On Wednesday, April 29: Buster Keaton's 'The General' at the Regent Theatre in Arlington, Mass.

Buster and his co-star in 'The General' (1926).

I'm back on the road this week to the Regent Theatre in Arlington, Mass., where they're screening Buster Keaton's 'The General' (1926) on Wednesday, April 29, with music by me.

It's the third visit to the Regent this month, as the venue pursues a mini-series of silent screenings that included Cecil B. DeMille's 'King of Kings' (1927) and Harold Lloyd's 'Safety Last' (1923).

'Safety Last' was part of a 110th anniversary show (the Regent opened in 1916) that included live stage acts. It's the first time I've ever shared the bill with a belly-dancer, a bag-piper who could flip a hat from his foot onto his head, a Judy Garland impersonator, a man who could play three recorders at once, and a visibly pregnant hula-hoop artist.

Me with a poster listing all my co-stars at the Regent Theatre's 110th birthday celebration.

They were all fantastic, by the way. Collectively, it was a tough act for Harold to follow. But 'Safety Last' never fails to grab an audience, and that's what happened at the Regent last Friday night.

No stage acts are planned for Wednesday night's screening of 'The General,' unless someone convinces me to do my trick of flinging coins balanced on my elbows, and then catching them before they hit the ground. I'll bring some Kennedy half dollars (which work the best) just in case.

For now, more info about Wednesday's screening can be found in the press release pasted in below. See you at the Regent!

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Buster Keaton in 'The General' (1926).

MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2026 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com

Buster Keaton's 'The General' with live music at Regent Theatre on Wednesday, April 29

100th anniversary screening! Civil War railroading comedy/adventure film lauded as stone-faced comic moviemaker's masterpiece 

ARLINGTON, Mass.— He never smiled on camera, earning him the nickname of "the Great Stone Face." But Buster Keaton's comedies rocked Hollywood's silent era with laughter throughout the 1920s.

See for yourself with a 100th anniverary screening of 'The General' (1926), one of Keaton's landmark feature films, on Wednesday, April 29 at 7:30 p.m. at the Regent Theatre, 7 Medford St., Arlington, Mass.

General admission is $25 per person, with discounts for seniors/veterans. Tickets available at the door or online at www.regenttheatre.com.

The screening will feature live music by Jeff Rapsis, a New Hampshire-based composer who specializes in creating music for silent films.

The screening is a chance to experience this landmark film as it was intended to be seen: in a high quality print on the big screen, with live music and with an audience.

'The General,' set during the U.S. Civil War, tells the story of a southern locomotive engineer (Keaton) whose engine (named 'The General') is hijacked by Northern spies with his girlfriend on board.

Keaton, commandeering another train, races north in pursuit behind enemy lines. Can he rescue his girl? And can he recapture his locomotive and make it back to warn of a coming Northern attack?

Critics call 'The General' Keaton's masterpiece, praising its authentic period detail, ambitious action and battle sequences, and its overall integration of story, drama, and comedy.

It's also regarded as one of Hollywood's great railroad films, with much of the action occurring on or around moving steam locomotives.

Accompanist Jeff Rapsis will improvise an original musical score for 'The General' live as the movie is shown, as was typically done during the silent film era.

"When the score gets made up on the spot, it creates a special energy that's an important part of the silent film experience," Rapsis said.

With the Regent Theatre's screening of 'The General,' audiences will get a chance to experience silent film as it was meant to be seen—in a high quality print, on a large screen, with live music, and with an audience.

"All those elements are important parts of the silent film experience," Rapsis said. "Recreate those conditions, and the classics of early Hollywood leap back to life in ways that can still move audiences today."

Keaton, along with Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd, stands today as one of the silent screen's three great clowns. Some critics regard Keaton as the best of all; 

Roger Ebert wrote in 2002 that "in an extraordinary period from 1920 to 1929, (Keaton) worked without interruption on a series of films that make him, arguably, the greatest actor-director in the history of the movies."

A remarkable pantomime artist, Keaton naturally used his whole body to communicate emotions from sadness to surprise. And in an era with no post-production special effects, Keaton's acrobatic talents enabled him to perform all his own stunts.

Critics review 'The General':

"The most insistently moving picture ever made, its climax is the most stunning visual event ever arranged for a film comedy."
—Walter Kerr, author of 'The Silent Clowns'

"An almost perfect entertainment!"
—Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

"What makes the film so special is the way the timing, audacity and elegant choreography of its sight gags, acrobatics, pratfalls and dramatic incidents is matched by Buster's directorial artistry, his acute observational skills working alongside the physical élan and sweet subtlety of his own performance."
—Time Out (London)

Keaton on location shooting 'The General' (1926) near Cottage Grove, Oregon.

The Keaton films are a great introduction to silent films for modern audiences, accompanist Rapsis said.

"Keaton's comedy is as fresh today as it was a hundred years ago — maybe more so, because his kind of visual humor is a lost art," Rapsis said.

‘The General’ (1926) starring Buster Keaton will be shown with live music on Wednesday, April 29 at 7:30 p.m. at the Regent Theatre, 7 Medford St., Arlington, Mass.

General admission is $25 per person, with discounts for seniors/veterans. Tickets available at the door or online at www.regenttheatre.com. For more information, call the theater at (781) 646-4849.

Rare all-Black drama, 'The Flying Ace' (1926), tonight at the Regent Theatre in Arlington, Mass.

A not-very-subtle promotional poster for the all-Black drama 'The Flying Ace' (1926).

In honor of Black History Month, tonight (Friday, Feb. 18) the Regent Theater of Arlington, Mass. is screening 'The Flying Ace' (1926), with live music by me. 

It's a rare surviving example of what some scholars call "Race Cinema," meaning movies made for segregated theaters that were part of the American movie landscape in the first half of the 20th century.

'The Flying Ace,' a rare surviving example of this type of film, was recently added to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being either "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

I think 'The Flying Ace,' produced by Norman Studios of Jacksonville, Fla., applies to the first two distinctions: cultural and historic. It's a vivid reminder of racism that permeated everyday life in its era—so much so that people set up separate theaters for people of different skin color!

In terms of being "aesthetically significant"—well, you can make up your own mind on that. But I believe that any film from a century ago, no matter what its level of aesthetic achievement, has a lot to say to us today, if only for just the passing of time. 

And let's be clear about one thing. By screening 'The Flying Ace,' neither I nor the Regent Theatre are celebrating the fact that for many decades, movie theaters in the United States were segregated by race. 

No. 'The Flying Ace' is a concrete artifact of a shameful legacy of racism that pervaded society at the time, and with which we still grapple today.  

But by acknowledging that it once existed, and preserving this artifact from the era (and I believe screening vintage film before the public is part of preservation), we can be better equipped to confront racism in our own time.

So hope to see you at the Regent tonight at 7:30 p.m. Much more info in the press release below.

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Kathryn Boyd and Laurence Criner star in 'The Flying Ace' (1926).

