Prepare for St. Patrick's Day with 'Hangman's House' (1928), drama set in Ireland, screening 3/15 at Flying Monkey in Plymouth, N.H.

The dogs are big in John Ford's 'Hangman's House' (1928).

St. Patrick's Day is nearly upon us! Movie lovers, let's celebrate with a vintage drama set in Ireland and directed by John Ford, and with John Wayne in it.

It's 'The Quiet Man' (1952), right? 

Wrong!

It's 'Hangman's House' (1928), a much earlier movie directed by Ford released near the end of the silent era. I'll be accompanying the picture tonight (Wednesday, March 15) at the Flying Monkey Moviehouse and Performance Center in Plymouth, N.H.

Showtime is 6:30 p.m. More details in the press release pasted in below.

Although John Wayne appears in it, he's not the star. Instead, Victor McLaglen leads an ensemble cast.

But 'Hangman's House' is the first film in which Wayne can be spotted in a prominent cameo—in a scene where he gets so excited watching a horse race, he leads a group of villages in tearing down a fence.

Quite a contrast to the character that movie-goers would see a quarter-century later in 'The Quiet Man'!

Hope you're done shoveling in time to head to Plymouth to take in this rarely screened John Ford silent set in the Emerald Isle.

Sure'n it'll put you in the mood for all the green beer to come later this week!

*   *   *

A vintage poster promoting 'Hangman's House' (1928).

MONDAY, FEB. 20, 2023 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For more info, contact: Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com

Silent drama 'Hangman's House' with live music at Flying Monkey on Wednesday, 3/15

Early John Ford horse-racing story set in Ireland; features prominent cameo by very young John Wayne

PLYMOUTH, N.H.—The silent film era returns to the big screen at the Flying Monkey with a showing of 'Hangman's House' (1928), a classic John Ford-directed silent drama accompanied by live music.

Showtime is Wednesday, March 15 at 6:30 p.m. at the Flying Monkey Moviehouse and Performance Center, 39 South Main St., Plymouth, N.H. Admission is $10 per person.

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

Set in Ireland, 'Hangman's House' follows wanted man Denis Hogan (Victor McLaglen) who returns in disguise to his Irish homeland to seek revenge.

Once back, he becomes embroiled in an intense romantic drama involving a local judge (Hobart Bosworth), his daughter (June Collyer), a forced marriage and surprising revelations about his own sister.

A vintage lobby card from 'Hangman's House' (1928).

The film is highlighted by a high-stakes horse race. Among the spectators is a very young John Wayne, clearly visible as an extra who gets so excited he single-handedly destroys a fence.

The story culminates in a spectacular fire sequence that mesmerized the film's original audiences and still maintains its power today.

'Hangman's House' is praised for taut story-telling and evocative camerawork. Ford returned to Ireland as a setting in his later film 'The Quiet Man' (1952), this time starring John Wayne.

Later in his career, Ford would win a total of four Academy Awards for 'Best Director,' a record that stands to this day.

Accompanist Jeff Rapsis will improvise an original musical score for 'Hangman's House' live as the film is shown.

"When the score gets made up on the spot, it creates a special energy that's an important part of the silent film experience," said Rapsis, who uses a digital synthesizer to recreate the texture of a full orchestra for the accompaniment.

Upcoming titles in the Flying Monkey's silent film series include:

• Wednesday, April 12, 6:30 p.m.: 'The Ten Commandments' (1923). Long before Charlton Heston played Moses in Technicolor, director Cecil B. DeMille filmed this silent blockbuster on a grand scale.

• Wednesday, May 10, 6:30 p.m.: 'Girl Shy' (1924) starring Harold Lloyd. Join us for the original rom-com featuring an unforgettable race-to-the-church finish.

• Wednesday, June 7, 6:30 p.m.: '20,000 Leagues Under the Sea' (1916). Early version of the classic Jules Verne tale, with a few other stories mixed in. Feature film that pioneered underwater photography techniques.

