the air—or at least on selected screens in my corner of the world.

Romantic or not, you're welcome to join us for a stretch of some great classic cinema in some really great venues.

We start off Thursday, Feb. 8 at 7 p.m. with a Harold Lloyd program at Red River Theatres in Concord, N.H.

On the bill are two of what I would call Lloyd's sure-fire romantic comedies—the short 'Never Weaken' (1921) and feature-length 'Girl Shy' (1924).

To call these films "romantic comedies" is to reverse-engineer the label, which wasn't used to describe this genre of movies until much, much later.

Even so, Lloyd, by weaving somewhat plausible romance into his character and stories, pioneered the notion of the sweet boy-meets-girl picture that became a staple of the motion picture industry.

Harold Lloyd and Jobyna Ralston, along with dog and train conductor, in the midst of their "meet-cute" in 'Girl Shy.'

Also, among its other virtues, 'Girl Shy' boasts some of the most exciting and suspenseful sequences of any of the Lloyd features.

And there's nothing like seeing Lloyd films in a theater with an audience, which is how they were meant to be experienced.

So check it out—complete info for the Red River's Harold Lloyd Pre-Valentine's Day Show is found in the press release pasted in below, or visit www.redrivertheatres.org.

Then Saturday, Feb. 10, I haul myself up to the foothills of the White Mountains for what's become an annual tradition: pot luck supper and silent movie night at the Campton (N.H.) Historical Society.

This year our star is Gloria Swanson, who will hold the screen with 'Zaza,' her big 1923 feature for Paramount Pictures.

I created music for a DVD/Blu-Ray reissue of 'Zaza' by Kino-Lorber last year; Saturday night's screening will be a live recreation of the score.

Also on the program: Gloria's early appearance in 'Teddy At the Throttle' (1916), a Mack Sennett Keystone comedy.

Admission is free, but attendees are expected to bring a dish for the pot luck. Also, donations accepted to help support the historical society's programming.

Dinner is at 5 p.m., the movies start at "6-ish." For more info, visit the Campton Historical Society online.

And on Sunday, Feb. 11, it's a double helping of romance.

At 4:30 p.m., we're running Greta Garbo's 'Wild Orchids' (1928) at the Wilton Town Hall Theatre in Wilton, N.H.

When that wraps, I zip down to the Aeronaut Brewing Co. in Somerville, Mass., where at 8 p.m. we're running Buster Keaton's classic comedy 'The Cameraman' (1928).

More info about these screenings is on my online calendar. Hope you can make it!

Okay, here's the press release for our Harold Lloyd program on Thursday, Feb. 8 at 7 p.m.:

Not sure how Harold's approach to women will go over in the midst of the "Me, too" movement—but we'll find out.

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 24, 2018 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com

No words: Red River salutes Valentine's Day with silent comedy romance

Live music to accompany Harold Lloyd's uproarious feature film 'Girl Shy' on Thursday, Feb. 8

CONCORD, N.H.—When words can't express how you feel, then let a classic silent film do the talking.

That's the sentiment behind an upcoming screening of 'Girl Shy,' a vintage Harold Lloyd silent comedy, to be shown at Red River Theatres, 11 South Main St., Concord, N.H.

'Girl Shy' (1924), along with a Lloyd comedy short 'Never Weaken' from 1921, will be screened on Thursday, Feb. 8 at 7 p.m. in Red River's Stonyfield Farm Theater. The films will be accompanied live by silent film musician Jeff Rapsis.

Admission to this special program is $12 per person.

'Girl Shy' (1924) stars Harold Lloyd as a shy young man from a small town who pens a book about imaginary female conquests. Trouble begins when bashful Harold falls in love for real, and then must rescue his beloved from marrying the wrong man in the big city.

Harold's dilemma prompts a climactic race to the altar that stands as one of the great chase sequences in all of cinema. The sequence was so successful that MGM used it as a model for the famous chariot race in the original 'Ben Hur' (1925).

Co-starring in 'Girl Shy' is actress Jobyna Ralston, who often played Lloyd's leading lady, including in later Lloyd masterpieces 'The Freshman' (1925) and 'The Kid Brother' (1927).

'Girl Shy,' directed by Lloyd's colleagues Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor, was among the top 10 grossing films of 1924.

The screening of 'Girl Shy' will be preceded by 'Never Weaken,' an earlier short film that features Lloyd's brand of "thrill" comedy. In it, a jilted Lloyd attempts to commit suicide, only to wind up stranded on the girders of an uncompleted skyscraper high over the street of Los Angeles.

