'SILENTS PLEASE' AT THE SOMERVILLE

The Somerville theatre kicks off a marvelous collection of silent gems in their ongoing monthly series 'SILENTS PLEASE'. All features are projected in glorious 35mm with live music accompaniment. Check the lineup below;

Sunday May 14th 2pm
GREED (1924, 35mm)
When housewife Trina McTeague (ZaSu Pitts) wins the lottery, her comfortable life with her dentist husband, John (Gibson Gowland), is slowly destroyed, in part by her own increasing paranoia and in part by the machinations of a villainous friend, Marcus (Jean Hersholt). Director Erich von Stroheim shot the film, based on the Frank Norris novel "McTeague", on location in and around San Francisco, an extravagance unheard of in the 1920s. His original version, since lost, ran for nearly 10 hours. With live music by Jeff Rapsis


Sunday June 18th 2pm
SO THIS IS PARIS (1926, 35mm)
When Dr. Giraud (Monte Blue) goes to a neighboring apartment to make a complaint, he is shocked to find his old flame, dancer Georgette Lalle (Lilyan Tashman). The chance encounter rekindles a romance, and as Giraud and Georgette start to meet, he tells various cover stories to his wife, Suzanne (Patsy Ruth Miller), about needy patients. After Suzanne hears on the radio that Georgette and Giraud have won a Charleston dance contest, she finally starts to see the truth. With live music by Jeff Rapsis.

Sunday July 9th 2pm
SAFETY LAST! (1923, 35mm)
A boy (Harold Lloyd) moves to New York City to make enough money to support his loving girlfriend (Mildred Davis), but soon discovers that making it in the big city is harder than it looks. When he hears that a store manager will pay $1,000 to anyone who can draw people to his store, he convinces his friend, the "human fly," (Bill Strother) to climb the building and split the profit with him. But when his pal gets in trouble with the law, he must complete the crazy stunt on his own. With live music by Jeff Rapsis.

Sunday August 27th 2pm
GET YOUR MAN (1927, 35mm)
Screenplay by Agnes Brand Leahy, Hope Loring, George Marion, Jr., based on a play by Louis Verneuil. With Clara Bow, Charles “Buddy” Rogers, Josef Swickard, Josephine Dunn. After spending an accidental night together in a Paris wax museum, Clara Bow and Charles Rogers find themselves in love, to the secret relief of Rogers’s aristocratic fiancée, Josephine Dunn. The irresistible Bow was at the height of her popularity when she made this comedy with Hollywood’s leading female director, Dorothy Arzner. Missing scenes have been filled out by stills and newly discovered footage in this 35mm restoration from The Library of Congress. With live music by Jeff Rapsis.


Sunday September 10th 2pm
SHERLOCK HOLMES (1916, 35mm)
Long considered lost until a complete dupe negative was identified in the vaults of la Cinémathèque française last year, this William Gillette film is a vital missing link in the history of Sherlock Holmes on screen. By the time it was produced at Essanay Studios in 1916, Gillette had been established as the world’s foremost interpreter of Holmes on stage—having played him approximately 1300 times since his 1899 debut. This newly-restored edition, thanks to the monumental efforts of both the San Francisco Silent Film Festival and la Cinémathèque française, represents the sole surviving appearance of Gillette’s Holmes on film.

The film faithfully retains the play’s famous set pieces—Holmes’s encounter with Professor Moriarty, his daring escape from the Stepney Gas Chamber, and the tour-de-force deductions. It also illustrates how Gillette, who wrote the adaptation himself, wove bits from Conan Doyle’s stories ranging from “A Scandal in Bohemia” to “The Final Problem,” into an original, innovative mystery play.

Film restorer Robert Byrne says, “It’s an amazing privilege to work with these reels that have been lost for generations. William Gillette’s Sherlock Holmes has ranked among the holy grails of lost film and my first glimpse of the footage confirms Gillette’s magnetism. Audiences are going to be blown away when they see the original Sherlock Holmes on screen for the first time.”

With live music by Jeff Rapsis.

Program notes by The Somerville. More info HERE.