| bOB MITCHELL'S FAVORITE WESTERNS / Silent Wednesdays in May at 8pm |
Bob Mitchell is an institution here at the Silent Movie Theatre. At 95, he’s probably been playing organ accompaniment to silent films longer than anyone else on the planet, and he plays them like a master. He showed such musical aptitude for the organ that he was hired at the age of 12 to play at the Pasadena Playhouse for original runs of classic silent films like Metropolis and The Iron Horse. Bob’s been asking us to play some more Westerns here, because as a child — which for him means when these movies originally came out — those were his favorites. As an amateur historian, and a romantic, Bob holds a special place for these films and their actors in his heart. So, we asked him to pick a few, and give us not just his fine musicianship, but fascinating personal perspective on what these films meant to someone who was there.
5/7 @ 8pm / SERIES: BOB MITCHELL'S FAVORITE WESTERNS
 Tumbleweeds
Tumbleweeds was the swan song of cowboy movie legend William S. Hart, who also secretly co-directed the film. It was both his last silent western, and one of his best. Bob Mitchell: “Hart was a Presbyterian minister’s son, and then I think he went into Shakespearean acting. He was middle-aged by the time he was famous, and became a kind of symbol — his face was so well known, and always associated with ‘cleaning up’ the West. Always the same routine, always a man who closes down the gambling and saloon of a lawless town — but he never gets the girl. He just goes off into sunset. Tumbleweeds was made in ‘25, so I never got to play it in its original run. The song was so popular…[singing] oh, the weeeeeeeds keep a-tumblin’ down’, and I think the association of the song makes it particularly appealing to me. That, and the image of those weeds tumbling across the prairie make it a wonderful piece of art.”
Dirs. King Baggot & William S. Hart, 1925, 16mm, 78 min.
Tickets - $10
5/14 @ 8pm / SERIES: BOB MITCHELL'S FAVORITE WESTERNS
 The Great K & A Train Robbery
Bob told us to pick any Tom Mix western, ‘cause he hadn’t seen ‘em; he just really wants to. The Great K & A Train Robbery is an exemplar of the kind of entertainments Mix regularly delivered to cheering boys everywhere. Bob: “All these movies are based around the brief period of the Pony Express, which only lasted for ten years, but it was so colorful that the memory went on in stories, plays and movies for a long time after. But Tom Mix’s movies were made before I started playing, and besides, they were considered too vulgar for the audience back then at the Pasadena Playhouse — we never even saw a Chaplin or a Keaton film there! But Mix was household name; he typified the Western milieu I dreamt about as a kid. Tom Mix was the big name we all wanted to be. There was Hoot Gibson, and of course, William S. Hart, but Mix was Cowboy #1!”
Dir. Lewis Seiler, 1926, 16mm, 53 min.
Tickets - $10
5/21 @ 8pm / SERIES: BOB MITCHELL'S FAVORITE WESTERNS
 The Vanishing American
Based on a Zane Grey novel, The Vanishing American concerns a college-educated Native American protagonist who meets with racism. Bob: “The interest in Native American culture started around 1914; there was the belief that the Indians were dying out. This picture was considered important enough that the producers had a theme song composed by Charles Wakefield Cadman, a very respected composer. Well, Cadman lived on a reservation for a while, and later wrote a song called “The Land of the Sky Blue Water” that became a huge hit. The Vanishing American was particularly close to me because when I was playing for it, Cadman came down and played a show — he had a beautiful high tenor voice — and I got to set up the stops on the organ for him, and he gave me a copy of the music, which I still remember. I want to play the score he wrote, which I like quite a bit, for the show.”
Dir. George B. Seitz, 1925, 16mm, 110 min.
Tickets - $10
5/28 @ 8pm / SERIES: BOB MITCHELL'S FAVORITE WESTERNS
 The Iron Horse
The Iron Horse was a breakout film for John Ford, a true film genius, and the greatest of Western directors. 20th Century Fox recently struck a newly restored 35mm print! Bob: “The Iron Horse was my favorite. I like it the best of all because it’s historic. It shows Lincoln and shows how important it was to build the railroads. They cut some parts out of later prints; in the original, they showed the invention of the safety match — before then you had to use tinder. Erno Rapee, who was the first person to introduce a symphony orchestra into silent pictures, composed ‘The Iron Horse March’ for this picture, and it was quite stirring. When I was a child there was an orchestra at the Rialto, and I got to see it there. Though most of the music was derivative, it was quite beautiful. I love playing it.”
Dir. John Ford, 1924, 35mm, 133 min.