Harold Lloyd, along with Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, stands today as one of the three masters of silent comedy. Throughout the 1920s, Lloyd's films enjoyed immense popularity, ranking regularly among the highest-grossing of the era.

Though Lloyd's reputation later faded due to unavailability of his movies, the recent re-release of most of his major films on DVD and other media has spurred a reawakening of interest in his work and has led to more screenings of his work in theaters, where it was designed to be shown.

"Seeing a Harold Lloyd film in a theater with live music and an audience is one of the great experiences of the cinema of any era," said Jeff Rapsis, a New Hampshire-based silent film musician who will accompany both films.

Rapsis emphasized the value of seeing early cinema as it was originally intended to be shown.

"These films were designed for the big screen, live music, and large audiences. If you can put those conditions together again, you get a sense of why people first fell in love with the movies," Rapsis said.

'Girl Shy' and 'Never Weaken,' two comedies starring Harold Lloyd, will be screened with live music on Thursday, Feb. 8 at Red River Theatres, 11 South Main St., Concord, N.H. Admission is $12 per person.

For more info, visit www.redrivertheatres.org. or call (603) 224-4600. For more about the music, visit www.jeffrapsis.com.

We're off to see the Wizard—and also Gloria Swanson, Buster Keaton, and the future

No, not the one with Judy Garland—it's Larry Semon's silent film version of the iconic tale, on screen at the Flying Monkey in Plymouth, N.H. on Thursday, Aug. 10.

Happy mid-August! The next four days bring four screenings in three states, and films that take us to Oz, France, the American West, and a city of the future.

Here's a quick round-up:

• Thursday, Aug. 10, 2017, 6:30 p.m.: "The Wizard of Oz" (1925) starring Larry Semon; The Flying Monkey Movie House and Performance Center, 39 South Main St., Plymouth, N.H.; (603) 536-2551; http://www.flyingmonkeynh.com/. Early silent film version of Frank L. Baum's immortal tales features silent comedian Larry Semon in a slapstick romp that also casts Oliver Hardy as the Tin Man. Oz as you've never seen it before! Part of a monthly silent film series at a newly restored moviehouse in Plymouth, N.H. Admission, $10 per person.

Some original promotional art for 'Zaza,' starring Gloria Swanson and H.B. Warner.

• Friday, Aug. 11, 2017, "Zaza" (1923) starring Gloria Swanson, H.B. Warner. Vintage Dance Weekend, Knights of Columbus Hall, Nahant, Mass. Private event not open to the general public. Romance set in France in which Swanson plays a hot-tempered provincial actress who gets entangled with a married diplomat. Swanson's ebullience in Zaza was unfeigned; she called it "the fastest, easiest, most enjoyable picture I ever made."

Buster Keaton and co-star Brown Eyes in 'Go West.'

• Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017, 7 p.m.: "Go West" (1925) starring Buster Keaton; Brandon Town Hall and Community Center, Main Street/Route 7, Brandon, Vt.; http://www.brandontownhall.org. Buster heads out to ranch country, where the stone-faced comedian encounters romance with—a cow! Can he save his love from a trip to the livestock yards? Rustle up some belly laughs as Buster must once again prove himself worthy to all those who doubt him. 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 continuing preservation work.

From 'Metropolis': it just wouldn't be a city of the future without a giant mechanical gong!

• Sunday, Aug. 13, 2017, 7:30 p.m. "Metropolis" (1927) directed by Fritz Lang; Aeronaut Brewing Co., 14 Tyler St., Somerville, Mass. Admission $10 per person, limited seating. The eye-popping silent film sci-fi masterpiece of German filmmaker Fritz Lang is a vintage look at things to come. Restored version includes nearly a half-hour of lost footage that was rediscovered in Argentina in 2008. Seen in its entirety and with live music, '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 that came to pass: us! Part of the Aeronaut Brewery's commitment to showcase local music, art, and performance. Limited seating so reserve early; for more details on tickets, visit Aeronaut Brewing. online.

It would have been five screenings in five days, but I gave up a slot at the Harvard Film Archive on Monday, Aug. 14 so that fellow accompanist Andrew E. Simpson could make a much-anticipated visit to the Boston area.

