This weekend: 'Sunrise' in Newport on Saturday, then 'Algol' at 50th annual Boston Sci-Fi Marathon

Emil Jannings as would-be world ruler Robert Herne in 'Algol' (1920).

It's a rare chance to see 'Sunrise' (1927) in the late afternoon.

That's because I'll accompany the Academy Award-winning silent drama on Saturday, Feb. 15 at 4:30 p.m. at the Jane Pickens Theatre in downtown Newport, R.I. 

More info about the film and the screening is in the press release pasted in below.

And the next day brings one of my most unusual gigs: the annual Boston Sci Fi Marathon, which starts on Sunday, Feb. 16 at noon and runs straight through to Monday, Feb. 17 at noon.

I'll be there to accompany 'Algol: Tragedy of Power' (1920), a bizarre German film thought lost for decades until it was rediscovered in recent years and is now available for viewing.

'Algol' is being shown late Sunday afternoon: not sure of the exact time as that depends on how far behind (or ahead) the marathon is running. 

It's the 50th year of this event, which I've appeared at several times before and it's always a hoot. There's no better audience for silent film that a theater fill of insomniac sci-fi fans.

Alas, tickets aren't available for individual films during the marathon, which is a $100 all-or-nothing proposition. But the line-up includes LOTS of great titles, and there's nothing like seeing them in this kind of communal environment.

Interested? Below are links, although I notice the online ticket portal incorrectly says the marathon starts at Sunday, Feb. 16 at 7 p.m. It really starts at noon—and there's also a pre-show scene of people lining up in front of the Somerville before doors open to get first dibs on favorite seats.

Boston Sci-Fi Marathon line-up

Tickets for Boston Sci-Fi Marathon

*     *     *

An original poster for 'Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans' (1927).
 

MONDAY, JAN. 20, 2025 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com

Academy Award-winning drama 'Sunrise' to screen on Saturday, Feb. 15 at Newport's Jane Pickens Theatre

Silent film won three honors at first-ever Academy Awards, including 'Best Actress' for Janet Gaynor; show features live musical accompaniment

NEWPORT, R.I.—Silent film on the big screen with live music returns to the Jane Pickens Theatre with the Academy Award-winning romantic drama 'Sunrise' (1927) on Saturday, Feb. 15 at 4:30 p.m.

The screening of 'Sunrise,' starring Janet Gaynor and George O'Brien, will take place at the Jane Pickens Film and Event Center, 49 Touro St. in historic downtown Newport.

Admission is $17 per person. Tickets available online at https://janepickens.com or at the door.

The screening will feature live music by Jeff Rapsis, the Jane Pickens Theatre's silent film accompanist.

Gaynor, a popular female star of the silent film era, won the first-ever Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in 'Sunrise.' The movie took top honors in cinematography and was also recognized for "Unique and Artistic Production" at the inaugural awards.

'Sunrise' tells the story of a young country couple (played by Gaynor and O'Brien) whose marriage is threatened by the presence of a woman from the city (Margaret Livingston) who convinces the man to abandon his wife. Will the young husband go through with a plan to kill his wife? Will true love overcome the obstacles of temptation and the promise of short-term pleasure?

George O'Brien and Margaret Livingston in a scene from 'Sunrise' (1927).

'Sunrise' was directed by F. W. Murnau, a German filmmaker and one of the leading figures in German Expressionism, a style that uses distorted art design for symbolic effect. 'Sunrise' was made when Murnau was invited by studio chief William Fox to make a film in Hollywood.

The resulting movie features enormous stylized sets that create an exaggerated, fairy-tale world. The city street set alone reportedly cost over $200,000 to build, a huge sum at the time. Much of the exterior shooting was done at Lake Arrowhead, Calif.

Full of cinematic innovations, the groundbreaking cinematography (by Charles Rosher and Karl Struss) featured moving cameras and impressive tracking shots. Titles appear sparingly, with long sequences of pure action and most of the story told in Murnau's signature visual style. The extensive use of forced perspective is striking, particularly in a shot of the city with normal-sized people and sets in the foreground and smaller figures in the background by much smaller sets.

