Thursday, June 27: 'The Last Command'; film won Emil Jannings first-ever 'Best Actor'

Emil Jannings dominates a poster for 'The Last Command' (1928).

June may no longer be busting, but it sure is just about all over.

And what a month! Too much going on these days to find time to keep up with posting basic info about silent film screenings.

But then again, I've started a more methodical approach in sending out press materials, and it seems to be paying off.

Example: getting press materials out well ahead, and resending them at the beginning of each week, resulted in full-page play in some of the local newspapers promoting a screening of 'Metropolis' last Sunday afternoon.

And that paid off with perhaps the biggest turn-out ever for the monthly silent film series at the Town Hall Theater in Wilton, N.H. We had well over 100 people!

But it's time to get the blog back in action, starting with info about this weekend's screenings, which take me from a seaside Maine vacation resort out to the San Francisco Bay area and then back to gritty urban Somerville, Mass.

I feel like a boomerang!

First up: Emil Jannings in 'The Last Command' (1928) on Thursday, June 27 at 7 p.m. at the historic Leavitt Theater in Ogunquit, Maine. (More details below in the press release.)

Then it's out to San Francisco to accompany Chaplin's 'Shoulder Arms' (1918) on Friday, June 28 at 7:30 p.m. It's all part of this year's "Charlie Chaplin Days" celebration at the Niles Essenay Silent Film Museum in Niles, Calif.

How strange to play a full program in Maine on Thursday night, and then another out in northern California. What an age we live in!

And then, it's BACK TO BOSTON, just like Buster Keaton as Willie Canfield, Jr., in 'Steamboat Bill Jr.,' although for me it's to accompany not Buster but Harold Lloyd. Thus: on Sunday, June 30 at 7:30 p.m., it's 'Safety Last' (1923) at the Aeronaut Brewing Co. in Somerville, Mass.

More on that later this week.

For now, here's the press release all about 'The Last Command' (1928), which helped Emil Jannings win the first-ever Best Actor award. Hope to see you Thursday night in Maine!

* * *

The lovely Evelyn Brent is romanced by the lovely-on-the-inside Emil Jannings.

TUESDAY, JUNE 18, 2019 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com

Silent epic 'The Last Command' with live music at Leavitt Theatre on Thursday, June 27

Russian Revolution picture from 1928 won 'Best Actor' for Emil Jannings at first-ever Academy Awards

OGUNQUIT, Maine—'The Last Command' (1928), a silent film drama that won Emil Jannings 'Best Actor' honors at the first-ever Academy Awards, will be screened with live music on Thursday, June 27 at 7 p.m. at the historic Leavitt Fine Arts Theatre, 259 Main St., Route 1 in Ogunquit, Maine.

Admission is $10 per person. The Leavitt's in-theatre lounge will be open for drinks and dining at 6 p.m., and will remain open after the movie.

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

'The Last Command,' directed by Josef von Sternberg, tells the sweeping story of a powerful general in Czarist Russia (Jannings) forced to flee his homeland during the Bolshevik Revolution. He emigrates to America, where he is reduced to living in poverty.

Finding work as an extra at a Hollywood studio, the former general lands the part of a commanding officer in a movie about the Revolution, causing flashbacks to his traumatic experiences. The conflict leads to a spectacular climax and a towering performance that earned Jannings 'Best Actor' honors.

The film takes audiences on a journey through big emotions as well as issues of history, time, power, and especially a man's duty to his country and to his fellow citizens—and what happens when the two obligations diverge.

'The Last Command' is also one of early Hollywood's most creative and challenging looks at the global conflicts that contributed to World War I.

The film also stars a young William Powell as a Hollywood movie director who crosses paths with the general during the Revolution, and 1920s starlet Evelyn Brent as a seductive Russian revolutionary.

Rapsis, the accompanist, will create the film's score live as the movie is shown by improvising music based on original melodies created beforehand.

"Making up the music on the spot is kind of a high wire act," Rapsis said. "But there's nothing like the energy and excitement that comes with improvised live performance, especially when accompanying a silent film."

Rapsis accompanies films using a digital synthesizer to recreate the texture of a full orchestra.

Critic Leonard Maltin hailed 'The Last Command' as "a stunning silent drama...a fascinating story laced with keen observations of life and work in Hollywood." Time Out of London called it "the first Sternberg masterpiece, expertly poised between satire and 'absurd' melodrama. The cast are fully equal to it; Jannings, in particular, turns the characteristic role of the general into an indelible portrait of arrogance, fervour and dementia."

Director Sternberg, a master of lighting and black-and-white photography, created 'The Last Command' as a visual tour de force. The film is often cited as a prime example of the emotional range and visual accomplishment of silent films at their height, just prior to the coming of pictures with recorded soundtracks.

Rapsis said great silent film dramas such as 'The Last Command' told stories that concentrate on the "big" emotions such as Love, Despair, Anger, and Joy. Because of this, audiences continue to respond to them in the 21st century, especially if they're presented as intended—in a theater on the big screen, with a live audience and live music.

"Dramas such as 'The Last Command' were created to be consumed as a communal experience," Rapsis said. "With an audience and live music, they come to life as their creators intended them to. This screening at the Leavitt is a great chance to experience films that first caused people to fall in love with the movies."

After 'The Last Command' on Thursday, June 27 at 7 p.m., other programs in this year's Leavitt silent film series include:

• Wednesday, July 17, 7 p.m.: 'Woman in the Moon' (1929). In honor of the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11, Fritz Lang's epic sci-fi adventure film about mankind's first-ever journey to the moon. See the German space program that never was! (Note Wednesday night screening date.)