MONDAY, FEB. 14, 2022 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com

Honoring Black History Month

Regent Theatre to screen rare vintage crime melodrama with all-Black cast

'The Flying Ace' (1926), recently added to U.S. National Film Registry, to be shown with live music on Friday, Feb. 18

ARLINGTON, 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 so-called "race" movies produced early in the 20th century for Black audiences in segregated cinemas.

'The Flying Ace,' recently named to the U.S. National Film Registry, will be screened in honor of Black History Month on Friday, Feb. 18 at 7:30 p.m. at the Regent Theatre, 7 Medford St., Arlington, Mass.

General admission is $15 per person. Tickets available at the door or online at www.regenttheatre.com.

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 so-called "race" 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."

"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.

A monochrome lobby card for 'The Flying Ace' (1926).

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 Regent Theatre 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 Friday, Feb. 18 at 7:30 p.m. at the Regent Theatre, 7 Medford St., Arlington, Mass.

General admission is $15 per person. Tickets available at the door or online at www.regenttheatre.com. For more information, call the theater at (781) 646-4849.

Tonight (Wednesday, 7/24) in Arlington, Mass.: One last voyage to the moon at Regent Theatre

Prepare for launch, 1929-style.

Never mind the Apollo astronauts. I've been to the moon no less than four times in the last 10 days!

Take that, Richard Branson and Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos and all you other billionaire wannabees!

And I make my final voyage tonight, when the Regent Theatre in Arlington, Mass. screens Fritz Lang's epic moon journey pic, 'Woman in the Moon' (1929) at 7 p.m.

Details are in the press release below.

Yes, it's the fourth time I've blasted off for the moon since earlier this month: Saturday, July 13 in Brandon, Vt.; Wednesday, July 17 in Ogunquit, Maine; Thursday, July 18 in Concord, N.H., and now tonight in Ahh-lington, Mass.

That's a lot of space travel. Wish I got frequent flier credit for all these journeys.

Lots more coming up but wanted to make sure: your last chance to travel with me to the lunar surface (until anyone asks me to accompany 'Woman in the Moon' again) is tonight at the Regent in Arlington.

See you there! We blast off at 7 p.m.

* * *

Original German poster for 'Woman in the Moon' (1929).

THURSDAY, JULY 15, 2019 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com

Regent Theatre to mark Apollo 11 anniversary with vintage lunar voyage masterpiece

'Woman in the Moon,' early sci-fi fantasy about mankind's first space mission, to be screened Wednesday, July 24 with live music

ARLINGTON, Mass.—A sci-fi adventure hailed as the first feature film to depict realistic space travel will be screened this month at the Regent Theatre in honor of the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11.

'Woman in the Moon' (1929), directed by German filmmaker Fritz Lang ('Metropolis,' 1927), will be shown with live music on Wednesday, July 24 at 7 p.m. at the Regent Theatre, 7 Medford St., Arlington, Mass.

The screening is open to the public. Admission is $10 per person in advance, or $12 on day of show. Tickets may be booked online at www.regenttheatre.com.

"We felt it was worth marking this important milestone by sampling visions of space travel before the Apollo program put mankind on the moon," said Leland Stein of the Regent Theatre. "And what better way to do that was to go back to the silent era and 'Woman in the Moon,' an epic fantasy about the German space program that never happened."

The rarely seen full-length version of 'Woman in the Moon' follows an intrepid band of space pioneers as they attempt mankind's first voyage to the lunar surface, where they hope to find large deposits of gold.

The film, made with German rocket experts as technical advisers, anticipated many of the techniques used by NASA for the Apollo moon launch program 40 years later. For example, a multi-stage rocket is employed to escape Earth's gravity, and a separate capsule is used to reach the lunar surface.

The film is also noted for introducing the idea of a dramatic "countdown" prior to launch, which later became standard procedure in actual space flight. Critics regard the film's extended launch sequence as a masterpiece of editing and dramatic tension.

Visiting the moon is no day at the beach, although both places features a lot of sand.

But 'Woman in the Moon,' with its melodramatic plot, also stands as the forerunner of many sci-fi soap opera elements that quickly became clichés: the brilliant but misunderstood professor; a love triangle involving a female scientist and her two male crewmates; a plucky young boy who yearns to join the expedition; fistfights and gunfire and treachery on the lunar surface.

Added to the mix is a vision of the moon (created entirely on a massive studio set in Berlin, Germany) that features a breathable atmosphere, giant sand dunes, distant mountain peaks, and bubbling mud pits.

The film's showing at the Regent coincides with the 50th anniversary to the day (July 24) that Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins splashed down after their successful voyage to the moon. It's also the 90th anniversary of the original theatrical release of 'Woman in the Moon.'

"This is a great and at-times bizarre film, one that must be seen to be believed," said Jeff Rapsis, a New Hampshire-based silent film accompanist who will create live music for the Regent's screening. "It's as entertaining as any spy-thriller. And as a past vision of a future that didn't quite come to be, it really gets you thinking of time and how we perceive it."

Rapsis will improvise live musical accompaniment during the screening, using a digital synthesizer to recreate the sound of a full orchestra and other more exotic textures.

'Woman in the Moon,' a full-length feature than runs more than 2½ hours, should not be confused with the much earlier film 'A Trip to Moon,' a primitive "trick" short movie made by French filmmaker George Méliès in 1902 and famous for the image of a space capsule hitting the eye of an imaginary moon man.

"Unlike the Méliès film, there's nothing primitive about 'Woman in the Moon,' " Rapsis said. "It's silent film story-telling at the peak of its eloquence, with lively performances, imaginative camera angles, and superb photography."

Director Fritz Lang, responsible for the groundbreaking sci-fi epic 'Metropolis' (1927), planned 'Woman in the Moon' as another step in his quest to stretch cinema's visual, story-telling, and imaginative capabilities.

When traveling to the moon, big windows make a lot of sense.

Bad timing is one reason that 'Woman in the Moon' (titled 'Frau im Mond' in German) is not as well known today as 'Metropolis,' its legendary predecessor. Lang completed 'Woman in the Moon' just as the silent film era was coming to a close.

As one of the last silent films of German cinema, 'Woman in the Moon' was unable to compete with new talking pictures then in theaters, making it a box office flop at its premiere in October, 1929.

However, German rocket scientist Hermann Oberth worked as an adviser on the movie, and it developed cult status among the rocket scientists in Wernher von Braun's circle starting in the 1930s. During World War II, the first successfully launched V-2 rocket at the German rocket facility in Peenemünde had the "Woman in the Moon" logo painted on its base.

During the war, the Nazis tried to recall and destroy all prints of 'Woman in the Moon' due to its detailed depiction of state-of-the-art rocket propulsion technology; in later years, this served to make the film even more hard to find. For many years, the film was available only in cut-down 16mm versions that ran as short as one hour.

But pristine and complete 35mm copies of 'Woman in the Moon' did survive in several European archives. Today, restored prints are amazingly clear and sharp, Rapsis said.