The story of 'Sunrise' is told as a visual allegory with few specific details. The characters have no names, and the setting is not named in order to make the tale more universal and symbolic.

Janet Gaynor and George O'Brien in a scene from 'Sunrise' (1927).

With a full title of 'Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans,' the film is regarded as one of the high points of the silent cinema. In 1988, it was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry of the U.S. Library of Congress for films that are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." The Sight and Sound poll of 2012 for the British Film Institute named 'Sunrise' the fifth-best film in the history of motion pictures by critics, and 22nd by directors.

Critics continue to hail 'Sunrise' as one of the best films of all time.

"F.W. Murnau's 'Sunrise' conquered time and gravity with a freedom that was startling to its first audiences," wrote Roger Ebert in 2004. "To see it today is to be astonished by the boldness of its visual experimentation.

Rapsis, who uses original themes to improvise silent film scores, said great silent film dramas such as 'Sunrise' used their lack of dialogue to create stories that concentrated 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 — with a live audience and live music.

"Dramas such as 'Sunrise' were created to be shown on the big screen as a communal experience," Rapsis said. "With an audience and live music, they come to life as their creators intended them to. So the screenings at Newport's Jane Pickens Theatre are a great chance to experience films that first caused people to fall in love with the movies," he said.

'Sunrise' will be shown with live music on Saturday, Feb. 15 at 4:30 p.m. at the Jane Pickens Film and Event Center, 49 Touro St. in historic downtown Newport.

Admission is $17 per person. Tickets available online at https://janepickens.com or at the door. 

 Janet Gaynor and George O'Brien in 'Sunrise' (1927).

Changed date for 'The Strong Man' this weekend; classic comedy now showing on Saturday, Feb. 8, plus Boston Globe coverage of 'The Flying Ace'

Harry Langdon in 'The Strong Man' (1926), now showing on Saturday, Feb. 8 at the Town Hall Theater in Wilton, N.H.

Alert! This weekend's screening of 'The Strong Man' (1926) at the Town Hall Theatre in Wilton, N.H. has been changed to Saturday, Feb. 8 at 2 p.m.

Let's get fancy and paste in some JavaScript to create blinking text, like it's 1999 all over again.

'THE STRONG MAN' RESCHEDULED TO SATURDAY, FEB. 8!

Originally scheduled for Sunday, Feb. 9, the screening had to be moved a day earlier. So if you'd like to see what's widely regarded as Harry Langdon's best feature film, come on Saturday, Feb. 8.

More details about the film and the show are in the press release pasted in below. 

Before that, however, I need to thank Boston Globe film critic Odie Henderson for a terrific preview of last Sunday's screening of 'The Flying Ace' at the Somerville Theatre, and also for a follow-up essay published this past Wednesday.

It's rare these days for what's left of local media to devote resources to covering cinema. And it's rarer still for anyone to pay attention to vintage film. 

But Odie, who's been the Globe's film writer and critic for a few years now, took an interest in 'The Flying Ace,' writing about the film both before and after the screening.

Check out his preview, which ran on the front of the Globe's Weekend section:

The results of this kind of attention can be gratifying. Nearly 200 people turned out for the matinee screening, which took place on Sunday, Feb. 2 in the Somerville's main theatre. 

In introducing 'The Flying Ace,' I asked how many people had seen Odie's piece in the Globe? Nearly every hand shot up! (A lot of people also had seen coverage on the website of WBUR, a Boston-area NPR station.)

Odie attended the screening, and wrote a follow-up about the experience that included some kind words about my accompaniment:

"As Rapsis played the final notes of his outstanding, boisterous, and improvised accompaniment, I realized just how well his score complemented the film."

Thanks, Odie! Your work helped this film and our screening reach a lot more people that it otherwise might have.

*    *    *

Harry Langdon finds himself over a barrel in 'The Strong Man' (1926).