If you're interested in hearing one of the most talented accompanists in the field, get thee to the Harvard Film Archive next Monday night to hear Andrew do his stuff for Ernst Lubitsch's 'The Wildcat.' Here's the listing:

• Monday, Aug. 14, 2017, 7 p.m.: "Die Bergkatze/The Wildcat" or "The Mountain Cat" (1921), directed by Ernst Lubitsch. Harvard Film Archive, 24 Quincy St., Cambridge, Mass. (617) 496-3211. Admission $9 per person, $7 for non-Harvard students, Harvard faculty and staff, and senior citizens; free for Harvard students. Part of a summer-long retrospective of the work of director Ernst Lubitsch. Amidst delightfully bizarre décor—framed by altering screen shapes—a stalwart bandit chaser falls for bandit’s daughter Pola Negri. Lubitsch’s German comedy masterpiece is "both an anti-militarist satire and a wonderful fairy tale" (John Gillett). For this screening, I'm pleased to have accompanist Andrew E. Simpson sit in at the keyboard!

And another special note: earlier this year, I was fortunate enough to be asked to do a piano score for Kino-Lorber's re-issue of 'Zaza.' The disc is now out, and just this week I received a box of copies that I can make available to fans at screenings.

And, thanks to the kind folks at Kino-Lorber, I'm able to make them available at a discount off the published retail price. But you can only get this deal by attending a screening!

So I'll have them with me until the stock runs out. If you'd like me to save one for you, please send me a note indicated standard DVD or Blu-ray and I'll set a copy aside.

P.S. This Sunday, I'm being interviewed by Harvard Magazine for a story about the art of silent film accompaniment. So I may not have made it into Harvard, but at least I'll be in the magazine!

Amazing poster from Aeronaut Brewing Co., plus reunited with a mislaid brass bell

Look what I came across:

I can't say how delighted I was to find this poster at last night's 'Wizard of Oz' screening at the Aeronaut Brewing Co. in Somerville, Mass.

Thanks so much to whoever did this!

In other good news, last night I was reunited with my bell!

Not just any bell, but a brass school bell that once belonged to my grandmother.

For a few years now, I've brought it along with me for use in silent film accompaniment at appropriate times.

A few months ago, however, I noticed it was not in my crate of traveling gear—and, actually, was nowhere to be found!

I had just returned from a road-trip to gigs in Ohio, so I called around, thinking I'd somehow left it behind. No dice.

This was a real loss because not only was it a family heirloom, it was a darned good piece of accompaniment hardware.

Not all bells are created equal, and this one had a particularly brassy, clangy sound that I came to regard as indispensable for certain moments.

Example: the flashback near the beginning of Fritz Lang's space opera 'Woman in the Moon' (1929), when a professor frantically rings a bell to quiet a rowdy debate that's spiralling out of control. The bell (and the whistle that's also blown) really get the score off to a rousing start.

Another example: a key moment in the climax of Josef von Sternberg's 'The Last Command' (1928) when a handbell is rung as a signal during a battle. It occurs at just the right time when we need a break from big revolutionary war battle music.

After giving it up for lost, I trolled eBay for a replacement bell, finding one pretty easily.

It arrived shortly after, but I couldn't bring myself to open the package. It sat in our dining room for weeks, as I was still mourning the loss of my grandmother's bell.

Weird how I finally opened it this weekend in advance of the Aeronaut show, as we often use a bell to quell the noisy crowd when starting a silent film show.

I tried it. Clang! Nice, but lighter and more polite—nothing like my grandmother's old bell.

And then, just before last night's show, the Aeronaut staffer went to get their own bell, and found two of them—one being the bell I'd mislaid month ago, apparently right there!

Now, if we could only find a cure for cancer, solve climate change, and find world peace.

We're off to see the Wizard, but...not the one with Judy Garland in it

Original promotional material for the silent film version of 'The Wizard of Oz.'

Some say it's enough to drive one to drink. So I'm glad we're showing it in a brewery.

It's the silent version of 'The Wizard of Oz' (1925), which I'm accompanying tonight (Sunday, June 4) at the Aeronaut Brewery, 14 Tyler St., Somerville, Mass.

Showtime is 7:30 p.m. Admission is $10 per person.

There's a press release below with more info on the film, which is nothing like the familiar 1939 MGM musical version starring Judy Garland.

Instead, the silent 'Wizard' was produced as a vehicle for comedian Larry Semon, who used the Oz characters to create a smorgasbord of slapstick.

The result was a picture that for years has been known as one of the silent era's great misfires. Its studio, Chadwick Pictures, ran into financial troubles the year it was released, and was unable to distribute prints to many locations. It fared poorly at the box office, and among the few who attended, it disappointed Oz fans due to scant resemblance to the stories by author L. Frank Baum.

Today, an interesting thing about the film is the reaction of people when they learn there is a silent 'Wizard of Oz.'

It's that same look of baffled puzzlement you get when you mention the silent films of W.C. Fields: How is that even possible?

