Calling all golfers! See 'The Apple Tree Girl' (1917) on Sunday, 7/30 at Town Hall, Wilton, N.H.

A promotional still for 'The Apple Tree Girl' (1917).

Next up: on Sunday, July 30, I'll accompany 'The Apple Tree Girl' (1917), a rare surviving feature-length film from Thomas Edison's studios.

Screening is at 2 p.m. at the Town Hall Theatre in Wilton, N.H. 

It's part of our "Unknown To Be Shown" series of silent films at the Town Hall Theatre, which has been showing movies since 1912. 

But over the years, not all films have played Wilton. So the series is our attempt to catch up and ensure the local movie-going public gets a chance to see these titles on the big screen.

One thing about 'The Apple Tree Girl' is that it includes scenes of competitive golfing as practiced 116 years ago. There's Shirley Mason sporting her best plaid skirt while playing for the championship.

I've found that early films can be of interest to non-cinephiles if they show past practices in various areas of human endeavors. 

A good example is 'Speedway' (1929), an otherwise routine MGM drama that's of interest to auto buffs because it was filmed on location on the original track of the Indianapolis 500.

In 'The Apple Tree Girl,' we get scenes on the golf as it was played during World War I. In areas like thing, audiences today, all this time later, often find it interesting to not what has changed—and what hasn't.

So: calling all golfers!

More details in the press release below. Hope to see you there as we revive this 116-year-old chestnut!

*    *    *

Shirley Mason stars in 'The Apple Tree Girl' (1917) from Thomas Edison.

MONDAY, JULY 24, 2023 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com

Rare feature film, 'The Apple Tree Girl' from Thomas Edison, to screen at Town Hall Theatre

• Drama featuring forgotten star Shirley Mason to be shown on Sunday, July 30 with live music as part of 'Not Known To Be Shown' series

• Town Hall Theatre patrons contributed to recent crowd-funding effort to digitally scan sole surviving print held by U.S. Library of Congress

WILTON, N.H.—One of the last feature films produced by motion picture pioneer Thomas Edison will return to the silver screen this month for a rare revival.

'The Apple Tree Girl' (1917), a drama starring Shirley Mason, will be shown on Sunday, July 30 at 2 p.m. at the Town Hall Theatre, 40 Main St., Wilton, N.H.

Admission is free, with a suggested donation of $10. Live music will be provided by silent film accompanist Jeff Rapsis.

The screening is part of a series of early films that never played at the Wilton venue when originally released.

The 'Not Known to be Shown' series runs through October and features obscure dramas, comedies, and adventure flicks from the silent era.

"In putting together this series, we wanted to give audiences a chance to see some rarely screened titles from the first years of motion pictures," Rapsis said.

"Also, they're all movies I've never scored before," Rapsis added. "So it's also a chance to work with 'new' material, although the films themselves are about 100 years old," Rapsis said.

In 'The Apple Tree Girl,' Shirley Mason stars as Charlotte Marlin, a shy young woman who grew up on a Connecticut farm known for an apple tree known to change color.

After losing her parents, Charlotte moves in with her aunt. After experiencing unrequited love, Charlotte resolves to be liked by all, achieve fame, and marry a millionaire.

In her pursuit of fame, she takes up golf, eventually winning a prestigious tournament. But then an unexpected turn of events forces Charlotte to confront her true feelings.

The film was based on a story by George Weston published in the Ladies Home Journal.

Shirley Mason was a popular—and busy—star of early cinema; 'The Apple Tree Girl' was one of 17 films in which she appeared in 1917 alone.

'The Apple Tree Girl' was directed by Alan Crosland and shot in rural Connecticut. It co-stars Raymond McKee, Joyce Fair, Edward Coleman, and Jessie Stevens.

'The Apple Tree Girl' is notable as one of the last films produced by inventor Thomas Edison, who helped create the technology to produce and exhibit motion pictures.

Starting in 1894, the Edison company produced more than 1,200 films to feed the public's growing appetite for motion pictures.

Most Edison films were short subjects made before feature-length films became popular in the mid-1910s.

Edison tried to keep up, eventually producing 54 full-length features; 'The Apple Tree Girl' is one of only a handful that survive.

While most film production had moved to southern California by the mid-1910s, Edison's studios remained in the New York City area, where the inventor's sprawling operations were headquartered.

Critics point out that Edison's films began to lag behind the California-based competition; the inventor ceased filmmaking operations in 1918.