MONDAY, JAN. 27, 2025 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com

Frank Capra's very first movie highlights Town Hall Theatre silent film program on Saturday, Feb. 8

Screening features Harry Langdon's classic comedy 'The Strong Man' shown with live music; fun family activity suitable for all ages

WILTON, N.H. — Silent film with live music returns to the Town Hall Theatre in February with the showing of an uproarious comedy starring Harry Langdon.

The screening of 'The Strong Man' on Saturday, Feb. 8 at 2 p.m., gives families a chance to enjoy a fun activity suitable for all ages. The Town Hall Theatre is located at 40 Main St., Wilton, N.H.

Admission is free; donations are accepted, with $10 per person suggested to defray expenses.

Due to scheduling requirements, the screening date differs from the Town Hall Theatre's usual Sunday afternoon silent film time slot.

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

Directing 'The Strong Man' was young first-timer 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).

'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 country, 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 Harry 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' 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."

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."

A trade ad promoting the release of Harry Langdon's 'The Strong Man' (1926).

'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 communal experience," Rapsis said. "With an audience and live music, they still come to life in the way their makers intended them to.

"The silent film screenings at the Town Hall Theatre are a great chance for people to experience films that first caused people to first fall in love with the movies," he said.

Frank Capra's 'The Strong Man' will be screened with live music on Saturday, Feb. 8 at 2 p.m. at the Town Hall Theatre, 40 Main St., Wilton, N.H. 

Admission is free; donations are accepted, with $10 per person suggested to defray expenses. For more information, call the theater at (603) 654-3456.

 

Harry Langdon encounters the mysteries of the opposite sex in 'The Strong Man' (1926).
 

This weekend: 'Battling Butler' in Campton, N.H., then 'The Flying Ace' in Somerville, Mass.

The front page of this week's 'Weekend' section of the Boston Globe.

Our planned screening of 'The Flying Ace' (1926) on Sunday, Feb. 2 at the Somerville Theatre has generated significant interest from Boston media.

On Friday, the Boston Globe made it the cover story of their Weekend Section, with a preview by critic Odie Henderson going in-depth about the film as well as the live music I'll be doing.

(The screening is at 2 p.m at the Somerville Theatre, 55 Davis Square, Somerville.; a press release with more info is pasted in below.)

On the same day, WBUR (a big-time NPR station in Boston) ran a substantial story by reporter Amelia Mason about the cultural climate that produced "race" films such as 'The Flying Ace,' which was intended for segregated cinemas of the era.

Here's a link to the Boston Globe piece. And here's the WBUR story.

I'm grateful to both journalists for their interest in the film as well as my work, and to their respective media outlets for the willingness to devote resources to covering this corner of Boston's cultural scene. Thank you!

And thank you (in advance) to all for making the trek to the Somerville to see this picture the way it was intended: on the big screen, in a great-looking print, with live music, and (most importantly) with an audience.

The main difference this time is that the audience, unlike when the film was originally released, will likely include some non-Black film-goers. I think that's a good thing—and I believe the people who produced 'The Flying Ace' nearly 100 years ago would agree. 

Prior to this, I'm heading north this afternoon for one of my favorite gigs of the season: the Campton (N.H.) Historical Society's Annual Pot Luck Supper and Silent Movie Night.

This year's attraction: Buster Keaton's boxing comedy 'Battling Butler' (1926), preceded by a communal supper made up of dishes that everyone brings in. (That's the actual admission price: something for the pot luck.)

Buster Keaton trains in the boxing ring; from 'Battling Butler' (1926).

If you're in the vicinity and want to join in, everyone's welcome. Supper begins at 5 p.m.; the film program usually starts by 6:30 p.m. or so. It's at the Campton Town Historical Society, Route 149 in Campton, N.H. Bring a dish—and your appetite!

*     *     *

Original trade advertisement for 'The Flying Ace' (1926).

MONDAY, JAN. 27, 2025 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com

Honoring Black History Month

Somerville Theatre to screen rare vintage crime thriller with all-Black cast

'The Flying Ace' (1926), added to U.S. National Film Registry, to be shown with live music on Sunday, Feb. 2

SOMERVILLE, Mass. — Can discrimination exist in an America where everyone is Black?