" 'Woman in the Moon' is technically one of the best-looking silent films I've ever seen," he said. "If you think all silent films are grainy and scratchy-looking, 'Woman in the Moon' will change your mind. It's like an Ansel Adams photograph come to life."

"Although 'Woman in the Moon' is available for home viewing, this is a motion picture that should be experienced as intended: on the big screen, with live music, and with an audience," Rapsis said. "There's nothing like it."

‘Woman in the Moon’ will be shown with live music on Wednesday, July 24 at 7 p.m. at the Regent Theatre, 7 Medford St., Arlington, Mass. The screening is open to the public. Admission is $10 per person in advance, or $12 on day of show. Tickets may be booked online at www.regenttheatre.com.

For more info on the music, visit www.jeffrapsis.com.

Tonight Last night in Brandon, Vt.: the first of a quartet of 'Woman in the Moon' screenings

The journey to Brandon, Vt. is not quite as long as the lunar voyage in 'Woman in the Moon.' But sometimes...

This is a little late in posting, but it's been that kind of a month.

It was actually last night that I accompanied 'Woman in the Moon' in Brandon, Vt.

It was the first of four screenings of the Fritz Lang epic that I'm doing in honor of the upcoming 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing.

And I just realized: each of the screenings is in a different state!

Last night was Vermont; next Wednesday it's the Leavitt Theater in Ogunquit, Maine; then on Thursday it's Red River Theatres in Concord, N.H., then next week it's the Regent Theatre in Arlington, Mass.

Last night, the Brandon screening went really well. It was a milestone of sorts, too, as it marked the first performance of a new keyboard I recently acquired.

I say new, but it's actually another Korg Triton LE 88, the same model I've been using since I started accompanying silent films regularly about 15 years ago.

The Korg Triton LE 88. Random pic from online. Right now mine's at home in the garage.

It's actually now regarded as a vintage synthesizer, having not been sold new since the mid-2000s. I've tried others, but nothing matches the Korg's weighted action keyboard. (Or maybe it's just that I'm used to it.)

And they're very durable, but then I really beat on mine. I play it aggressively, and I also drag it all around creation without a case.

So I'm guilty of Korg abuse. After a while, the screws holding the thing together begin to vibrate loose. I try to keep track of this, and tighten them as I go, but occasionally one falls out and I don't notice it.

Just last night, when setting up for Brandon, I found one of the screws on the floor from an earlier performance!

And also, because I don't put it in a case (as I've never had one), the keyboard gradually accumulates a patina of road dirt and pollen and God-knows-what that doesn't help things. (Unless this accumulated grime acts as a protective coating.)

So under my inept and unforgiving stewardship, a Korg has a lifespan of about five years at most. That's about how long I've had my up-until-now current model, and sure enough, in the last month it's been making signs of giving up the ghost.

For one thing, the main panel LCD display is lighting up only intermittently. Also tones are getting "stuck" with increasing frequency. By "stuck," I mean they keep sounding even when the key isn't pressed. The only way to stop is to switch to another sound patch and then back, hopefully without the audience noticing.

But if the LCD panel isn't lit up, I can't see which setting I'm on, and so during a live performance it's hard to make this switcheroo. During a recent 'Safety Last' screening, I tried the "switch out and back" maneuver, and with the display panel not lit, I came back with some kind of bossa nova setting—not what I usually go for when Harold is climbing a skyscraper.

So time for a new Korg. And amazingly, I found a practically brand new example on Craigslist, and with a hard case as well. It was in the Albany, N.Y. area, so I trekked out there last week and it was the real deal, so I bought it.

Thus do I have a "new" vintage Korg Triton LE 88, and a case, that I took with me to Brandon for the first time last night.

All went well: the instrument plays like a dream, with all buttons and dials working. It even has a full-sized "ON/OFF" button, which has been missing from my now-ex road model since I bought it from a guy in Rhode Island, and so it felt weird not putting my finger into the hole and pressing the model prong in there.

So the old Korg will be set aside and be cannibalized for parts as needed.

With the new one, it's great to have a case, but the whole thing is so enormously big and heavy, I'm not sure I'll be using it very often, except for long road trips. We'll see.

'Woman in the Moon' got a big-time reaction from the crowd last night at Brandon Town Hall, and stayed with it despite the lack of air conditioning. It wasn't quite Bikram Yoga-style silent film, but it was pretty warm in there. Credit Fritz Lang's film for holding an audience in less-than-ideal conditions.

If you'd like to see 'Woman in the Moon' (1929), I'm doing it three more times in the next couple of weeks.

Here's the press release for the screening this Wednesday, July 17 at the Leavitt Theatre in Ogunquit, Maine. Hope to see you there, or at the others in Concord, N.H. and Arlington, Mass.

An original poster for 'Frau im Mond,' or 'Woman in the Moon.

* * *MONDAY, JULY 8, 2019 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com

Leavitt Theatre to mark Apollo 11 anniversary on 7/17 with vintage lunar voyage masterpiece

'Woman in the Moon,' early sci-fi adventure fantasy about mankind's first space mission, to be screened Wednesday, July 17 with live music

OGUNQUIT, Maine—A sci-fi adventure hailed as the first feature film to depict realistic space travel will be screened at the Leavitt Theatre in honor of the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11.

'Woman in the Moon' (1929), directed by German filmmaker Fritz Lang ('Metropolis,' 1927), will be shown with live music on Wednesday, July 17 at 7 p.m. at the Leavitt Fine Arts Theatre, 259 Main St., Route 1, Ogunquit, Maine.

The screening is open to the public. Tickets are $10 per person, general admission.

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

"We felt it was worth marking this important milestone by sampling visions of space travel before the Apollo program put mankind on the moon," said Max Clayton of the Leavitt Theatre. "And what better way to do that than go back to the silent era and 'Woman in the Moon,' an epic fantasy about the German space program that never happened."

The rarely seen full-length version of 'Woman in the Moon' follows an intrepid band of space pioneers as they attempt mankind's first voyage to the lunar surface, where they hope to find deposits of gold.

The film, made with German rocket experts as technical advisers, anticipated many of the techniques used by NASA for the Apollo moon launch program 40 years later. For example, a multi-stage rocket is employed to escape Earth's gravity, and a separate capsule is used to reach the lunar surface.

The film is also noted for introducing the idea of a dramatic "countdown" prior to launch, which later became standard procedure in actual space flight. Critics regard the film's extended launch sequence as a masterpiece of editing and dramatic tension.

Who needs mission control? Willy Fritsch gets ready to pull the lever.

But 'Woman in the Moon,' with its melodramatic plot, also stands as the forerunner of many sci-fi soap opera elements that quickly became clichés: the brilliant but misunderstood professor; a love triangle involving a female scientist and her two male crewmates; a plucky young boy who yearns to join the expedition; fistfights and gunfire and treachery on the lunar surface.

