An autumn tradition at the Dryden Theatre, Silent Tuesdays is a survey of some of the best films in early cinema history: all with live piano accompaniment by Dr. Philip C. Carli. This year’s selection runs from 1913 to the early 1930s, and features the familiar faces of Clara Bow, Gary Cooper, Bebe Daniels, William Powell, Lillian Gish, W.C. Fields, and Louise Brooks, as well as directors such as Carl-Theodor Dreyer, William Wellman, Howard Hawks, Victor Sjöström, and William Wyler. Experience dramas and comedies, romances and westerns—not to mention a special Halloween film featuring Rochester-born Norman Kerry! This is the way to see a silent film: On the big screen with live music!
Dates and Titles:
September 2: Wings (William A. Wellman, US 1927, 144 min., 35mm)
September 9: Feel My Pulse (Gregory La Cava, US 1928, 63 min., 35mm)
September 16: The Passion of Joan of Arc (Le passion de Jeanne d’Arc, Carl Theodor Dreyer, France 1928, 114 min., 35mm)
September 23: The Cradle Snatchers (Howard Hawks, US 1927, 59 min., 35mm)
September 30: Nanook of the North (Robert Flaherty, US 1922, 78 min., DCP)
October 7: The Wind (Victor Sjöström, US 1928, 95 min., 35mm)
October 21: Queen of Spades (Pikovaya dama, Yakov Protazanov, Russia 1916, 68 min., 35mm)
October 30: The Phantom of the Opera (Rupert Julian, US 1925, 93 min., DCP)
November 1 (2 p.m.): The Phantom of the Opera (Rupert Julian, US 1925, 93 min., DCP)
November 4: Silk Stockings (Wesley Ruggles, US 1927, 70 min., 16mm)
November 18: It’s the Old Army Game (A. Edward Sutherland, US 1926, 77 min., 35mm)
November 25: L’Enfant de Paris (Léonce Perret, France 1913, 124 min., 35mm)
December 2: Hell’s Heroes (William Wyler, US 1929, 68 min., 35mm)
December 9: Valley of the Giants (Charles Brabin, US 1927, 70 min., 35mm)
December 16: Dynamite (Cecil B. DeMille, US 1929, 123 min., 35mm)
Events in this Series
Dynamite (35mm)
Silent Tuesdays Cecil B. DeMille’s first film at MGM, and his first “all-talking production,” Dynamite (1929) doesn’t skimp on the director’s boundary-pushing scenarios. Cynthia (Kay Johnson) is in love with Roger (Conrad Nagel), who is married to Marcia (Julie Faye), who has a lover of her own (Joel McCrea).
Valley of the Giants (35mm)
Silent Tuesdays Real-life husband-and-wife Milton Sills and Doris Kenyon play scions of rival lumber barons in this dramatic adventure story. When Bryce Cardigan (Sills) returns home to find his father blinded and the family business in trouble, he devises a plan to build his own railroad to compete with the Pennington business.
Hell’s Heroes (35mm)
Silent Tuesdays Director William Wyler’s first major film is a version of a story popularized by John Ford and John Wayne as 3 Godfathers twenty years later.
The Waltz Dream (35mm)
Silent Tuesdays Inspired by Oscar Strauss’s operetta of the same name, The Waltz Dream tells a tale of unrequited love and arranged marriages in the court of a fictional European country.
It’s the Old Army Game (35mm)
Silent Tuesdays | From Rochester, With Love The hilarious W. C. Fields, in his first starring vehicle, plays put-upon pharmacist Elmer Prettywillie. Endlessly suffering the abuse of overbearing relatives and petty drugstore customers, Elmer finds a number of comically inventive ways to cope.