But then you have to remember that so many stories got their first big-screen treatment during the silent era.

Among the more well known: 'Ben Hur' (1925) and 'Phantom of the Opera' (1925), both remade several times since.

Other examples abound. A lesser known one is the silent 'Peter Pan' (1924), created with input from author J.M. Barrie himself, and which still holds up well.

Heck, there were even performers in the silent era with the same names of later stars.

How about the silent Harrison Ford? (That's him on the right.) Or the silent James Mason, anyone?

But as so often happens, not every original screen adaptation hit the mark.

In the case of Semon's 'Wizard of Oz,' the film has come down to us with a reputation as a disappointment. And how could anything really compare to the magical musical version that Hollywood produced not much later?

But I included the silent 'Oz' in a recent program in Wilton, N.H., and was surprised to find it greeted by continuous hearty laughter and even applause. People really enjoyed it!

Maybe it's taken nine decades for the silent 'Oz' to find an audience. I don't know.

But I've decided to start trying it out in other venues, including the Aeronaut this evening.

We'll see if it provokes anything like the same reaction. And if it doesn't, there's always beer.

* * *

Larry Semon directed, and plays the Scarecrow, in 'The Wizard of Oz' (1925).

WEDNESDAY, MAY 10, 2017 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com

Rare silent film version of 'Wizard of Oz' at Aeronaut Brewing Co. on Sunday, June 4

Feature-length Oz epic released in 1925 includes comedian Oliver Hardy as the Tin Man; to be screened with live music

SOMERVILLE, Mass. — You won't find Judy Garland in this version of Oz, or much of anything else that's familiar. That's because it's the forgotten 1925 silent film version of the famous tale.

Long overshadowed by the immensely popular 1939 remake, the rarely seen silent version of 'The Wizard of Oz' (1925) will be screened one time only on Sunday, June 4 at 7:30 p.m. at the Aeronaut Brewing Co., 14 Tyler St., Somerville, Mass.

The program, which will include an earlier short Oz film also based on stories and characters of author L. Frank Baum, will be accompanied by Jeff Rapsis, a New Hampshire-based silent film musician.

Admission is $10 per person. Tickets are available online at www.eventbrite.com; search on "Aeronaut Brewery."

The silent version, released by long-forgotten Chadwick Pictures, was intended as a vehicle for slapstick comedian Larry Semon, who directed the picture and played the role of the scarecrow.

Dorothy is played by Dorothy Dwan, Semon's wife. Also in the cast is Oliver Hardy as the Tin Man. Prior to his teaming with comedian Stan Laurel later in the 1920s, Hardy often played Semon's comic foil.

Larry Semon, Dorothy Dwan, and Oliver Hardy in 'The Wizard of Oz' (1925).

The silent 'Wizard of Oz' bears little resemblance to the highly polished MGM musical released just 14 years later. However, due to the enduring worldwide popularity of Baum's 'Oz' characters and stories, the silent 'Wizard of Oz' remains an object of great curiosity among fans.

The film departs radically from the novel upon which it is based, introducing new characters and exploits. Along with a completely different plot, the film is all set in a world that is only barely recognizable as the Land of Oz from the books. The film focuses mainly upon Semon's character, who is analogous to Ray Bolger's Scarecrow character in the 1939 version.

The major departure from the book and film is that the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion are not actually characters, but are in fact disguises donned by three farm hands who find themselves swept into Oz by a tornado. Dorothy is here played by Dorothy Dwan — Semon's wife — as a young woman. In a drastic departure from the original book, the Tin Man (played by Oliver Hardy) is Semon's rival for Dorothy's affections.

Legend has it that Semon's version of 'Wizard' was so poorly received, Chadwick Studios was forced to file for bankruptcy while the picture was in theaters. In truth, the picture was a modest success, and Chadwick continued to release films through 1928, when the studio shut down prior to the industry's switch to synchronized sound.

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 be in tune with 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 'The Wizard of Oz' 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."

Dorothy Dwan and Larry Semon, real-life husband and wife, in 'The Wizard of Oz' (1925).

The silent version of 'The Wizard of Oz' (1925) and other Oz-related silent films will be shown on Sunday, June 4 at 7:30 p.m. at the Aeronaut Brewing Co., 14 Tyler St., Somerville, Mass. Admission is $10 per person. Tickets are available online at www.eventbrite.com; search on "Aeronaut Brewery." For more info about Aeronaut Brewing, visit www.aeronautbrewing.com. For more information about the music, visit www.jeffrapsis.com.