• Wednesday, July 19, 6:30 p.m.: 'The General' (1927) Buster Keaton's Civil War-era masterpiece tells the story of a Confederate railroad engineer whose train is hijacked by Northern spies. One of the great films of any era!

• Wednesday, Aug. 30, 6:30 p.m.: 'My Best Girl' (1927) starring Mary Pickford. In a big city department store, what happens when romance blossoms between a humble clerk and the store owner's son?

• Wednesday, Sept. 13, 6:30 p.m.: 'Scaramouche' (1923). When a nobleman murders his best friend, a lawyer becomes a revolutionary with his heart set on vengeance. Swashbuckler based on best-selling novel by Rafael Sabatini.

• Wednesday, Oct. 18, 6:30 p.m.: Lon Chaney creepy double feature. Just in time for Halloween. In 'The Unknown' (1927), Chaney plays "Alonzo the Armless," a circus knife thrower who uses his feet; in 'West of Zanzibar' (1928), Chaney plays a vaudeville magician who loses use of his legs in an accident and journeys to Africa to seek revenge.

• Wednesday, Nov. 8, 6:30 p.m.: 'The Three Musketeers' (1921) starring Douglas Fairbanks Sr. Original screen adaptation that set the bar for future versions of the famous story, as well as the swashbuckler genre itself.

‘Hangman's House’ (1928), a classic silent drama directed by John Ford, will be shown with live music on Wednesday, March 15 at 6:30 p.m. at the Flying Monkey Moviehouse and Performance Center, 39 Main St., Plymouth, N.H. Admission is $10 per person. For more info, call (603) 536-2551 or visit www.flyingmonkeynh.com.

 P.S. Is it just me, but isn't the artwork style of the above poster eerily similar to the style of the old Wacky Packages product parody stickers of my youth?

Thoughts on accompanying 4 films in 4 days; Harry Langdon in Ogunquit on Thursday, 9/17

An original promo sheet for 'The Strong Man' (1926).

Usually I preview upcoming shows here. But with four films in the past four days, that process kind of got away from me, so nothing got posted. Apologies!

So let me say up front: the next silent film program I'm accompanying will be a Harry Langdon's 'The Strong Man' (1926) on Thursday, Sept. 17 at 8 p.m. at the Leavitt Theatre in Ogunquit, Maine.

If you'd like more info, the full press release is tacked to the end of this post.

But now let me recap the what I've been up to since last Thursday before it gets buried by the days ahead.

From 'Hangman's House.: The Emerald Isle or the Weimar Republic?

• Thursday, Sept. 10: 'Hangman's House' (1928) at the Flying Monkey Moviehouse in Plymouth, N.H.: Attendance was down in this entry of our monthly series, probably because it was NFL kick-off night featuring Tom Brady's return to the New England Patriots, which is very big news in this part of the planet.

Still, John Ford's last silent film held the screen with its Murnau-inspired visuals, with the action set in a part of Ireland subject to heavy ground fog, apparently. Great to see John Wayne show up as an over-excited villager busting down a fence during a horse race.

'The Cameraman': a film about film itself.

• Friday, Sept. 11: 'The Cameraman' (1928) at Red River Theatres in Concord, N.H.: This one fell together quite effectively, I thought. Above average attendance for Red River, and a film that the audience found hilarious right from the beginning, when Buster Keaton finds his face in the lovely Marceline Day's hair.

I know 'The Cameraman' pretty well now, and so knew to keep the music as light as possible for as long as possible. Only when Keaton tries photographing the chaotic Tong War can you open up, but then you have to bring it right back down again. Thrilled to hear laughter even during the loudest sections of the war. Success!

The silent Tarzan: supply your own jungle yell if you like.

• Saturday, Sept. 12: 'Tarzan and the Golden Lion' (1927) at the Brandon Town Hall and Community Center in Brandon, Vt.: A wealth of pre-show publicity in the local media coupled with a rainy evening led to a record-busting attendance of about 125 people. Nice!