The sole surviving 35mm print of 'The Apple Tree Girl' is archived at the U.S. Library of Congress. A digital transfer was made in 2022 via a Kickstarter campaign to which Town Hall Theatre patrons donated.

The Kickstarter campaign was organized by film buff Edward Lorusso, a Maine resident who has coordinated the digital scanning of many one-of-a-kind film prints.

"Because of the successful Kickstarter effort, Town Hall Theatre film fans can take satisfaction that they helped get 'The Apple Tree Girl' transferred to digital media so it could once again be seen and enjoyed by all," Rapsis said.

Upcoming films in the Town Hall Theatre's 'Not Known to be Shown' series include:

• Sunday, Aug. 20, 2 p.m.: 'Beau Brummel' (1924) starring John Barrymore. Opulent silent drama about the rise and fall of the famous London gentleman, a commoner who circulates in royal circles due to his influence and sartorial prominence.

• Sunday, Aug. 27, 2 p.m.: 'The Divine Lady' (1929) starring Corrine Griffith. Frank Lloyd won the 'Best Director' Oscar for this romantic melodrama about British naval hero Horatio Nelson's romantic adventures.

• Sunday, Sept. 17, 2 p.m.: 'Eagle of the Night' (1928) starring Frank Clarke, Shirley Palmer. An inventor creates a new muffler for noisy airplane engines, but the bad guys are out to steal the breakthrough and put it to evil use.

• Sunday, Oct. 8, 2 p.m.: 'The Red Kimona' (1925). A small-town girl finds escape from her cruel home life in the arms of a handsome stranger, a situation that leads her to work as a prostitute in New Orleans.

‘The Apple Tree Girl' (1917) starring Shirley Mason will be screened on Sunday, July 30 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 help defray expenses. For more information, call (603) 654-3456.

 

This weekend: Keaton and Davies in Rockland, Maine, then Harold Lloyd in Natick, Mass.

Marion Davies (right) in 'Little Old New York' (1923).

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.

Highlighting Saturday's Strand program will be Marion Davies, whose 'Little Old New York' (1923) was screened at the Strand during its first year of operation. The film, presented in cooperation with Undercrank Productions and the Library of Congress, will be shown at 4:30 p.m. 

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.

The Strand Theatre in Rockland, Maine.

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!

*   *   *

Harold Lloyd climbs aboard in 'The Kid Brother' (1927).

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.

In 'The Kid Brother,' meek country boy Harold Hickory (Lloyd) looks up to his tough father, but is overshadowed by two burly older brothers. When a traveling circus brings trouble to town and possible disgrace to the Hickory clan, can Harold save the family name?

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. 

Jobyna Ralston and Harold Lloyd in 'The Kid Brother' (1927).

"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.

Five screenings in five days, but first: a case of 'Music' turning into 'Magic' in Campton, N.H.

The parking lot will soon be full of cars. Next month, it'll be full of mud!

This week brings an unusual happening—a rare mid-winter stretch of five straight days of silent film screenings in venues across three states.

It's like I'll be in training for the Kansas Silent Film Festival, which is coming up at the end of this month.

But before we look forward, let's look back with a report on last night's showing of 'Straight is the Way' (1921) at the Campton N.H. Historical Society. 

This "Silent Movie Night" screening, which has become an annual event, is highlighted by the community pot luck supper that always precedes it, and this year was no exception.

However, this time we enjoyed a truly special added attraction: an hour's worth of music from young people who are part of the Fiddlehead Field Orchestra. A pot luck supper accompanied by music!

Young people in the Fiddlehead Field Orchestra program wait to go on stage.

This local Fiddlehead program, directed by flat-out amazing folk musician/fiddler and educator Jessye Bartlett, gives young people the chance to learn an instrument and play together in groups. 

That's what they did during Saturday night's pot luck supper, and did marvelously. One ensemble after another took the stage to play through a wide range of music, all of it infused with joy, compassion, and humanity.

I don't know about you, but something about the sight and sound of young kids making music together gives me hope in a way that nothing else does.

Yes, we have problems. But hearing these kids—some of whom are only just starting to learn their instruments—play through pieces, I feel increasingly confident that all will be okay.

And here's something weird: it seems that the more local or homegrown the music, the most intensely I feel this reaction. 

Fiddlehead leader Jessye Bartlett coaxes a performance out of two youngsters in the program.