• Thursday, Aug. 15, 7 p.m.: 'Paths to Paradise' (1925). Two competing would-be jewel thieves reluctantly team up to pull off a major heist. Starring Raymond Griffith, a leading comedian for Paramount Pictures whose popularity rivaled Chaplin and Keaton in the 1920s,

• Thursday, Aug. 29, 7 p.m.: 'The Beloved Rogue' (1926) starring John Barrymore. Epic costume adventure based on the life of the 15th century French poet, François Villon. Wrongly banished from the Royal Court and sentenced to death, can the patriotic poet save France from an evil plot?

• Saturday, Oct. 26, 7 p.m.: 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame' (1923) starring Lon Chaney. Just in time for Halloween, our annual "Chiller Theatre" presentation! Lon Chaney stars in the original screen adaptation of Victor Hugo's classic novel about a deformed bellringer in medieval Paris.

'The Last Command' (1928) will be screened with live music on Thursday, June 27 at 7 p.m. at the Leavitt Fine Arts Theatre, 259 Main St. Route 1, Ogunquit, Maine; (207) 646-3123; admission is $10 per person, general seating. For more information, visit www.leavittheatre.com. For more info on the music, visit www.jeffrapsis.com.

Artist at Work: Charlie Chaplin in 35mm on Sunday, Aug. 10 at Somerville Theatre

Chaplin, here with co-star 'Scraps,' amps up the poverty in 'A Dog's Life' (1918).

This weekend finds me doing music for Charlie Chaplin on the big screen of the Somerville Theatre's main theater.

The show, consisting of the first four of Chaplin's comedies released by First National, is on Sunday, Aug. 10 at 2 p.m.

Of course you don't need a specific reason to show Chaplin. But if one was required, the year 2014 marks the 100th anniversary of Chaplin's entry into the movies, and also the 100th birthday of his iconic 'Tramp' character.

So there! Happy birthday, Charlie Chaplin. Maybe someone should bring a cake.

Coincidentally, the Somerville Theater opened 100 years ago this year. So lots of centennials to go around.

And here's another: one film on the program is Chaplin's 'Shoulder Arms' (1918), a daring comedy set in part in the trenches of World War I, which began 100 years ago this summer.

Because of all this, we're charging a fee of $100 a ticket. No, wait—the Somerville management has just informed me that ticket prices will remain at the usual $15 per person.

About the films: besides 'Shoulder Arms,' we're also screening 'A Dog's Life' (1918), 'Sunnyside' (1919), and 'A Day's Pleasure' (1919).

I'm told the 35mm prints the theater received are virtually brand new (struck in 2010) and have excellent black & white density, so what's on the screen promises to be just about as good as what audiences saw nearly a century ago.

The films themselves are interesting in that they show Chaplin trying at a turning point in his growth as a filmmaker.

In just four years, Chaplin had gone from unknown newbie to the funniest man in the world. Really!

What to do next? Chaplin could keep cranking out the funny short comedies, but somehow that wasn't enough.

And so, starting with the films he made for release by First National in 1918, he began searching for something richer, more complex—different.

As outlined in Walter Kerr's great book 'The Silent Clowns,' Chaplin began to take his 'Tramp' character in new and challenging directions, testing his behavior in various situations.

And sure enough, each of the four films on Sunday's program show Chaplin exploring different paths and new ideas, pushing boundaries and stretching possibilities.

In 'A Dog's Life,' he amps up the realism and adds a dose of pathos: the Tramp is depicted as genuinely penniless, and in a menacing world that looks like it was designed by Charles Dickens.

'Shoulder Arms' tries to find comedy in current events—in this case, the notably unfunny topic of World War I, still raging when Chaplin started the film. (It was released as the fighting was dying down in late 1918, and became a smash hit.)

'Sunnyside' (1919), set in an idyllic rural landscape, finds Chaplin exploring pastoral fantasy, in the form of an extended ballet sequence.

And 'A Day's Pleasure' (1919) returns to the knockabout style of his earlier comedies, although Chaplin is now saddled with a wife and two kids.

W.C. Fields once referred to Chaplin as a "god-damned ballet dancer." A scene from 'Sunnyside' (1919) might be one reason why.

Four films, four very different directions. Yes, they're all funny. But beyond the laughs, what was Chaplin up to?

We can't know for sure, but I think Chaplin answered this question in the film he made right after these four comedies: 'The Kid' (1920), his first full-length feature.

A feature film demands things that a short comedy doesn't. It demands a solid story. It demands characters rather than caricatures. It demands planning and pacing and depth.

In his first four First National comedies, Chaplin was pushing himself into new places to test his character in different environments. In effect, he was laying the groundwork for 'The Kid' and the other features that would be his crowning achievements.

The process that got him there is clearly visible, I think, in the quartet of comedies we're screening this Sunday at the Somerville. If we needed a slogan for the show, it might be this: ARTIST AT WORK: CHAPLIN'S FIRST FOUR FOR FIRST NATIONAL.

But then I see this contains a weird internal palindrome: FIRST FOUR FOR FIRST. That's bad karma, and confusing, too.

So let's just say it's a program worth catching if you're anywhere within traveling distance of Davis Square in Somerville, Mass. on Sunday, Aug. 10.

And don't pay any attention to the weather, which is supposed to be gorgeous. We've had way too much great weather all summer long in our part of the world, so you won't be missing anything.

And besides, how many chances do you think you'll get to see some of Chaplin's best work on the big screen in 35mm with live music and an audience?

See you there!