James Bridges as Tarzan got a good reaction, but people seemed more excited by our warm-up feature, 'The Sign of the Claw' (1926), the only surviving feature of second-tier German shepherd star Peter the Great. Hooting and hollering on this one started early, when Peter pulled a hapless toddler from the path of a heavy truck.

From 'The Leaping Fish': the label says it all.

• Sunday, Sept. 13: 'The Matrimaniac' (1916) and other films starring Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. at the Somerville Theatre in Somerville, Mass.: More rain helped boost attendance at this program of rarely screened early Fairbanks pictures, which also included 'The Missing Millionaire' (1917) and 'The Mystery of the Leaping Fish' (1916).

For 'Matrimaniac,' the only full-length feature, reaction was muted, I thought—possibly the effect of having to run the 35mm print at 24 fps, clearly too fast. Looking forward to the Somerville getting the ability to run variable speed when needed on its 35mm Norelcos.

'Millionaire,' a later film that used the same footage from 'Matrimaniac' to tell a completely different story to capitalize on Fairbanks' popularity, was a real treat. Seeing the two movies one after another reminded me of a Michael Frayn farce—or a bit like Keaton's 'Spite Marriage' (1929), where we see scene played completely straight, then see it again as Buster ruins it in increasingly creative ways.

And what can you say about 'Leaping Fish' and its gleeful depiction of drug use? Throughout the film, my accompaniment was augmented by the sound of jaws hitting the floor.

So it was a good four-day run with a variety of films in some vastly different settings.

But I like doing these mini-marathons because by the end, I feel like I have a fluency at the keyboard that allows me to go places I usually can't.

Somehow, the momentum carries me. Either that, or I'm so disoriented I just don't know what the hell I'm doing anymore.

Could be a combination of both!

Okay, here's the press release for the Langdon program later this week. Hope you can make it!

* * *

Harry Langdon in 'The Strong Man' (1926).

MONDAY, AUG. 24, 2015 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com

See Frank Capra's first-ever film at Leavitt Theatre on Thursday, Sept. 17

Harry Langdon's classic silent comedy 'The Strong Man,' directed by a very young Capra, to be shown with live music

OGUNQUIT, Maine — Silent film with live music returns to the big screen at the Leavitt Theatre in September with a showing of an uproarious comedy starring Harry Langdon.

The screening, on Thursday, Sept. 17 at 8 p.m., will feature Langdon's classic picture 'The Strong Man' (1926).

Helming 'The Strong Man' was young first-time director Frank Capra, who would later go on to create such Hollywood classics as 'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington' (1939) and 'It's a Wonderful Life' (1946).

Live music will be provided by silent film accompanist Jeff Rapsis.

Admission is $10 per person.

'The Strong Man' tells the story of a World War I soldier (Langdon) who, following his discharge, finds work as assistant to a circus strong man. As the act travels the United States, Langdon continually searches for a girl he corresponded with while stationed overseas in the military.

The search leads to a town controlled by Prohibition-era gangsters, which forces Harry to test the limits of his own inner strength even as he looks for his dream girl. Can Happy triumph over the bad guys? And is love more powerful than brute strength?

The feature-length film showcases the unique child-like personality of Langdon, who is largely forgotten today. For a brief time in the 1920s, however, he rivaled Charlie Chaplin as Hollywood's top movie clown.

Langdon's popularity, which grew quickly in the last years of the silent era, fizzled as the movie business abruptly switched to talkies starting in 1929.

'The Strong Man,' a family-friendly comedy, was was selected in 2007 for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

Harry Langdon experiences temptation in 'The Strong Man' (1926).

In recent years, 'The Strong Man' has been recognized as a major achievement of the silent film era—a satisfying and timeless balance of emotion and comedy.

"A little tragedy and a lot of laughs can be seen in 1926's The Strong Man," wrote critic Richard von Busack in 2007. "Director Frank Capra's energy and sturdy plot sense counterpoint Langdon's wonderful strangeness."