Really! Compare: two weeks ago I joined about 1,500 people at Symphony Hall to hear the Boston Symphony. The concert was superb. But the great playing, and the presence of so many people gathered together to share music, didn't affect me the way the Fiddlehead players did. 

I was thrilled to learn that the Fiddlehead group is planning a trip to Ireland in 2024. Imagine that! Young musicians traveling to the Emerald Isle to meet other young musicians and play together. Why can't we as a nation do more of that, instead of starting wars in the Mideast?

That's a question for another blog. For now, if you'd like to contribute to the Fiddlehead group, visit them online and get in touch. They're worth your attention and support. 

I got so carried away, I couldn't help but get up and make an announcement, which went something like this:

"If you want hope for the future, don't watch the news. Instead, listen to this. What we're hearing here tonight reminds me that if you take the word 'Music' and change just two of the letter, it becomes 'Magic.' They're that close!"

I don't think I ever heard that "music is close to magic" thought ever before. So I may have invented it right there on the spot. Hey, it happens. 

Saturday night's Fiddlehead performances included some impromptu dancing.

Also invented on the spot: an entire score to 'Straight is the Way,' the Cosmopolitan Pictures comedy/drama set in New Hampshire and rescued from obscurity last year by film historian Ed Lorusso. 

Last night's screening marked on the second known public screening of the film since its original release more than a century ago. (The first was our 'World Repremiere' in Concord, N.H this past December.)

Audience reaction was strong—in fact, a lot stronger than what we got back in December when I accompanied the film in Concord. 

I think one reason was the kids in the audience. The young people (mostly kids in the Fiddlehead program, but also others) found the story and characters surprisingly hilarious. The scenes in which attempts are made to contact Uncle Henry via a Ouija boardprodued gales of laughter.

And that really carried along the rest of the audience, as sometimes happens at a silent film screening. With the young people in effect giving everyone permission to laugh, the intensity of reactions grew as the film progressed.

Further stirring the pot (appropriate for an event featuring a pot luck supper) were my pre-movie comments, which included instructions for people to react openly to what they were seeing. If a character does something bad, feel free to boo—which they did, at times quite lustily.

The Campton audience found the Ouija board scenes unexpectedly hilarious.

The music fell together nicely, I thought, with good contrasting music for the thieves, the innocent locals, and the romance that eventually develops

The one cue I missed was right at the end, when a character tries to summon help by ringing a handbell. Alas, the handbell I always travel with (which belonged to my grandmother) was out of reach in the darkness below me and couldn't be retrieved in time. 

But it didn't seem to hurt the film, which earned a tumultuous ovation. Thanks again to Ed Lorusso for getting 'Straight is the Way' out of the vault and available for people to enjoy, which they certainly did last night in Campton, N.H. 

Funny how some screenings really click. Maybe what it takes is a pot luck supper and several dozen young musicians for the magic to happen. 

Up next: Greta Garbo in 'The Temptress' (1926), which we're showing on Wednesday, Feb. 16 at 6:30 p.m. at the Flying Monkey Moviehouse and Performance Center in Plymouth, N.H. 

The film has two different endings, and we're showing them both. I'll do a separate post on this flick, but wanted to mention it here to whet your appetite. See you at the movies! (And bring your violin if you want to play before the show.)

Unseen for a century: 'Straight is the Way' with live music on Thursday, 12/9 in Concord, N.H.

A vintage print ad promoting 'Straight is the Way' for its 1921 release.

I'm thrilled to be doing live music for upcoming screenings of 'Straight is the Way,' a comedy/drama released in 1921 and not seen in theaters for a full century.

The film's "World Re-Premiere" will take place on Thursday, Dec. 9 at Red River Theatres in Concord, N.H. Showings are scheduled at 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

For details about the screenings, check out the full press release pasted in below.

Why stage the premiere in New Hampshire? Because 'Straight is the Way' is set in fictional 'Hampton Center, N.H.' (It was apparently shot, however, just outside New York City.)

And why now? Because after languishing in obscurity for 100 years, the sole surviving print of 'Straight is the Way' was recently transferred to digital media and is now available. 

The transfer was accomplished thanks to a successful crowd-funding effort (which I donated to) this summer led by Ed Lorusso, a Maine-based film buff. Ed has organized many such transfers of vintage films that survive in fragile one-of-a-kind film prints that otherwise wouldn't get shown.

