Up next: Cinema Ritrovato 'L'Inferno' on 3/25 in Portsmouth, then 'Robin Hood' on 3/27 in Wilton

A big film means a big megaphone: Alan Dwan directing 'Robin Hood' with star Douglas Fairbanks Sr. observing. 

This Sunday, it's 'Robin Hood' (1922), the culmination of a series of 100th anniversary screenings at the Town Hall Theatre in Wilton, N.H.

But first, on Friday we venture to the underworld, as I accompany a screening of 'L'Inferno' (1911), an early adaptation of Dante's iconic work and a landmark early feature film from Italy.

'L'Inferno' is part of "Il Cinema Ritrovato on Tour in New Hampshire," a program brought to the Granite State each year by foreign language department staffers at the University of New Hampshire. (It's where I earned my MBA, and also taught as an adjunct for many years.)

Friday being opening night, the screening will take place at the prestigious Music Hall in Portsmouth, N.H. Showtime is at 7 p.m. Complete info can be found at the program's website.

Screenings continue at the Music Hall through Sunday, after which the program moves to the UNH campus in Durham for more films through March 31.

It's quite a privilege to be asked to create live music for a film in the touring "Ritrovato" program. Three cheers to organizers for recognizing the value of live music for pictures from the silent era.

And it's also a thrill to be performing in the Music Hall, a legendary venue in my home state. 

Although they don't run much silent film with live music, it's where I first took in the Alloy Orchestra doing their thing to Buster Keaton's 'Steamboat Bill Jr.' back in about 1991 or so, which helped rekindle my interest in early cinema.

It's also where I saw (and heard) Philip Glass perform in person, and where I first experienced the John Adams opera 'Nixon in China' via simulcast. (Small world: Adams grew up in New Hampshire not far from my home base.) 

Looking forward to hearing what my digital synthesizer sounds like in the storied old hall, which dates from the 1870s. I usually do pretty well with halls built in the era when acoustics were a priority, so I'm hopeful.

Okay, and now off to Sherwood Forest!

As the year's top box office hit, 'Robin Hood' forms  the culmination of our series of screenings celebrating the 100th anniversary of movies released in 1922.

In a silent film version of Casey Kasem's Top 40 countdown (remember that?), since January we've been showing the year's top five grossing pictures more or less in reverse order, starting Harold Lloyd's 'Grandma's Boy' (No. 5) in January.

Since then, we've run Valentino's 'Blood and Sand' (No. 4), Norma Talmadge in 'Smilin' Through' (No. 3), and Marion Davies in 'When Knighthood Was in Flower' (No. 2), with occasional detours for special titles such as 'Nanook of the North,' which also hit screens in 1922.

But as 1922's box office champ, 'Robin Hood' topped them all. And then as now, this big-time historical swashbuckler is best experienced on the big screen with live music and an audience. 

This means you! So I invite all to join us Sunday afternoon to escape with Robin Hood and his Merry Men, even if just for the afternoon. 

Lots more info in the press release below. Hope to see you this Sunday in Sherwood Forest—er, I mean the Town Hall Theatre in Wilton, N.H.!

*    *    *

Original artwork promoting 'The Adventures of Robin Hood' (1922).

MONDAY, MARCH 14, 2022 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com

'Robin Hood' leaps into action at Town Hall Theatre on Sunday, March 27

It's off to Sherwood Forest for the 100th anniversary of legendary silent blockbuster, screened with live music

WILTON, N.H.—He robbed from the rich, gave to the poor, and was the top box office attraction of 1922.

He was Douglas Fairbanks Sr. starring in 'Robin Hood,' the original movie adaptation of the legendary tale.

See it for yourself on the big screen on Sunday, March 27 at 2 p.m. at the Town Hall Theatre in Wilton, N.H., 40 Main St., Wilton, N.H.

Admission is free; a donation of $10 per person is suggested to help defray expenses.

The screening will be accompanied with live music by Jeff Rapsis.

Set in medieval England, 'Robin Hood' tells the tale of the Earl of Huntingdon (Fairbanks, at right), a dashing nobleman who joins King Richard the Lion-Hearted (Wallace Beery) on a Crusade to the Holy Land.