'The Strong Man' will be accompanied by live music by Jeff Rapsis, a New Hampshire-based silent film accompanist who performs at venues across the region and beyond.

"These films were created to be shown on the big screen as a sort of communal experience," Rapsis said. "With an audience and live music, they still come to life in the way their makers intended them to.

"So the Leavitt's silent film screenings are a great chance for people to experience films that first caused people to first fall in love with the movies," he said.

The Leavitt, a summer-only moviehouse, opened in 1923 at the height of the silent film era, and has been showing movies to summertime visitors for nine decades.

The silent film series honors the theater's long service as a moviehouse that has entertained generations of area residents and visitors, in good times and in bad.

In creating music for silent films, Rapsis performs on a digital synthesizer that reproduces the texture of the full orchestra and creates a traditional "movie score" sound.

Upcoming shows in this year's series include:

• Saturday, Oct. 31, 2015, 8 p.m.: 'The Lodger' (1927). A serial killer is on the loose in fog-bound London. Will the murderer be caught before yet another victim is claimed? Just in time for Halloween, suspenseful British thriller directed by a very young Alfred Hitchcock. The program is subtitled 'Chiller Theater' due to the theater's lack of central heating.

'The Strong Man' (1926) will be screened with live music on Thursday, Sept. 17 at 8 p.m. at the Leavitt Theater, 259 Main St., Route 1, Ogunquit, Maine. Admission $10. For more information, call (207) 646-3123 or visit www.leavittheatre.com.

For info on the music, visit www.jeffrapsis.com.

Frank Capra's 'The Strong Man' will be screened with live music by Jeff Rapsis on Thursday, Sept. 17 at 8 p.m. at the Leavitt Theater, 259 Main St., Route 1, Ogunquit, Maine. Admission $10. For more information, call (207) 646-3123 or visit www.leavittheatre.com.

Tonight: John Ford's silent 'Hangman's House' at Flying Monkey theater in Plymouth, N.H.

Okay, here's one I've been looking forward to.

Tonight (Thursday, Sept. 10) our monthly silent film series in Plymouth, N.H. takes a turn for the dramatic with 'Hangman's House' (1928).

It's the final silent film from young director named John Ford, who would go on to win four Academy Awards for his later work.

'Hangman's House' isn't regarded a masterpiece. But that's what I find exciting about it.

Unencumbered by legend or expectations, it's a picture that simply shows silent film at the top of its expressive power.

To me, it's a prime example of how filmmakers had learned how to naturally use the motion picture medium to tell a story visually, and for maximum effect.

And it helped that German director F.W. Murnau had come to Hollywood to make 'Sunrise' at Fox studios at the same time Ford was working there.

'Sunrise,' widely regarded as one of the most beautiful pictures of any era, set new standards for what a silent film could look like.

'Hangman's House,' set in Ireland, shows Murnau's influence in the scenes played out amid the ground-hugging fog and shadows.

A fireplace becomes a window into terrifying visions for a dying judge in 'Hangman's House.'

There's also a terrific visual fluidity to 'Hangman's House.' Although the story proceeds naturally, Ford is able to weave in vivid fantasy images that show the inner feelings of characters and underscore the drama.

'Hangman's House' is one of those late silents that came and went quickly, released when talking pictures were already the rage.

At the time, I think few people appreciated how absorbing even a non-masterpiece silent could be.

So it's a special pleasure to present a film such as 'Hangman's House' to audiences today. Uncorked after all these years, it's a time-capsule of drama that plays just as strongly as when it was new—perhaps even more so, because silent film is such an unusual experience for modern audiences.

People are often surprised to find a well-made movie with all the techniques of silent film story-telling at its disposal, and a director who knew how to use them.

And I'm so pleased to do accompaniment that I hope helps facilitate this discovery. The music will definitely be of the "less is more" school, with just a hint of Irish coloring.