Dig that vintage N.H. license plate!

So now 'Straight is the Way' is back among us. And although the transfer was done primarily to provide DVD copies to vintage film nerds, the movie's Granite State setting (as well as its 100th birthday) seemed to call for a theatrical run—to give this picture a chance to be seen once again on the big screen, and in a theater, with an audience and live music, as its makers envisioned it.

Thus, with Ed's blessing and the enthusiastic participation of Red River Theatres in Concord, N.H., we're giving the film its first known theatrical screenings in 100 years.

The return of 'Straight is the Way' to the big screen has captured some attention. Already we've received a big write-up in the Concord Monitor, the region's daily paper. Check it out here.

To me, the most interesting aspect of  'Straight is the Way' was its setting. When I learned the story took place in my home state of New Hampshire, I simply had to back the Kickstarter campaign, and couldn't wait to see the movie.

Very few movies, and almost NO silent films, are set specifically in New Hampshire. In terms of movie locales, the Granite State is pretty much off the map. 

Maybe it's because we're so far away from Hollywood. And of the few movies that are set in New Hampshire, most get made somewhere else.

One big exception is 'On Golden Pond' (1981), starring Katherine Hepburn and Henry Fonda, which was filmed in the Squam Lake area. Also, scenes for the 1995 movie 'Jumanji' were shot in Keene, N.H.

From 'Jumanji': "looters" race through "Brantford, N.H.," a.k.a. Central Square in Keene, in a photo taken by my former colleague Michael Moore at the Keene Sentinel.

But more commonly, Granite State settings are subbed out to more other "stand-in" locations. 

Take the 1991 comedy 'What About Bob?' with Bill Murray and Richard Dreyfuss. Set on New Hampshire's Lake Winnipesaukee, it was actually filmed at Smith Mountain Lake in Virginia.

How about 'To Die For' (1995), an adaptation of the Pam Smart murder-for-hire scandal? It was also set in New Hampshire, but filmed in Toronto, Canada.

It's not like we're without celebrity connections. (Name dropping alert!) Comedian Sarah Silverman grew up in Bedford, N.H. in a house on the same road as mine. Talk show host Seth Myers grew up in Bedford, too—for decades, his mother taught French in a middle school two houses from mine. 

And from an earlier era...legendary actor Claude Rains is buried in Moultonborough, N.H. And back in Bedford, my own community was once home to a spa called "Belle Reve," a 1940s getaway that attracted the likes of Peter Lorre. 

In the case of 'Straight is the Way,' the New York City scenes are clearly filmed on location in the Big Apple, where the studio was based. 

For the "Hampton Center" scenes, Lorusso can find no evidence that any shooting took place in New Hampshire. It's most likely the scenes were shot outside New York, in either rural Long Island or New Jersey, a common practice at the time. 

The one clue about the location is that the mansion in the film appears to be the Long Island summer home of Ethel Watts Mumford, who wrote 'The Manifestations of Henry Ort,' a story on which "Straight is the Way" is based.

But as they might say in Hampton Center, N.H., that don't make no never mind. It's a fun film that I think audiences will find enjoyable, especially if seen on the big screen with live music and an audience, as intended.

So thanks to Ed Lorusso for resurrecting this film, and for Red River Theatres for giving it a chance once again on the big screen a full century after its original release. 

See you there! More information in the press release below.

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A vintage 'Coming Attractions' slide promoting 'Straight is the Way' (1921).

MONDAY, NOV. 29, 2021 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com

Vintage feature film with story set in N.H. to get first screening in 100 years

Rare surviving comedy/drama 'Straight is the Way' (1921) to be shown with live music at Concord's Red River Theatres

CONCORD, N.H. — It's a film that hasn't played in theaters since its original release exactly one century ago. And it's set in fictional 'Hampton Center, N.H.,' a small town where a pair of big-city crooks hide out from the law.

It's 'Straight is the Way,' a Paramount release that proved a modest box office success in the spring of 1921.

The film then completely disappeared—until now.

Next month, Red River Theaters of Concord will host the world re-premiere of 'Straight is the Way,' which boasts a screenplay by two-time Academy Award-winning writer Frances Marion.

The film will run twice on Thursday, Dec. 9: once at 5:30 p.m., and again at 7:30 p.m. General admission is $12 per person, $10 for Red River members.