Huntingdon later returns to England to find Richard's cruel brother, Prince John (Sam De Grasse), falsely claiming the throne, enriching his aristocratic cronies and tyrannizing the citizenry.

Huntingdon takes to the woods and becomes 'Robin Hood,' soon joined by a band of merry men who undermine Prince John's reign by robbing from the rich and giving to the poor.

Can Robin Hood and his men vanquish their enemy, the High Sheriff of Nottingham (William Lowery)? And can they rescue Lady Marian Fitzwalter (Enid Bennett), Huntingdon's betrothed, from the evil clutches of Prince John?

Along the way, Fairbanks has ample opportunity to demonstrate his skills in archery, fencing, and acrobatics.

Directed by Allan Dwan, 'Robin Hood' amazed audiences with its enormous sets that recreated in full scale the castles and villages of medieval England.

At a time when $200,000 was a hefty movie budget, 'Robin Hood' cost $1 million to produce.

But the film proved an enormous hit, becoming the top box office attraction of 1922 and earning $2.5 million in its initial release through United Artists, the distribution company Fairbanks formed with fellow stars Charlie Chaplin, D.W. Griffith, and his wife, Mary Pickford.

Douglas Fairbanks as Robin Hood romances Lady Marian Fitzwalter (Enid Bennett).

Fairbanks, among the most popular stars of the 1920s, was the inspiration for the character of George Valentin in the Oscar-winning Best Picture 'The Artist' (2011). Fairbanks was known for films that used the then-new medium of motion pictures to transport audiences to historical time periods for grand adventures and athletic stunts.

He's often referred to as "Douglas Fairbanks Sr." to avoid confusion with his son, the actor Douglas Fairbanks Jr.

Also in the cast for 'Robin Hood' is Alan Hale Sr., who made such an impression at Little John that he was cast in the same role in the 1938 remake starring Errol Flynn. (Hale's son, Alan Hale Jr., played the role of the Skipper on the 1960s television series "Gilligan's Island.")

Live music for 'Robin Hood' will be provided by silent film accompanist Jeff Rapsis, who uses a digital synthesizer to create a traditional full orchestra "movie score" sound.

"Seeing a Fairbanks picture in a theater with live music and an audience is a classic movie experience," Rapsis said.

Rapsis (at right) emphasized the unique value of seeing early cinema as it was originally presented.

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

The screening of 'Robin Hood' is part of the Town Hall Theatre's ongoing series honoring the 100th anniversary of significant motion pictures that debuted in 1922.

Programs will include all of 1922's five highest-grossing titles, each shown on the big screen with live music, as well as century-old oddities, short films, cartoons, and more.

Upcoming programs in the Town Hall's 100th anniversary series include:

• Sunday, April 3, 2022 at 2 p.m.: Chaney/Houdini Double Feature. In 'Flesh and Blood' (1922), escaped convict Lon Chaney hides out in Chinatown and plots revenge. In 'The Man From Beyond' (1922) illusionist Harry Houdini plays an Arctic adventurer frozen for 100 years!

• Sunday, April 17, 2022 at 2 p.m.: Emil Jannings in 'Othello' (1922). The Bard's immortal tragedy brought to the screen in this early German version. Silent Shakespeare in honor of the author's 458th birthday.

'Robin Hood' (1922) starring Douglas Fairbanks Sr., will be screened with live music on Sunday, March 27 at 2 p.m. at the Town Hall Theatre, 40 Main St., Wilton, N.H. Admission is free; a donation of $10 per person is suggested to defray expenses.

For more info, visit www.wiltontownhalltheatre.com or call (603) 654-3456.

What Harold Lloyd's 'Safety Last' shares with Ludwig van Beethoven's Fifth Symphony

On Tuesday, Jan. 26, I'm doing live music for a screening of Harold Lloyd's 'Safety Last' (1923) at a new venue for me.

It's the Portsmouth Music Hall Loft, 131 Congress St. in downtown Portsmouth, N.H. Show time is 7 p.m. and admission is $15 per person.

