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The Mont Alto Orchestra's schedule of silent films and dances

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EVENT DETAILS

March 23, 2013

The Mollycoddle

Louisville Arts Center
Grant and Pine, Louisville

7:30 •  $5

Accompanied by Rodney Sauer on solo piano

Before his mega-hit The Mark of Zorro, Douglas Fairbanks had a solid career as an athletic comedian. In The Mollycoddle, Doug plays the grandson of a wild-west sheriff, but - being raised in Europe - he grows up to be a sad, weak "mollycoddle" instead of a real American. Invited to visit Arizona, he runs afoul of diamond-smuggler Wallace Beery, who has enslaved Hopi Indians at a secret diamond mine. It's up to Doug to get in touch with his inner cowboy, defeat the villain, and save the Hopi, as well as the beautiful Ruth Renick, in an action-packed finale. This film is notable as the directorial debut of Victor Fleming, who later directed The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind. Fairbanks was fascinated by American Indian culture and the western landscape. The outdoor adventure sequences filmed in Arizona's Painted Desert are quite beautiful, and the film's attitude towards the Hopi is refreshingly respectful for 1920, if occasionally patronizing by modern standards.

April 14, 2013

Tea Dance

Avalon Ballroom
6185 Arapahoe Ave.
Boulder, Colorado

2-5 pm • $15
Dance lesson at 1 pm.

Tango, waltz, one-step, and foxtrot to the music of the Mont Alto Ragtime and Tango Orchestra, with singer Susan Rogers. A wide variety of danceable music on one of the areas finest and largest dance floors! Sponsored by American Vernacular Dance.

May 1, 2013

The Oyster Princess (1919)

Boulder Public Library
1000 Canyon Blvd.
Boulder, Colorado

6:30 pm • Free

Ernst Lubitsch, before being known for directing sophisticated comedies in America (Trouble in Paradise, The Marriage Circle), directed a series of much wilder comedies in Berlin. This wacky film features German star Ossi Oswalda as the spoiled daughter of an American industrialist (in the canned oyster business) who wants to marry a German prince. Combining broad comedy (including a foxtrot epidemic), social satire (the Multi-Millionaires' Daughters' Association Against Dipsomania), and amazing art deco set decoration, this film is a wickedly entertaining show. Accompanied by Rodney Sauer on piano with Britt Swenson on violin. The film is about 60 minutes, so instead of dinner and a movie, do a movie and dinner!

May 5, 2013

The Oyster Princess (1919)

Goethe Institute
170 Beacon St.
Boston

5 pm, free

Ernst Lubitsch, before being known for directing sophisticated comedies in America (Trouble in Paradise, The Marriage Circle), directed a series of much wilder comedies in Berlin. This wacky film features German star Ossi Oswalda as the spoiled daughter of an American industrialist (in the canned oyster business) who wants to marry a German prince. Combining broad comedy (including a foxtrot epidemic), social satire (the Multi-Millionaires' Daughters' Association Against Dipsomania), and amazing art deco set decoration, this film is a wickedly entertaining show. Accompanied by Rodney Sauer on piano with Britt Swenson on violin.

May 22, 2013

Four Funny Films

George Reynolds Branch Library

3595 Table Mesa Drive
Boulder, Colorado

 

Rodney Sauer will be presenting four short silent film comedies, starring comedians such as Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, and Mabel Normand. Stay tuned for details.

June 14-16, 2013

The Hitchcock 9

• Blackmail
• The Ring
• The Lodger

Castro Theater
429 Castro Street
San Francisco

The San Francisco Silent Film Festival is presenting all nine of the silent films directed by Alfred Hitchcock, recently restored by the British Film Institute. The Mont Alto Orchestra is creating new scores for three of them, and the others will be accompanied by favorite S.F. performers like Stephen Horne. The full schedule is on the San Francisco Silent Film Festival web site.

June 23, 2013

Four Funny Films

Meadows Branch Library

3 pm • free

4800 Baseline Road, Boulder, CO
(located behind Safeway)

Rodney Sauer will be presenting four short silent film comedies, starring comedians such as Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, and Mabel Normand. Stay tuned for details.

July 3, 2013

Blackmail

Chatauqua Auditorium
9th and Baseline
Boulder Colorado

Alfred Hitchcock's last silent film tells the story of a strange triangle -- a detective assigned to a murder, his girlfriend who is the prime suspect, and the blackmailer who knows what she did. Can this be ethically resolved?

July 18-21, 2013

Titles to be announced

San Francisco Silent FIlm Festival

One of the best silent film festivals in the world -- a happy confluence of excellent films, excellent architecture, excellent music, and an excellent audience. Not to be missed! Watch for annoucnements of what we'll be playing at the festival this summer.

August 7, 2013

Peter Pan

Chatauqua Auditorium
9th and Baseline
Boulder Colorado

The silent film version of Peter Pan, over which author J.M. Barrie maintained considerable control, is one of the most beautiful and enchanting silent films. J.M. Barrie selected unknown actress Betty Bronson to play the enigmatic boy who never grows up, and she is supported by excellent character actors Ernest Torrance as Captain Hook and Anna May Wong as Tiger Lily. Children will be highly entertained by the antics of Tinker Bell and the pirates, while parents will appreciate Barrie's unorthodox insights into the nature of childhood.