Tickets - $10
| rudolph valentino / Silent Wednesdays in June at 8pm |
 The original filmic embodiment of the “Latin Lover”, Rodolfo Alfonzo Raffaelo Pierre Filibert Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antonguolla (better known to the world as Rudolph Valentino) was one of the most popular male stars of 1920’s silent cinema, and easily the most suave and sensual. His charm, good looks and graceful European manner polarized American audiences, captivating the romantic imagination of women while earning the bitter scorn of men; in an infamous 1926 editorial, the Chicago Tribune went so far as to blame him as a primary source of the effeminization of the American male! By his untimely death at the age of 31, Valentino left behind a legacy of fifteen starring roles that still retain their power and vitality eighty years later.
6/4 @ 8pm / SERIES: rudolph valentino
 Four Horseman of the Apocalypse
After working as an extra for seven years, Valentino was cast in the role that, thanks to seventy-five feet of filmed post-tango kissing, would transform him nearly overnight into his generation's most bankable heartthrob. Valentino's magnetic charisma crackles in a performance that possibly originated the “Latin Lover” archetype. Here, he tackles the part of a wealthy playboy and tango champion Julio Desnoyers, who re-examines his life in the face of the horrors of World War I. A decidedly anti-war epic that rivals Gone With the Wind in its sprawling multi-generational scope, The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse is still remembered primarily for its introduction of the lusty young Valentino to legions of ’20s women starved for a new sex symbol.
Dir. Rex Ingram, 1921, 35mm, 134 min.
Tickets - $10
6/11 @ 8pm / SERIES: rudolph valentino
 Camille
Gorgeous Art Deco sets help complete the lavish portrait of Parisian life presented in Camille, the classic romantic tragedy that cemented Valentino's reputation as a fantastically sensual leading man. His turn opposite the eponymous lead character (as star-crossed lover Armand Duval) is heartrending in light of the similarities his own life shared with this film's narrative: both were marked by impossible love, shocking betrayals, lapses into poverty, and a legendary untimely death. Armand takes on enough emotional turmoil to elicit a lifetime of crying jags when he becomes smitten with the ravishing (and tubercular) young courtesan Marguerite. This stunning adaptation of Alexander Dumas' timeless melodrama rivals Garbo's 1936 version in vision and poignancy, in large part due to the impressionistic, unusual set design of Natacha Rambova, who soon after would become Valentino's second (and third!) wife. Rambova also incited Valentino's interest in séances and the occult, a fascination that no doubt informed the very personal, haunting contribution he made to this unforgettable film.
Dir. Ray C. Smallwood, 1921, 35mm, 70 min.
Tickets - $10
6/18 @ 8pm / SERIES: rudolph valentino
 Monsieur Beaucaire
Valentino's reign as the uncontested romantic lead of the silent age continued with this rarely screened costume drama, a tumultuous Louis XV-era love story that's charmingly Shakespearean in its use of duplicitous and mistaken identities. Rejected by the petulant Princess Henriette, an exasperated Duke of Chartes (Valentino) flees to England, where he goes undercover as a carefree barber. Though delighted with the transformations his life as a commoner affords, the Duke becomes infatuated with a noblewoman, and resorts to blackmail to re-enter Royal circles in order to win her love. Countless twists result as the Duke disentangles himself from increasingly complicated deceptions – along the way, the film showcases the gentler side of its star, whose public face as a tall, dark Italian eclipsed the fact that Valentino was (ooh-la-la!) half-French.
Dir. Sidney Olcott, 1924, 16mm, 106 min.
Tickets - $10
6/25 @ 8pm / SERIES: rudolph valentino
 The Sheik
shown with
The Son of the Sheik
Valentino's deviation from his established persona resulted in the wildly successful The Sheik, in which the Latin Lover traded in his tango shoes for the flowing robes of the fiery, tempestuous Ahmed. The central story follows his desperate pursuit of a fiercely independent British socialite. Unfamiliar with the conventions of courtship, Ahmed opts to kidnap her, carrying her off to his ornate tent-palace. This leads to quite a few disasters and delicious dilemmas, depicted with the dangerous elegance that Valentino would bring to his performance five years later in The Son of the Sheik, casting Valentino as both Ahmed and Ahmed Jr. (thanks to some strange double-exposures). Here, Ahmed Jr. becomes enamored with a true spitfire, a beautiful dancer played by silent star Vilma Bánky. Tempered by gentle humor and wonderful spectacle, the film is most often noted for its artful cinematography, which managed to capture Valentino's final performance with richness and depth.
The Sheik Dir. George Melford, 1921, 16mm, 80 min.
The Son Of The Sheik Dir. George Fitzmaurice, 1926, 35mm, 68 min
Tickets - $10
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