Both screenings will feature live music by Jeff Rapsis, a New Hampshire-based silent film accompanist who arranged for permission to screen the movie, which was transferred to digital media earlier this year.

The story follows two burglars who flee to rural "Hampton Center, N.H." to hide out in the unused wing of a mansion, where an impoverished family faces eviction.

Exposed to small town values, the pair resolve to change their ways.

 

A Ouija board scene in 'Straight is the Way' (1921).

'Straight is the Way' was promoted with the tagline: "They came to lift the silver, but they stayed to lift the mortgage."

The film, a comedy/drama, features scenes in which a Ouija board is used to contact the spirits of long-dead relatives.

Ouija boards had become popular in the years following World War I, when 'Straight is the Way' was released.

How does a film disappear for 100 years, and then resurface?

Produced by Cosmopolitan Pictures, 'Straight is the Way' was one of dozens of titles on Paramount's 1921 release schedule. After its initial run, the film was never reissued.

This was the fate of nearly all motion pictures of the era, most of which were lost to neglect, decay, or accident. Today, about 75 percent of all silent films no longer exist in any form.

But 'Straight is the Way' is among the survivors. A single 35mm print of the film is in the collection of the U.S. Library of Congress. The print was part of a hoard of film material donated long ago by 1920s star Marion Davies, whose pictures were produced by Cosmopolitan.

However, the print is on fragile and flammable nitrate cellulose film stock, meaning it can't be safely projected or loaned out. To keep the film from deteriorating, the print is kept in long-term storage at the Library of Congress media center in Culpeper, Va.

In 2021, Maine-based film archivist Ed Lorusso organized an online Kickstarter program to raise funds to transfer the surviving print of 'Straight is the Way' to digital media. The fundraiser was successful, and the transfer was completed earlier this year.

Lorusso made the film available on DVD to fellow vintage film enthusiasts, including accompanist Rapsis, who felt the film's Granite State setting merited a theatrical revival, complete with live music.

"Very few films are set in New Hampshire, then or now," Rapsis said. "What's interesting about 'Straight is the Way' is that it shows how the state was viewed at the time—a place of small towns and old-fashioned ways, including a constable patrolling the town in a horse and buggy."

Although 'Straight is the Way' contains authentic details such as New Hampshire license plates on the few autos that appear, Lorusso has found no evidence that any part of the film was shot in the state.

Instead, 'Straight is the Way' was produced in New York City, where Cosmopolitan Pictures was based, and which continued to host film production even after most movie-making moved to California in the 1910s.

'Straight is the Way' features several location shots of Manhattan scenes such as Washington Square in Greenwich Village as it appeared in 1921.

Lorusso believes the New Hampshire scenes were most likely filmed in the rural countryside of Long Island or New Jersey, just outside the city, as was common practice at the time.

Lorusso has identified one location: the mansion shown in the film is the summer home of author Ethel Watts Mumford in Sands Point, Long Island. Mumford wrote 'The Manifestations of Henry Ort,' on which 'Straight is the Way' was based.

The screenplay was by Frances Marion, the one recognizable name associated with the production.

Marion, a prolific writer, authored more than 300 screenplays in a career that spanned three decades. Her credits include silent classics such as 'The Wind' (1928); she would later win Academy Awards for writing the prison drama 'The Big House' (1930) and the iconic boxing story 'The Champ' (1931).

George Parsons as burglar "Loot" Follett in 'Straight is the Way' (1921).

'Straight is the Way' features a cast of solid performers, all unknown today: Matt Moore, Mabel Bert, Gladys Leslie, George Parsons, Henry Sedley, Van Dyke Brooke, and Emily Fitzroy.

The film was directed by Robert Vignola; the following year, he would direct Marion Davies in 'When Knighthood Was in Flower' (1922) a big budget costume drama.

Rapsis said the Red River screening of 'Straight is the Way' 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.

"On the 100th anniversary of the film's release, I'm delighted Red River will give New Hampshire audiences a chance to see the film as it was intended to be shown, and also see how our state was depicted in the early years of cinema." Rapsis said.

'Straight is the Way' (1921), a silent comedy/drama set in New Hampshire, will be screened with live music on Thursday, Dec. 9 at 5:30 p.m. and again at 7:30 p.m. at Red River Theatres, 11 South Main St. in Concord.

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

Tickets are general admission $12; Red River Theatres members $10. For more info and to purchase advance tickets, visit www.redrivertheatres.org or call (603) 224-4600.