It's the opening program in a film series hosted by Kent Stephens that aims to explore cinematic comedy as it evolves through the 20th century.

Kind of a last-minute addition to my schedule. But I'm glad to do it because:

1. 'Safety Last' is a great film for live music, which can make a big difference in how an audience experiences Lloyd's blend of comedy and edge-of-your-seat suspense.

2. The Music Hall is where I first heard the Alloy Orchestra, to a screening of Keaton's 'Steamboat Bill, Jr.' (1928) sometime in the 1990s. This pushed me in the direction of taking up the craft myself.

Kent will talk about Lloyd and the comedy of 'Safety Last,' so I'll leave that to him.

With me, when I ponder 'Safety Last,' I often think of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. You know? Da da da DUUUMMMMMM!

Which prompts the question: What does a Jazz Age romantic comedy have in common with one the sternest, most serious pieces of classical music ever written?

Well, as with so much, it's personal. So forgive me as I briefly succumb to that malaise of middle age: the reminiscence.

I first got interested in silent film as a kid in the 1970s. At the time, if you really wanted to see silent film, you had to get the actual films and run them yourself.

Many were available (in 16mm and 8mm) from the public library, or could be ordered from Blackhawk Films of Davenport, Iowa, which I did.

And so I explored and learned about the silent films of Charlie Chaplin, of Buster Keaton, and so many others. Little by little, I came to understand the world of 1920s cinema.

But the films of one person were missing: Harold Lloyd. You could see some of his early short films, but all the big classic features just weren't available.

Of course I could read about Lloyd's films. In books, he was often labeled a "thrill" comedian in passages that were inevitably accompanied by the famous image at the top of this post.

Here it is again:

And that was that. As far as I knew, Lloyd was rooted in the frentic "anything for a laugh" school of comedy, as epitomized by that one photo, used over and over again.

Why was he hanging from a clock? There couldn't be any possible reason other than he was just trying to get laughs by being outrageous.

And that was my image of Lloyd for quite awhile.

At the same time (junior high school), I was beginning to explore the works of the great composers.

All along, I had known what Beethoven's Fifth Symphony was all about: da da da DUUUMMMMMM, right?

But to my adolescent ears, it came as a a major discovery that 40 minutes of music followed: music that explored a vast emotional landscape ranging from the deepest valleys of despair to the highest summits of ecstacy.

I recall it was an RCA recording of Fritz Reiner leading the Chicago Symphony on an LP that was very "close-miked," meaning the voice of each instrument was clear and distinct, as opposed to the general sonic blur you sometimes get from an orchestra in a concert hall.

It was unlike anything I had ever heard before. And it was big news to find out all of what came after DUUUMMMMMM.

The same thing happened with 'Safety Last.' After years of thinking of the film as just an excuse for Lloyd to go stunting willy-nilly on a tall building, I finally got to see the entire film. (This happened when the Lloyd films were shown on Public Television in the late 1970s.)

Just as with Beethoven, a whole world opened up to me. Turns out Lloyd wasn't just a clock-hanger! His films had plots, character, settings, and finely honed gag sequences that brought the art of visual comedy to places I had never seen before.

And 'Safety Last' wasn't just a flimsy excuse for Lloyd to do stunts on a building. No! It was laid out with a certain inexorable logic that leaves Lloyd's character no choice but to climb the building, floor by increasingly vertiginous floor, while frightened silly the whole way.

And as he does it, the film's story virtually requires us to root for him. And when he finally reaches the clockface—the one I'd seen in that picture so many times—the reaction generated is the result of all that has gone on before it.

I couldn't believe how well done it was. I finally knew how Lloyd came to hanging from that clockface, and it made all the sense in the world.

It also helped me begin to understand why Lloyd was so popular in the 1920s. His films were a lot more than da da da DUUUMMMMMM. They were atually of a very high standard, designed to be experienced by a large audience, and still work like gangbusters when shown as intended.

That's what I'm looking forward to happening on Tuesday night, so hope you can join us!