Added to the mix is a vision of the moon (created entirely on a massive studio set in Berlin, Germany) that features a breathable atmosphere, giant sand dunes, distant mountain peaks, and bubbling mud pits.

The film's showing at the Leavitt coincides with the 50th anniversary of the voyage that took Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins to the moon in advance of the landing, which occurred on July 20, 1969. It's also the 90th anniversary of the original theatrical release of 'Woman in the Moon.'

"This is a great and at-times bizarre film, one that must be seen to be believed," said Jeff Rapsis, a New Hampshire-based silent film accompanist who will create live music for the Leavitt's screening. "It's as entertaining as any spy-thriller. And as a past vision of a future that didn't quite come to be, it really gets you thinking of time and how we perceive it."

Hey, why didn't NASA include picture windows for the Apollo astronauts?

Rapsis will improvise live musical accompaniment during the screening, using a digital synthesizer to recreate the sound of a full orchestra and other more exotic textures.

'Woman in the Moon,' a full-length feature than runs more than 2½ hours, should not be confused with the much earlier film 'A Trip to Moon,' a primitive "trick" short movie made by French filmmaker George Méliès in 1902 and famous for the image of a space capsule hitting the eye of an imaginary moon man.

"Unlike the Méliès film, there's nothing primitive about 'Woman in the Moon,' " Rapsis said. "It's silent film story-telling at the peak of its eloquence, with lively performances, imaginative camera angles, and superb photography."

Director Fritz Lang, responsible for the groundbreaking sci-fi epic 'Metropolis' (1927), planned 'Woman in the Moon' as another step in his quest to stretch cinema's visual, story-telling, and imaginative capabilities.

Bad timing is one reason that 'Woman in the Moon' (titled 'Frau im Mond' in German) is not as well known today as 'Metropolis,' its legendary predecessor. Lang completed 'Woman in the Moon' just as the silent film era was coming to a close.

As one of the last silent films of German cinema, 'Woman in the Moon' was unable to compete with new talking pictures then in theaters, making it a box office flop at its premiere in October, 1929.

However, German rocket scientist Hermann Oberth worked as an adviser on the movie, and it developed cult status among the rocket scientists in Wernher von Braun's circle starting in the 1930s. During World War II, the first successfully launched V-2 rocket at the German rocket facility in Peenemünde had the "Woman in the Moon" logo painted on its base.

During the war, the Nazis tried to recall and destroy all prints of 'Woman in the Moon' due to its detailed depiction of state-of-the-art rocket propulsion technology; in later years, this served to make the film even more hard to find. For many years, the film was available only in cut-down 16mm versions that ran as short as one hour.

But pristine and complete 35mm copies of 'Woman in the Moon' did survive in several European archives. Today, restored prints are amazingly clear and sharp, Rapsis said.

" 'Woman in the Moon' is technically one of the best-looking silent films I've ever seen," he said. "If you think all silent films are grainy and scratchy-looking, 'Woman in the Moon' will change your mind. It's like an Ansel Adams photograph come to life."

"Although 'Woman in the Moon' is available for home viewing, this is a motion picture that should be experienced as intended: on the big screen, with live music, and with an audience," Rapsis said. "There's nothing like it."

After 'Woman in the Moon,' other programs in this year's Leavitt silent film series include:

• 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,

• Wednesday, Aug. 28, 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.

‘Woman in the Moon’ will be shown with live music on Wednesday, July 17 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.

Tonight's screening is still on! Plus, collaborating with guitarist Paul Bielatowicz

Paul and me, and some of Paul's groupies, after the Regent show.

Snow is coming through New England later tonight. But our screening of 'The Yankee Clipper' (1927) at the Custom House Maritime Museum in Newburyport, Mass. is still on.

Doors open at 5 p.m., and the movie starts at 6 p.m. We should be done well before the snow flies.

Jessica Pappathan, the museum's executive direcor, tells me that they've sold over 50 tickets. So let's hope that people are still able to make it in and enjoy this terrific film!

Last night was a special event, in part because of how it was pretty much totally unplanned.

At the Regent Theatre in Arlington, Mass., I joined guitarist Paul Bielatowicz for an evening of George Méliès films.

Paul, a masterful players who tours all over the world with Carl Palmer and other musical legends, has developed some very interesting musical settings for some of the Méliès films.

So earlier this month, when I got a call from the Belmont World Film Festival about helping them with a Méliès program, I immediately thought of Paul.

I had first seen/heard Paul at the Regent a year ago, when he played an arrangement of the music from Beethoven's 'Moonlight' Sonata to the iconic 1902 Méliès film 'A Trip to the Moon.'

It was quite different from my approach, but very effective. So Paul and I have kept in touch.

He happened to be home in Massachusetts (just prior to another two-month European tour) and, on about 10 days notice, immediately said yes to joining me.

Paul picked out the films and cued them up on his system, which was a big help. All I had to do was show up with my keyboard and play to the titles assigned to me!

A healthy crowd turned out, and we had a great time swapping off various Méliès titles. Paul reprised his 'Trip to the Moon' score, while the big number for me was a full-on orchestral treatment of 'Conquest of the Pole' (1912), which I regard as a late Méliès masterpiece and suitably grand title to close our the program.

But what really great about the program was how Paul and I just naturally spoke about Méliès and his career in between each film. Without any preparation whatsoever, we told the story of his career, his films, his accomplishments, and a little about the times in which he worked.

It fell together quite naturally. Sometimes the best plan is no plan at all!

Thanks to Paul for making last night's Méliès program at the Regent a truly memorable experience...a highlight of the already young year!

And thanks also to Leland Stein of the Regent for recommending me when the festival's original programming plans fell through, and also for introducing me to Paul last year.

And also, thanks to Ellen Gitelman of the Belmont World Film Festival for taking a chance on a last-minute programming switch. It all worked out well!

Okay, fr those of you unintimidated by the snowy forecast, here's the info on tonight's screening of 'The Yankee Clipper' in Newburyport, Mass. Hope to see you there!

* * *

William Boyd (right), eventually better known as Hopalong Cassidy, stars in 'The Yankee Clipper' (1927).

FRIDAY, DEC. 21, 2018 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com

'Yankee Clipper' silent drama with live music Saturday, Jan. 19 at Custom House Maritime Museum

Set sail with action-packed high seas adventure during era of 19th century clipper ships

NEWBURYPORT, Mass.—The era when wind-powered ships ruled the seas comes to life on the silver screen in 'The Yankee Clipper' (1927), a nautical adventure film to be shown on Saturday, Jan. 19 at at the Custom House Maritime Museum, 25 Water St., Newburyport, Mass.

The silent drama, starring a young William Boyd and filmed at sea aboard authentic 19th century vessels, will be screened with live music performed by Jeff Rapsis, a New Hampshire-based silent film accompanist.

Showtime is 6 p.m. Admission is $20 per person for museum members, $25 for non-members, with all proceeds to benefit the Custom House Maritime Museum.

