It's a silent film kinda weekend, with a double feature on Saturday, July 22 to help the Strand Theatre in Rockland, Maine celebrate its 100th birthday, and then on Sunday, July 23 one of Harold Lloyd's best pictures at the TCAN Center for the Arts in Natick, Mass.
The Lloyd picture is 'The Kid Brother' (1927), which will be screened on Sunday at 4 p.m. in Natick. Lots more info in the press release below. I hope you'll join us to experience this extraordinary motion picture as it was intended—on the big screen, with live music, and with an audience!
With the program at the Strand, I don't have a press release to share, as it was put together only very recently. But still, it should be a hoot, especially as the theater is charging just 25 cents admission as a throwback ticket price in honor of its centennial.
The key to all this coming about is Maine resident Ed Lorusso, a film buff who in recent years has organized Kickstarter campaigns to get hard-to-view motion pictures transferred to digital media so that contemporary audiences can enjoy them.
Ed, a Marion Davies fan, has been responsible for more than a few Davies titles getting transferred and making them available to the public via DVD or Blu-ray. One of those is Marion's 1923 hit 'Little Old New York,' for which Ed worked with a 35mm nitrate print held by the U.S. Library of Congress.
When Ed discovered that 'Little Old New York' played at the Strand in its original release, and that the Strand was marking its centennial this summer—well, the opportunity to run the film again as part of the celebrations was just too good to pass up.
Ed contacted the folks at the Strand, making a case for screening the film with live music. And that's where I came in. When the dust settled, the Strand decided to show not one but TWO pictures from 1923 as part of "Silent Movie Day," which was scheduled for Saturday, July 22.
First up at 2 p.m. is Buster Keaton's 'Our Hospitality' (1923), followed at 4:30 p.m. by Marion Davies in 'Little Old New York.' As mentioned above, admission is 25 cents per person.
I notice that the weather forecast calls for a slight chance of rain this Saturday. However, there's a 100 percent chance of great cinema at the Strand. Hope you'll join us for one or both pictures, which were among 1923's top box office champions.
And the next day, it's Harold Lloyd in 'The Kid Brother' (1927) in Natick, Mass. Below is the press release with lots more info. See you there!
* * *
TUESDAY, JUNE 20, 2023 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com
Natick Center for the Arts to screen 'The Kid Brother' on Sunday, July 23
Harold Lloyd's 1927 comedy masterpiece the latest in venue's series of silent films with live accompaniment
NATICK,
Mass.—He was the most popular film star of the 1920s, routinely
outpacing comic rivals Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton at the box
office.
He was Harold Lloyd, the boy next door who could wind up
hanging from the hands of a clock high atop a skyscraper. Audiences
loved Lloyd's mix of visual comedy and thrilling adventures, making him
one of the most recognized icons of early Hollywood.
See for
yourself when 'The Kid Brother' (1927), a feature-length film regarded
as Lloyd's masterpiece, is screened on Sunday, July 23 at 4 p.m.
at TCAN Center for the Arts, 14 Summer St., Natick, Mass.
The screening, the latest in the Center for the Art's silent
film series, will feature live accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis, a New
Hampshire-based composer who specializes in creating music for silent
films.
Admission is $10 per person for members; $12 for non-members. Tickets are available online at www.natickarts.org or at the door.
From that simple situation, Lloyd weaves a roller coaster of a tale that critics and film historians say show him at the height of his powers as a filmmaker and comedian.
"The first silent film I ever saw that made me actually stand up and cheer," wrote critic Steven D. Greydanus of The Decent Films Guide. "As a first introduction to silent film, I would pick 'The Kid Brother' over the best of Chaplin or Keaton every time."
"Unlike Chaplin’s Little Tramp, who was as much defined by his bizarre eccentricities as his bowler and cane, Lloyd’s character, with his trademark spectacles, was an instantly likable, sympathetic boy-next-door type, a figure as winsome and approachable as Jimmy Stewart or Tom Hanks," Greydanus wrote.
The film co-stars Jobyna Ralston, Walter James, Eddie Boland, and Constantine Romanoff.
Harold Lloyd, along with Chaplin and Keaton, stands as one of the three masters of silent comedy. Though Lloyd's reputation later faded due to unavailability of his movies, the recent re-release of most of his major films on home media has spurred a reawakening of interest in his work and a renewed interest in theatrical screenings.
"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 the film.
"Films such as 'The Kid Brother' were designed for a specific environment. If you can put those conditions together again, you can get a sense of why people first fell in love with the movies," Rapsis said.
'The Kid Brother' will be screened with live music on Sunday, July 23 at 4 p.m. at TCAN Center for the Arts, 14 Summer St., Natick, Mass.
Admission is $10 per person for members; $12 for non-members. Tickets are available online at www.natickarts.org or at the door.
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