Another attraction of 'Hangman's House' is that it includes one of the earliest on-camera appearances by a clearly identifiable John Wayne.

There he is!

Wayne shows up in a crowd of lively villagers watching a horse race. The Duke's response is so exuberant that he destroys the fence holding back the crowd!

It's a perfect cameo for Wayne, who indeed would not be held back. He'd later work with Ford on 14 major motion pictures, including classics such as 'Stagecoach' (1939) and 'The Searchers' (1956).

One major Ford/Wayne collaboration would be 'The Quiet Man' (1952), taking the pair back full circle to a story set in Ireland.

So join us tonight for a rarely screened movie that you may never have heard of—but which you surely won't forget.

Showtime is 6:30 p.m., so you'll be out in time for the Patriots kick-off.

More info is in the press release below. Hope to see you there!

* * *

MONDAY, AUG. 24, 2015 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com

Silent drama 'Hangman's House' with live music at Flying Monkey on Thursday, Sept. 10

Early John Ford horse-racing story set in Ireland features prominent cameo by very young John Wayne

PLYMOUTH, N.H.—The silent film era returns to the big screen at the Flying Monkey Moviehouse and Performance Center with a showing of 'Hangman's House' (1928), a classic silent drama accompanied by live music.

Showtime is Thursday, Sept. 10, at 6:30 p.m. at the Flying Monkey, 39 Main St., Plymouth. All are welcome to this family-friendly event; admission is $10 per person general admission.

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

Set in Ireland, 'Hangman's House' follows wanted man Denis Hogan (Victor McLaglen) who returns in disguise to his Irish homeland to seek revenge.

Once back, he becomes embroiled in an intense romantic drama involving a local judge (Hobart Bosworth), his daughter (June Collyer), a forced marriage and surprising revelations about his own sister.

The film is highlighted by a high-stakes horse race. Among the spectactors is a very young John Wayne, clearly visible as an extra who gets so excited he single-handedly destroys a fence.

The story culminates in a spectacular fire sequence that mesmerized the film's original audiences and still maintains its power today.

'Hangman's House' is praised for taut story-telling and evocative camerawork. Ford returned to Ireland as a setting in his later film 'The Quiet Man' (1952), this time starring John Wayne.

The screening of 'Hangman's House' is the latest in the Flying Monkey's monthly series of great silent films shown on the big screen with live music.

Accompanist Jeff Rapsis will improvise an original musical score for 'Hangman's House' live as the film is shown.

"When the score gets made up on the spot, it creates a special energy that's an important part of the silent film experience," said Rapsis, who uses a digital synthesizer to recreate the texture of a full orchestra for the accompaniment.

The Flying Monkey originally opened as a silent film moviehouse in the 1920s, and showed first-run Hollywood films to generations of area residents until closing several years ago.

The theater has since been renovated by Alex Ray, owner of the Common Man restaurants, who created a performance space that hosts a wide range of music acts.

But movies of all types are still a big part of the Flying Monkey's offerings, and the silent film series is a way for the theater to remain connected to its roots.

‘Hangman's House’ (1928), a classic silent drama directed by John Ford, will be shown with live music on Thursday, Sept. 10 at 6:30 p.m. at the Flying Monkey Moviehouse and Performance Center, 39 Main St., Plymouth. Admission $10 per person. For more info, call (603) 536-2551 or visit www.flyingmonkeynh.com. For more on the music, visit www.jeffrapsis.com.

Deaf people, crazy kids, John Ford, and the Sherman Brothers

We drew a good-sized audience last night (Tuesday, March 6) for our showing of 'Hangman's House' (1928), a rarely screened Fox silent directed by John Ford that holds up really well. Although it includes a lot of horse action and the first notable cameo appearance by a very young John Wayne, the film isn't a Western, but is a drama set in Ireland. (Okay, maybe it's western Ireland.)