That's among the questions posted by 'The Flying Ace' (1926), a rare surviving example of movies produced early in the 20th century for Black audiences in segregated cinemas.

'The Flying Ace,' named to the U.S. National Film Registry in 2021, will be screened in honor of Black History Month on Sunday, Feb. 2 at 2 p.m. at the Somerville Theatre, 55 Davis Square, Somerville, Mass.

Admission $17 adults; $13 members; $12 seniors/children. Tickets are available at somervilletheatre.com or at the door. 

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

'The Flying Ace' was produced by Norman Studios in Jacksonville, Fla., using professionals such as Laurence Criner, a veteran of Harlem’s prestigious all-black theater troupe the Lafayette Players, but also many non-professionals for minor roles.

In 'The Flying Ace,' Criner plays Capt. Billy Stokes, a World War I fighter pilot known as "The Flying Ace" because of his downing of seven enemy aircraft in France.

Returning home to resume his former job as a railroad detective, he's assigned to locate a stationmaster who's gone missing along with the $25,000 company payroll.

While investigating, Stokes begins romancing the stationmaster's daughter Ruth (Kathryn Boyd), causing a rivalry with another suitor which leads to a break in the case.

With Ruth's safety now at risk, Stokes' dogged pursuit of the suspects leads to climax highlighted by a dramatic airborne chase which calls upon his piloting prowess.

Films such as 'The Flying Ace' were shown specifically to African-American audiences in areas of the U.S. where theaters were segregated.

Norman Studios was among the nation's top film production companies making feature length and short films for this market from the 1920s to the 1940s.

Featuring all-Black casts in stories meant to inspire and uplift, such films were popular with African-American audiences at the time. In Norman Studios films, the stories often took place in a world without the racial barriers that existed at the time.

In 'The Flying Ace,' Capt. Stokes is a pilot returning home from serving honorably in World War I—but Blacks were not allowed to fly aircraft in the U.S. military until 1940.

In an essay for the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, critic Megan Pugh wrote that Capt. Billy Stokes "...is a model for the ideals of racial uplift, fulfilling aspirations that Black Americans were not yet allowed to achieve."

"At a time when Hollywood employed white actors in blackface to play shuffling servants and mammies, the Norman Film Manufacturing Company...hired all-black casts to play dignified roles."

 

Kathryn Boyd and Laurence Criner star in 'The Flying Ace' (1926).
 
"Instead of tackling discrimination head-on in his films, Norman created a kind of segregated dream world where whites—and consequently, racism—didn’t even exist," Pugh wrote.

"While it’s impossible to measure the influence The Flying Ace had on its viewers, it is reasonable to assume that audiences found its lead character inspirational. Billy Stokes was a black male hero who would have never made it onscreen in a Hollywood movie of the time," Pugh wrote.

Filmed in the Arlington area of Jacksonville, Fla., 'The Flying Ace' is a unique aviation melodrama in that no airplanes actually leave the ground. The mid-air scenes were filmed in a studio in front of neutral backdrops.

Although 'The Flying Ace' may appear crudely made to modern audiences, in 2021 the movie was named to the U.S. National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

Of films produced for Black-only audiences in segregated theaters, very few survive. 'The Flying Ace' is unusual in that it survives complete, and in pristine condition. The film was included in 'Pioneers of African American Cinema," a DVD collection released in 2016 by Kino-Lorber.

A live musical score for 'The Flying Ace' will be created by accompanist Jeff Rapsis, a New Hampshire-based performer who specializes in music for silent film presentations.

Rapsis said the Red River screening is a rare chance to see the film as it was meant to be experienced—on the big screen, with live music, and with an audience.

'The Flying Ace' (1926), a silent crime melodrama with an all-Black cast, will be shown in honor of Black History Month on Sunday, Feb. 2 at 2 p.m. at the Somerville Theatre, 55 Davis Square, Somerville, Mass.

Admission $17 adults; $13 members; $12 seniors/children. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.somervilletheatre.com or call the box office at (617) 625-5700.