Anything But Silent
Live Theatre Organ Accompaniment by Ben Model
DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS IN
ROBIN HOOD
Wednesday, May 15th at 7:30
$11 Members | $16 Public
The story of the medieval English hero who robs from the rich and gives to the poor gets its first Hollywood treatment with this colossal and immortal silent classic.
Starring Douglas Fairbanks at his swashbuckling best, Robin Hood was one of the biggest and most expensive movies of the 1920’s. A full scale castle and the entire village of Nottingham were constructed for the film. The Earl of Huntingdon (Fairbanks) accompanies King Richard (Wallace Beery) on a crusade but returns to England when he learns of Prince John's (Sam De Grasse) efforts to secure the throne for himself. Under the name of Robin Hood he leads a group of men who "take from the rich; give to the poor," and falls in love with the beautiful Lady Marian (Enid Bennett). Director Allan Dwan was a trained engineer, and he ensured that the sets was filled with devices that would enhance Doug’s dazzling stunts. The film combines a first half loaded with court spectacle and pageantry with a second half brimming with Fairbanks' stunning action sequences and irresistible persona — mirthful, brave, a little bashful with women, and owning a boy’s spirit of high adventure. Born a noble but unfairly dispossessed, Doug’s Robin wins back his position through his own ingenuity and courage. The 1922 debut of Robin Hood at the Egyptian Theatre was the first ever Hollywood movie premiere and remains one of the most influential depictions of Robin Hood to this day, with many of the familiar elements of the Robin Hood legend presented on screen for the first time.
(USA, 1922, 117 Mins, NR, Silent with English Intertitles, DCP | Dir. Allan Dwan)
Ben Model is one of America’s leading silent film
accompanists, and has been playing piano and organ for silent films at
the New York MoMA since 1984, and the CAC since 2006.