The music turned out well, I thought — I used a new "fanfare" theme for the main male character that worked wonderfully under a galloping rhythm during a key horseracing scene, and also a "fake Irish" tune that proved versatile in pumping up the drama. About 40 people stayed afterwards for a half-hour question/answer period, and many said they really liked the film.

But the experience was also notable for what happened off-screen. While setting up at the Manchester (N.H.) Public Library, a man I'd never seen before came up and began loudly telling us to make sure we had the closed captioning on. "For a silent film?" I asked, in the middle of cueing up a projector, but then realized what was going on.

Turns out, yes, he's completely deaf. Years of asking for the closed captioning to be turned on had made him a creature of habit, and he'd forgotten it was a silent film. We chatted a bit — although he can't hear anything (including the music, which might have been to his advantage), he can read lips and communciate quite easily with others. I was so pleased he attended and hope to see him again soon.

I can't say the same, exactly, for a group of kids who noisily came into the auditorium about a half-hour into the screening and proceeded to act like they were in their living room at home and watching the big-screen TV. Well, this is what happens at the library, where everyone is welcome, so you need to have a "big tent" philosophy as far as audiences go.

But these kids were running in and out of the auditorium and creating a distraction for me, and for the audience as well. It never got so bad that I had to stop playing and say knock it off, but it came darn close. Still, new audiences have to come from somewhere, and afterwards they returned and we chatted briefly about "old movies." (One of them wanted to know if the movies we show are older than 'Titanic,' from 1997!)

And after the screening, when opening the auditorium's rear entrance to start loading out my gear, I was startled when the door bumped into a homeless man sleeping on the stoop. (He was startled, too.) The guy was nice enough, considering the situation, and he vanished quickly into the night, leaving me alone to ponder the glamour of cinema in New Hampshire on my own.

Coupla thoughts from last night's "talk" period with the audience. I think it's important to remember that 'Hangman's House' is not regarded as an all-time silent film classic. It's more of a typical release — the kind of film that Hollywood was cranking out on a routine basis in the late silent era. And yet it still has an astonishing ability to hypnotize an audience. So it stands as yet another good example of why people fell hard for the movies.

Directors such as Ford, with little background in the stage, were coming up with films that hold up well today because they're more natively cinematic, I think. The acting is more realistic, at least to our eyes, and a lot of the basic tools of cinema (close-ups, moving cameras, location shots, imaginative visuals) are present. They really knew what they were after by 1928, and that proficiency helps the films work today, even on an audience not used to silent film.

The other thing is to mention Robert B. Sherman, one of the songwriting Sherman brothers, who died yesterday in London at age 86. (The younger brother, Richard M. Sherman, is still with us. That's them with Walt Disney; Robert, generally the "word" guy, is standing.) Perhaps it's because I was marinated in their work as a child, but I regard the Sherman Brothers as the gold standard for simple, memorable melodies.

They had a knack for using very basic musical ideas to create tunes that sound like they've existed all along, but the Shermans somehow discovered them. (It reminds me of what I once heard about sculpture: it's already there in the stone. The sculptor just "finds" it.) And because their most popular work was for musicals such as Disney's 'Mary Poppins,' a lot of it has a theatricality that I find especially appealing. I recall as a child being tremendously excited by the tunes in the non-Disney film "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang," and just as thrilled (as a big kid) when it was adapted a few years ago for a stage version in London.

And they're one of the models I have in mind when I do my own music for a silent film. Ideally, I try to create simple but memorable tunes that, by virtue of their recognizability, help a film score hold together as it unfolds in real time. And, once it's established, switching it around (using bits of it as connective tissue, changing from major to minor or back again, reharmonizing it) adds a whole other dimension to the possibilities — but only if people can recognize it in the first place.

So it all starts with simple, recognizable melodies, and I can say from experience that this sort of simplicity is not easy to achieve. So my hat is off to the Sherman Brothers, songwriters of my misspent youth, for showing how much potential remains in those white and black keys, even if you're courageous enough to aim for simple tunes, and persistent enough to burnish them to a high gloss.

Rest in peace, Robert!