Produced by Cecil B. DeMille and directed by Rupert Julian ('Phantom of the Opera'), 'The Yankee Clipper' set new standards for historical adventure when it was released in 1927.

The film takes place in the 1840s, during a period of intense rivalry between British and American sailing captains to win lucrative trade routes between China and the U.S.

As 'The Yankee Clipper' opens, Captain Winslow (William Boyd) takes a revolutionary new clipper ship, built by his father, on its first voyage from America to the Orient.

While in China, Winslow attends a dinner hosted by a wealthy Chinese merchant and rescues English maiden Lady Jocelyn Huntington (Elinor Fair) from rioting beggars.

Winslow agrees to a race from China to Boston against an English clipper ship, with the fastest vessel to be awarded an important tea contract.

To win, the ships must brave dangerous seas, mutiny, and potential sabotage on board. Romance enters the picture when Lady Jocelyn inadvertently winds up on board the American ship.

The cast features a very young William Boyd in the leading role. Boyd, a popular actor in silent films, would go on to gain fame in later years by playing the character sidekick role of "Hopalong Cassidy" in many Hollywood Westerns. Also, at the time the film was made, female lead Elinor Fair was married to producer Cecil B. DeMille.

The film also features actor Walter Long as Portuguese Joe, a ship's crew member.

Long, a native of Milford, N.H., was a popular character actor with an extensive career in early cinema that ranged from an appearance in D.W. Griffith's epic 'The Birth of a Nation' (1915) all the way to playing the heavy in Laurel & Hardy comedies much later.

Critics today hail 'The Yankee Clipper' as a masterful drama from the height of the silent film era, one imbued with a great sense of authenticity and historical accuracy. The production filmed on location at sea for six weeks aboard the 1856 wooden square-rigger 'Indiana.'

Leonard Maltin called 'The Yankee Clipper' a "splendid 19th-century seagoing adventure, as clipper ships race full-sail from China to Boston to earn a coveted tea trade contract. En route: typhoon! No fresh water! Mutiny! And a woman on board! Realistic yet heightened drama has it all."

Music for 'The Yankee Clipper' will be created live by Jeff Rapsis, who specializes in improvising scores to classic silent films in live performance. For each film, Rapsis will improvise a score from original musical material that he creates beforehand, using a digital synthesizer to recreate the sound and texture of a full orchestra.

"What I try to do," Rapsis said, "is create music that bridges the gap between a film that might be 80 or 90 years old, and the musical expectations of today's audiences."

The Custom House Maritime Museum is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization operated by the Newburyport Maritime Society, whose mission is to protect, preserve and interpret the maritime heritage of the lower Merrimack Valley region and how it relates to American history.

'The Yankee Clipper' will be shown on Saturday, Jan. 19 at 6 p.m. at the Custom House Maritime Museum, 25 Water St., Newburyport, Mass. Admission is $20 for members, $25 for non-members, with all proceeds to benefit the Custom House Maritime Museum. For more information and to buy tickets online, visit www.customhousemaritimemuseum.org, or call (978) 462-8681.

To France, or China, or Manchester, N.H.: Silent film, live music restarts this weekend

Scoring 'The Yankee Clipper' (1927) on Saturday, Jan. 19 at the Custom House Maritime Museum in Newburyport, Mass.

I'm back.

After a quiet period over the holidays, the silent film performance calendar cranks up again this weekend with three shows in three days:

• On Friday, Jan. 18, it's a George Méliès program at the Regent Theatre in Arlington, Mass. with my fellow silent film accompanist (and world-reknowned guitar-tist) Paul Bielatowicz.

The screening, which we put together just in the past two weeks, starts at 7:30 p.m. It's part of the Belmont International Film Festival.

I'm really looking forward to working with Paul B. again. I first encountered him exactly a year ago at the same theater, and we've been keeping track of each other ever since.

Paul doing his thing.

Paul specializes in Méliès films, and his guitar-based approach to accompaniment is very different from mine. But it's great stuff that he does and well worth hearing live.

Also, Paul is usually touring the world. For example: all February, he'll be criss-crossing Europe with Carl Palmer’s ELP Legacy band.

So a chance to hear him close to home is not to be missed!

• On Saturday, Jan. 19, the sailing ship drama 'The Yankee Clipper' (1927) embarks from the Custom House Maritime Museum in Newburyport, Mass., with music by me.

This should be fun because it's a grand picture in a real cool museum in a building—one designed by the same guy who built the U.S. Treasury Building in Washington, D.C., which is on the back of all U.S. $10 bills.

It's a great audience flick and always gets a strong reaction. More details and info in the press release below.

• An on Sunday, Jan. 20, the local chapter of the Sons of the Desert (the Laurel & Hardy appreciation society) in Manchester, N.H. celebrates Mr. Hardy's birthday (which is Jan. 18) with a varied film program, including silent titles with live music by you-know-who.

The program is free and all are welcome to attend. The program begins at 4:30 p.m. at the Southside Tavern, 1279 South Willow St., Manchester, N.H.

So, back to the keyboard. Here's another nice weekend (really!) I've gotten myself into: one filled with music and sailing ships and Mr. Laurel and Mr. Hardy.

Last weekend had some Laurel and Hardy in it as well, as I was able to catch 'Stan & Ollie,' the new biopic about the duo's later years.

I saw it in London, where it opened last Friday amid a ton of local promotion: on billboard, on London buses, in the Underground, you name it!

Yes, even in the Underground.

Well, it worked with me. I was going to wait until getting back to the States. But after absorbing all the news coverage the film was getting, I had take the plunge. (At 16 pounds a ticket, it was more like a swan dive.)

But I'm glad I did, as this is a film that film lovers can really love.

I accepted 'Stan & Ollie' fully and completely from the opening moment, when we first hear a funny scraping sound and it turns out to be Stan sawing off the heel of his shoe, as he did in real life.

Dominating the Odeon in Leicester Square.

After that, I was totally, completely absorbed for the duration of the picture. And I was quite moved to see the lives of two performers I've loved since childhood be the basis for such a warm, wonderful story.

It was a movie I didn't know I'd waited 45 years to see.

I encourage you to see it too, and in a movie theater, if you can find one running it. The U.S. release has been tiny compared to what I saw in the U.K., where I understand it was No. 2 at the box office last weekend.

As for this weekend: well, if you'd like to come to one of my screenings, you can choose between France (Méliès), China ('The Yankee Clipper') and Laurel and Hardy in Manchester, N.H.

If sailing ships are your thing, you won't find a better film than 'Yankee Clipper,' which I'm accompanying on Saturday night at the Custom House Maritime Museum in Newburyport, Mass. Details in the press release below. Hope to see you there!

* * *

On board the 'Yankee Clipper' (1927), starring (and captained by) William Boyd, at right.

