Welcome to the holiday preview edition of this blog, in which I try to catch up after several weeks of being just too busy to update it.
First, the big news is that the glamorous showbiz life of a silent film accompanist will take me to Cleveland, Ohio for a pair of screenings in January.
That's right! On Saturday, Jan. 17, I'll accompany the recently restored 'Algol: A Tragedy of Power' (1920) at the 51st Annual Sci-Fi Marathon, staged each year by the Case Western Reserve University Film Society.
Then, on Sunday, Jan. 18, I'll do music at the Cleveland Cinematheque, where they're screening a 35mm print of 'So's Your Old Man' (1926) starring a silent W.C. Fields.
I encourage my fans in the area to check out both these events. I'm sure we can accommodate all two or three of you. More details of the "Cleveland Mid-Winter Lake Effect Silent Film Victory Tour" (get your T-shirts now!) can be found on my Upcoming Silent Film Screenings page.
Also, while I'm in Cleveland, I encourage everyone to join me on Saturday, Jan. 17 for an early dinner at 'L'Albatros Brasserie,' my favorite restaurant in the entire Great Lakes basin. It's the not-so-secret reason I'm really making the trip to Cleveland in the dead of winter.
Not sure of the time but seriously, if anyone would like to join in, email me at jeffrapsis@gmail.com and we'll make it happen.
But before any of that, December brings a bouquet (can you tell I'm already thinking of spring?) of silent film screenings closer to home:
• On Sunday, Dec. 7 (hey, that's today!) at 4 p.m., I'll accompany 'The Man Who Laughs' (1928) at the Natick Center for the Arts in Natick, Mass. More details about that screening are in the press release pasted in below.
• On Tuesday, Dec. 9 at 7 p.m., I'll do music for a screening of Buster Keaton's great comedy/drama 'Our Hospitality' (1923) at the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline, Mass.
• And on Sunday, Dec. 14 at 2 p.m. it's a holiday-themed program featuring Mary Pickford's 'Tess of the Storm Country' (1922) at the Town Hall Theatre in Wilton, N.H.
Hope you'll be able to make a silent film screening with live music part of your holiday season.
Okay, details of 'The Man Who Laughs' (1928) below. Happy holidays, and to all a 'Silent Night'!
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MONDAY, DEC. 1, 2025 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com
'The Man Who Laughs' (1928) to screen with live music on Sunday, Dec. 7 in Natick, Mass.
NATICK, Mass. — Based on a Victor Hugo novel, it paved the way for early horror classics such as 'Dracula' (1931) and 'Frankenstein' (1931).
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 $12 per person for members; $14 for non-members. Tickets are available online at www.natickarts.org or at the door.
'The Man Who Laughs,' directed by Paul Leni and starring Conrad Veidt, is a silent thriller about a disfigured man forced to wear an insane grin all his life.
The movie was a popular and ground-breaking silent film adaptation of a sprawling Victor Hugo novel set in 17th century England.
Veidt stars as Gwynplaine, a child born of English nobility. After his father is executed, a cruel King James II orders a royal surgeon to hideously disfigure young Gwynplaine's face into a permanent smile, so that he may always laugh at his father's foolishness.
Abandoned and shunned, young Gwynplaine is left to make his way on his own. He learns to conceal his face from strangers, befriending Dea, a blind girl who is not aware of his disfigurement.
The pair are then adopted and put to work by a traveling impresario, who makes use of Gwynplaine's startling face in his theatrical productions.
Gwynplaine and Dea grow to adulthood and eventually fall in love, but complications arise when Gwynplaine's noble lineage is revealed, entitling him to his father's estate—provided he marry another woman of noble birth.
Veidt, who starred earlier in the German expressionist horror classic 'The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari' (1919), played the role of Gwynplaine by using a prosthetic device inside his mouth to force his face into a hideous grin and display outsized teeth.
This striking look was later adapted by Batman creator Bob Kane as a model for the physical appearance of iconic villain 'The Joker.'
Critics have praised 'The Man Who Laughs' for its dark visual style and daring story content.
"'The Man Who Laughs' is a melodrama, at times even a swashbuckler, but so steeped in Expressionist gloom that it plays like a horror film," wrote Roger Ebert in 2004. "The film is more disturbing than it might have been because of Leni's mastery of visual style."
Director Leni, originally trained as an artist, made ample use of shadows and darkness in 'The Man Who Laughs,' which set the stage for many legendary Universal horror classics soon to follow, including 'Dracula' (1931) and 'Frankenstein' (1931).
'The Man Who Laughs' (1928) will be screened with live music on Sunday, Dec. 7 at 4 p.m. at TCAN Center for the Arts, 14 Summer St., Natick, Mass.
Admission is $12 per person for members; $14 for non-members. Tickets available online at www.natickarts.org or at the door. For more info, call (508) 647-0097.