Brush with silent film fame: a few thoughts on meeting Ken Winokur of Alloy Orchestra

Alloy in action: that's Ken Winokur back behind the bedpan, playing percussion, with colleagues Terry Donahue on accordion and Roger Miller on keyboard.

Just prior to yesterday's screening of two silent W.C. Fields features, I was introduced to one of the big names in silent film music: Ken Winokur of the Alloy Orchestra!

The night before, Ken's group had done their new score for 'Son of the Sheik' (1926) at the Somerville Theatre, where I was doing my program the next afternoon.

Imagine that—a commercial movie theater running separate and big silent film programs on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon! Geez, we're fortunate to have the Somerville Theatre in our area.

I was thrilled to meet Ken, who with colleagues Terry Donahue and Roger Miller has been attracting big audiences to silent films for many years now.

(How big? I understand they had 600 people at the Somerville on Saturday night, way more than what we get for the Sunday afternoon shows. And at a higher ticket price, too!)

He was there to take in the Fields films, which he said he hadn't seen before. Turns out he lives not far from the Somerville, so I guess it was only a matter of time before our paths crossed.

Ken was a pleasure to talk to. We shared a few thoughts about synthesizers and how much gear Alloy has to move in and out of theaters. But that's about all we had time for before the lights went down.

And yes, knowing that a silent film music guy of Ken's stature is in the audience is enough to make me a little self-conscious when sitting down at the keyboard.

But I think of it as good experience in pushing myself into that "silent film accompaniment" zone, where the film takes over and I find I stop being nervous no matter who's in the room.

Luckily, that happened pretty quickly yesterday afternoon with 'Sally of the Sawdust.' And Ken sent me a note this morning with some nice comments about the music. Thanks, Ken!

I first heard Alloy back in the mid-1990s when they did music for Keaton's 'Steamboat Bill Jr.' (1928) at the Portsmouth (N.H.) Music Hall.

This was before I was doing accompaniment. But at the time, it made a huge impression, and it helped steer me back into the field. (I had collected vintage film way back as a teenager, but had moved on to other interests after college. Besides the opposite sex, that is.)

Later, I went to a couple of programs Alloy did in Northhampton, Mass. One of my best memories from that time was taking a retired (and recently widowed) newspaper colleague in his 80s down there for a screening of Harold Lloyd's 'Speedy' (1928), which he remembered seeing as a boy. Alloy did a magnificent job, and it was a great night!

Over the years, Winokur's group has drawn criticism from some film buffs who don't favor Alloy's approach to scoring silents.

That's unfortunate, as I feel there's room for a lot of different approaches. And in many cases, new music is what brings many first-timers to a silent film screening.

In my case, I like to think Winokur and his colleagues helped "loosen my ears" regarding silent film music. They helped me understand the value of coming up with new (and not necessarily period authentic) music to help bring these timeless works of art alive for contemporary audiences.

Yes, there are some very talented musicians who specialize in recreating the musical cues played when the films were first released. And there's tremendous value in that, too.

But there's also a lot to be said for creating new music that connects with people and, again, helps bring other audiences into the silent film tent.

That's what Alloy has been doing for the past quarter century, and I hope they continue for a long time to come.

After all, the chance for each era to create new music for these movies is one of the great glories of the silent film art—one that will help keep interest strong, and these films before the public, as years and decades continue to pass, I think.

If you're interested in learning more about the Alloy Orchestra, check out their Web site. They tour all over the country, and even internationally, so at some point there should be a show near you.

Next up for me is a presentation to the New Hampshire Creative Club this Wednesday, and then a screening of 'Tarzan and the Golden Lion' (1927), one of the best surviving Tarzan silents, on Thursday, March 12 at the Flying Monkey Moviehouse and Performance Center in Plymouth, N.H. More on that in a separate post.

A Sunday afternoon screening of 'Grandma's Boy' (1922) follows at the Townsend (Mass.) Public Library, and then it's off to the last-ever Cinefest gathering in Syracuse, N.Y., where I'll be one of eight accompanists on hand for this four-day event.

Having that many accompanists in one place has gotta be some kind of a record. Perhaps we'll play musical chairs!