FRIDAY, DEC. 21, 2018 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com

'Yankee Clipper' silent drama with live music Saturday, Jan. 19 at Custom House Maritime Museum

Set sail with action-packed high seas adventure during era of 19th century clipper ships

NEWBURYPORT, Mass.—The era when wind-powered ships ruled the seas comes to life on the silver screen in 'The Yankee Clipper' (1927), a nautical adventure film to be shown on Saturday, Jan. 19 at at the Custom House Maritime Museum, 25 Water St., Newburyport, Mass.

The silent drama, starring a young William Boyd and filmed at sea aboard authentic 19th century vessels, will be screened with live music performed by Jeff Rapsis, a New Hampshire-based silent film accompanist.

Showtime is 6 p.m. Admission is $20 per person for museum members, $25 for non-members, with all proceeds to benefit the Custom House Maritime Museum.

Produced by Cecil B. DeMille and directed by Rupert Julian ('Phantom of the Opera'), 'The Yankee Clipper' set new standards for historical adventure when it was released in 1927.

The film takes place in the 1840s, during a period of intense rivalry between British and American sailing captains to win lucrative trade routes between China and the U.S.

As 'The Yankee Clipper' opens, Captain Winslow (William Boyd) takes a revolutionary new clipper ship, built by his father, on its first voyage from America to the Orient.

While in China, Winslow attends a dinner hosted by a wealthy Chinese merchant and rescues English maiden Lady Jocelyn Huntington (Elinor Fair) from rioting beggars.

Winslow agrees to a race from China to Boston against an English clipper ship, with the fastest vessel to be awarded an important tea contract.

To win, the ships must brave dangerous seas, mutiny, and potential sabotage on board. Romance enters the picture when Lady Jocelyn inadvertently winds up on board the American ship.

The cast features a very young William Boyd in the leading role. Boyd, a popular actor in silent films, would go on to gain fame in later years by playing the character sidekick role of "Hopalong Cassidy" in many Hollywood Westerns. Also, at the time the film was made, female lead Elinor Fair was married to producer Cecil B. DeMille.

The film also features actor Walter Long as Portuguese Joe, a ship's crew member.

Long, a native of Milford, N.H., was a popular character actor with an extensive career in early cinema that ranged from an appearance in D.W. Griffith's epic 'The Birth of a Nation' (1915) all the way to playing the heavy in Laurel & Hardy comedies much later.

Critics today hail 'The Yankee Clipper' as a masterful drama from the height of the silent film era, one imbued with a great sense of authenticity and historical accuracy. The production filmed on location at sea for six weeks aboard the 1856 wooden square-rigger 'Indiana.'

Leonard Maltin called 'The Yankee Clipper' a "splendid 19th-century seagoing adventure, as clipper ships race full-sail from China to Boston to earn a coveted tea trade contract. En route: typhoon! No fresh water! Mutiny! And a woman on board! Realistic yet heightened drama has it all."

Music for 'The Yankee Clipper' will be created live by Jeff Rapsis, who specializes in improvising scores to classic silent films in live performance. For each film, Rapsis will improvise a score from original musical material that he creates beforehand, using a digital synthesizer to recreate the sound and texture of a full orchestra.

"What I try to do," Rapsis said, "is create music that bridges the gap between a film that might be 80 or 90 years old, and the musical expectations of today's audiences."

The Custom House Maritime Museum is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization operated by the Newburyport Maritime Society, whose mission is to protect, preserve and interpret the maritime heritage of the lower Merrimack Valley region and how it relates to American history.

'The Yankee Clipper' will be shown on Saturday, Jan. 19 at 6 p.m. at the Custom House Maritime Museum, 25 Water St., Newburyport, Mass. Admission is $20 for members, $25 for non-members, with all proceeds to benefit the Custom House Maritime Museum. For more information and to buy tickets online, visit www.customhousemaritimemuseum.org, or call (978) 462-8681.

The Great Popcorn Spill of 2018, plus Chaney's 'Hunchback' Sunday, 10/28 in Wilton, N.H.

A legendary local disaster is the Great Molasses Flood of 1919. Seriously! Click on the link and you'll see. (But come back!)

Well, to that catastrophe we can now as the Great Popcorn Spill of 2018. Again, seriously! (But no link as of yet.)

This happened on Friday, Oct. 26 at the Regent Theatre in Arlington, Mass., a close-in suburb of Boston.

I know because not only did I witness this disaster, I actually caused it.

What happened was I was at the keyboard below the stage, playing spooky warm-up music for one of the Regent's trademark original shows. That night, it was a tribute to iconic illusionist Harry Houdini, who died on Halloween in 1926, hence the timing.

The show included 'Terror Island' (1920), one of Houdini's starring silent pictures, with me on hand to do music, preceded by two local magicians who would recreate some of Houdini's astonishing feats live on stage.

It being a Regent spectacular, I wasn't surprised that the event was reserved seating. But as I sat there spinning spooky music prior to the show, I was surprised when a couple came in and had seats right behind me.

I mean right behind me. Like there was no room for their legs with the keyboard and me taking up all the space.

But we shifted things around a bit and they were fine with it, they said. So I continued until showtime, when Leland Stein of the Regent came down to cue me to stop so he could welcome everyone and get things started.

So I stopped, playing a cheesy fanfare to give Leland at least the status of a game show host.

People applauded (because I stopped, I assumed) but then Leland encouraged further applause for the accompanist, which ensued.

Okay, I thought, preparing to artfully swing around on the piano bench and acknowledge the warm welcome. Here we go...

...and BAM! My right hand sailed straight into a gargantuan tub of popcorn being held (not very tightly) by the poor guy behind me.

Before either of us could react, an absolute ERUPTION of popcorn exploded in all directions.

It covered the guy and his companion. It covered the seat and the floor. Drifts of it buried my sustain pedal under the keyboard. Not a single kernel was left in the bucket.

And the guy just sat there, expressionless, while I began making profuse apologies, and also tried not to laugh in his face.

He really did say nothing, even as I swung off the bench and slunk below Leland, squishing popcorn underfoot, to make my way up the aisle the concession counter in the lobby.

I came back with a replacement popcorn for the guy, who still displayed no emotion or reaction, and then began kicking drifts of spilled popcorn out from under my keyboard.

At intermission I approach the couple to offer a full apology. Finally the guy responded, but not in the way I expected.

Quietly and amiably, he said: "I thought it was funny."

Whew! I thought he was quietly summoning a curse on me, but instead he found the Great Popcorn Spill of 2018 entertaining. Duly noted. For future reference: if a film doesn't seem to be connecting with an audience, try throwing food at them. (Before they start throwing it at me.)

So I'm now in the Halloween Home Stretch, having played 'Faust' (1926) last night at the Leavitt Theatre in Ogunquit, Maine, and prepping for Lon Chaney's 'Hunchback' (1923) at the Town Hall Theatre in Wilton, N.H.

After that, all that remains (remains!) is 'Phantom' at the Colonial Theatre in Keene on Halloween itself. Then I can put away the cape and fake teeth for another year.

I'm actually quite excited about 'Phantom' because it's the first of two big shows at the Colonial, which opened as a silent film theater in 1924. And the Colonial's original opening night will be recreated in January with a screening of Chaney's 'Hunchback,' the first film to play there.

More on all that in weeks to come. For now, here's the press release about this afternoon's screening of 'Hunchback' in Wilton. It's a rainy afternoon here...good weather for movie-going!

* * *

Quasimodo (Lon Chaney) is offered a drink.

THURSDAY, OCT. 4, 2018 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com

Chaney as Quasimodo in 'Hunchback of Notre Dame' on Sunday, Oct. 28 at Town Hall Theatre

Just in time for Halloween: Classic silent version starring Lon Chaney as Quasimodo to be presented with live music

WILTON, N.H.—It was a spectacular combination: Lon Chaney, the actor known as the "Man of 1,000 Faces," and Universal's big screen adaptation of Victor Hugo's sprawling tale of the tortured Quasimodo.

The result was the classic silent film version of 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame' (1923), which will be shown just in time for Halloween at Wilton's Town Hall Theatre

Silent film with live music returns to the Town Hall Theatre, 40 Main St., Wilton, with the thriller 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame' on Sunday, Oct. 28 at 4:30 p.m.

The special Halloween program will be presented with live music by silent film accompanist Jeff Rapsis. Admission is free, with a donation of $5 per person requested to help cover expenses.

The film is based on Victor Hugo's 1831 novel, and is notable for the grand sets that recall 15th century Paris as well as for Chaney's performance and make-up as the tortured hunchback Quasimodo.

The film elevated Chaney, already a well-known character actor, to full star status in Hollywood, and also helped set a standard for many later horror films, including Chaney's 'The Phantom of the Opera' in 1925.

While Quasimodo is but one of many interconnecting characters in the original Hugo novel, he dominates the narrative of this expensive Universal production.

In the story, Jehan (Brandon Hurst), the evil brother of the archdeacon, lusts after a Gypsy named Esmeralda (Patsy Ruth Miller) and commands the hunchback Quasimodo (Chaney) to capture her.

Military captain Phoebus (Norman Kerry) also loves Esmeralda and rescues her, but the Gypsy is not unsympathetic to Quasimodo's condition, and an unlikely bond forms between them.

After vengeful Jehan frames Esmeralda for the attempted murder of Phoebus, Quasimodo's feelings are put to the test in a spectacular climax set in and around the Cathedral of Notre Dame.

As the hunchbacked bellringer Quasimodo, Chaney adorned himself with a special device that made his cheeks jut out grotesquely; a contact lens that blanked out one of his eyes; and, most painfully, a huge rubber hump covered with coarse animal fur and weighing anywhere from 30 to 50 pounds.

Chaney deeply identified with Quasimodo, the deformed bell-ringer at Notre Dame Cathedral who was deafened by his work. Chaney was raised by deaf parents and did a lot of his communication with mom and dad through pantomime.

“The idea of doing the picture was an old one of mine and I had studied Quasimodo until I knew him like a brother, knew every ghoulish impulse of his heart and all the inarticulate miseries of his soul,” Chaney told an interviewer with Movie Weekly magazine in 1923.

“Quasimodo and I lived together—we became one. At least so it has since seemed to me. When I played him, I forgot my own identity completely and for the time being lived and suffered with the Hunchback of Notre Dame.”

The film was a major box office hit for Universal Studios, and Chaney's performance continues to win accolades even today.

"An awe-inspiring achievement, featuring magnificent sets (built on the Universal backlot), the proverbial cast of thousands (the crowd scenes are mesmerizing) and an opportunity to catch Lon Chaney at his most commanding," wrote critic Matt Brunson of Creative Loafing in 2014.

Screening this classic version of 'Hunchback' provides local audiences the opportunity to experience silent film as it was intended to be shown: on the big screen, in restored prints, with live music, and with an audience.

"If you can put pieces of the experience back together again, it's surprising how these films snap back to life," said Rapsis, a New Hampshire-based silent film accompanist who creates music for silent film screenings at venues around the country.

"By showing the films as they were intended, you can really get a sense of why people first fell in love with the movies."

In creating music for silent films, Rapsis performs on a digital synthesizer that reproduces the texture of the full orchestra and creates a traditional "movie score" sound.

'The Hunchback of Notre Dame' (1923) starring Lon Chaney, will be screened with live music on Sunday, Oct. 28 at 4:30 p.m. at the Wilton Town Hall Theatre, 40 Main St., Wilton, N.H.

Admission is free; a donation of $5 per person is requested to help defray expenses. For more info, call (603) 654-3456 or visit www.wiltontownhalltheatre.com.

Taking a different approach to Halloween: this year, no plan or pattern whatsoever!

Let's see. Tomorrow it's Frankenstein. Friday it's Houdini. On Saturday, it's Satan. And Sunday, a Hunchback.

With an appointment calendar like that, Halloween can't be far off. And sure enough, the big day itself arrives Wednesday next week, when I have a date with the Phantom of the Opera.

It's the busiest time of the year for silent film accompaniment. The calendar is packed with screenings for boys and ghouls in search of an other-worldly experience.

Hence I'm keeping appointments with everyone from the Vampire Nosferatu to Mephistopheles, a.k.a. Satan.

This variety is a change for me. For previous Halloweens, I've generally picked one film to concentrate on accompanying, and then taken it around to all the various venues looking for a silent film spook fix.

Also, I tried to focus on films that aren't shown as often as the two biggies: Murnau's 'Nosferatu' (1922) and Lon Chaney's 'Phantom of the Opera' (1925).

So one year it was Alfred Hitchcock's early silent thriller 'The Lodger' (1927). Another year it was 'The Cat and the Canary' (1927), Paul Leni's Gothic haunted house picture. And another year it was Barrymore's 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde' (1920).

By concentrating on one film for Halloween and taking it on tour, so to speak, I could really get to know the picture, and so burnish the improv-based accompaniment to a high gloss.

Well, not this year. This time around, it's a different title for nearly every screening. The only repeats: two Phantoms and two Hunchbacks. Otherwise, it's one-offs throughout the season.

Which I don't mind. It's a different kind of challenge to create music for a variety of films, one after another. And I've always felt that for me, the key to doing it well was doing it a lot.

That's what happened last week, which included a four-day stretch of shows in three different states. On Thursday in Massachusetts, it was 'Hunchback of Notre Dame,' followed by 'Wings' (a non-Halloween title!) on Friday up in Maine. Then on Saturday, it was the German thriller 'Der Golem' (1921) over in Vermont then on Sunday 'The Phantom of the Opera' down in Massachusetts again.

And I have to say, but by the time I sat down at the keyboard on Sunday night at the Aeronaut Brewing Co. in Somerville, Mass., I felt I was playing with a fluency and ease that simply wasn't present when I started the four-day run.

So doing it a lot, and mixing up the titles to challenge myself, really seems to work for me.

Does it work for you? Find out by attending one of the upcoming Halloween screenings on my calendar:

• Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2018, 7 p.m.: "Frankenstein program" at the Regent Theatre, 7 Medford St., Arlington, Mass.; (781) 646-4849. A triple feature of Frankenstein films, including the early (and short) silent Thomas Edison version. Tickets $8 per person. For more info: www.regenttheatre.com.

• Friday, Oct. 26, 2018, 8 p.m. "Harry Houdini Celebration"; Regent Theatre, 7 Medford St., Arlington, Mass.; (781) 646-4849. Celebrate the birthday of Harry Houdini, legendary illusionist and escape artist, with an evening that combines live performance with a silent film starring Houdini himself as a James Bond-like action/adventure hero. Silent film with live music in a treasured neighborhood theater and performance space. Tickets $15 in advance, $20 at door. For more info: www.regenttheatre.com.

• Saturday, Oct. 27, 2018, 7 p.m.: "Faust" (1926) directed by F.W. Murnau, starring Emil Jannings; Leavitt Theatre, 259 Main St. Route 1, Ogunquit, Maine; (207) 646-3123; http://www.leavittheatre.com. Join us for another season of vintage cinema at the historic Leavitt Theatre. Emil Jannings stars in F.W. Murnau's terrifying version of the classic tale. A visual tour de force, full of creepy characters and frightening images. See great silent films with live music in a summer-only theater opened in 1923 and barely changed since. Admission $10 per person.

• Sunday, Oct. 28, 2018, 4:30 p.m.: "Hunchback of Notre Dame" (1923) starring Lon Chaney; Wilton Town Hall Theatre, Main Street, Wilton, N.H.; (603) 654-3456; www.wiltontownhalltheatre.com. Just in time for Halloween! Lon Chaney stars in the original screen adaptation of Victor Hugo's classic novel about a deformed bellringer in medieval Paris. A moving and timeless drama filled with classic scenes and capped with a thrilling climax! Monthly series of silent films with live music at a theater where movies have been shown since 1912! Admission free, donations of $5 per person encouraged.

• Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2018, 7 p.m.: "The Phantom of the Opera" (1925) starring Lon Chaney; Colonial Theatre, 95 Main Street, Keene, N.H.; (603) 352-2033; www.thecolonial.org. Celebrate Halloween with one of the all-time classics. Long before Andrew Lloyd Webber created the hit stage musical, this silent film adaptation starring Lon Chaney helped place 'Phantom' firmly in the pantheon of both horror and romance. Silent film with live music in a theater that originally opened as a silent movie house in 1924. Tickets: $6.50 per person, general admission.

Coming up next: 'The Man Who Laughs' on Wednesday, 10/25 at the Regent Theatre

Conrad Veidt and Olga Baklanova in 'The Man Who Laughs.'

Coming up next: live music for 'The Man Who Laughs' (1928), one of the truly great silent films for Halloween.

Nothing wrong with perennial favorites 'Nosferatu' and 'Phantom.' But if I had my way, 'The Man Who Laughs' would screen just as often.

Never seen it? You chance is coming this week: it's playing on Wednesday, Oct. 25 at 7 p.m. at the Regent Theatre in Arlington, Mass.

More details in the press release below.

Actually, I think 'The Man Who Laughs' is a great film for any time of the year. It's a truly skillful adaptation of an underrated Victor Hugo novel.

And the title character seems tailor-made for silent film: a man whose disfigured face forces him to display an insane grin no matter what tragedy befalls him. Talk about visuals!

The film's principle drawing card for today's audiences is that the make-up job for the title character, played by Conrad Veidt, inspired the look of Batman's nemesis, the Joker.

But 'The Man Who Laughs' is not just a make-up job. It's full of strong performances, starting with Veidt, who gives it his all in a role that must have been a challenge to realize.

The supporting cast is equally strong, and generously salted with odd-ball character actors that director Paul Leni often employed.

Even Mary Philbin, as the blind Dea, redeems herself from her 'Phantom' over-acting with a remarkably nuanced performance.

And the story really taps into the big emotions that drive the greatest silent films: love with a capital L, fear, jealousy, joy, greed, and so much more.

So I invite you to join us for 'The Man Who Laughs' at the Regent, a fantastic neighborhood theater and performance space that's an ideal venue for silent film to be seen at its best.

* * *
A few notes from the road.

Lately, if my life were a Dr. Seuss book, it would be "Oh, The Places You'll Go!"

Really: with Halloween coming up fast, the past five days have taken me to silent film screenings in all kinds of venues.

How about a town office complex in Jacksonville, Vermont?

Or the Tuscan Opera House, a ramshackle function hall just down the road from an enormous paper mill complex in Rumford, Maine? (On the program: 'The Man Who Laughs.'

And Brandon Town Hall in Brandon, Vt., where I accompanied the silent version of 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.'

And how about the newly renovated Natick Center for the Arts in Natick, Mass.?

In a break from the Halloween programming, the folks in Natick opted for a Charlie Chaplin comedy program to launch what's hoped to be a regular silent film/live music series.

It's about the right size, and the projection system is top notch.

So I hope a series comes to pass, as it's an excellent venue for silent film. As a bonus, it has a brand spanking new Yamaha concert grand piano right in the hall:

I didn't make use of it as I had already set up my digital synthesizer for the Chaplin program. But I spent some time getting to know the Yamaha, and it's like driving a Porsche. I look forward to working with it for future programs if the opportunity arises.

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TUESDAY, OCT. 10, 2017 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com

'The Man Who Laughs' (1928) to screen with live music on Wednesday, Oct. 25 at Regent Theatre

Just in time for Halloween: Creepy silent film thriller inspired the look of Batman's nemesis 'The Joker'

ARLINGTON. Mass.—'The Man Who Laughs' (1928), a classic silent film thriller, will be screened with live music on Wednesday, Oct. 25 at 7 p.m. at the Regent Theatre, 7 Medford St., Arlington, Mass.

General seating admission is $12 per person in advance or day of show.

Live music will be provided by Jeff Rapsis, a New Hampshire-based silent film accompanist.

'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 travelling 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).

Upcoming programs of silent film with live music at the Regent include:

• Friday, Jan. 26 at 7 p.m., 'The Wizard of Oz' (1925). Early silent film version of Frank L. Baum's immortal tales features silent comedian Larry Semon in a slapstick romp that also casts Oliver Hardy as the Tin Man and takes extreme liberties with the beloved classic tales and characters. Oz as you've never seen it before!

'The Man Who Laughs' (1928) will be screened on Wednesday, Oct. 25 at 7 p.m. at the Regent Theatre, 7 Medford St., Arlington, Mass.

General seating admission is $12 per person in advance or day of show. Tickets may be booked online at www.regenttheatre.com. For more information, call the theater at (781) 646-4849.

For more information on the music, visit www.jeffrapsis.com.