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Peter Pan, the Darlings, Captain Hook—the abundant seeds of endless adaptations and franchises—all came into being via J.M. Barrie’s pen. In 1924, based on the original books and play by Barrie, came the very first filmic adaption of Peter Pan—an authorized (by Barrie!) silent feature, faithful particularly to the theatrical production. This historical gem, previously believed to be lost, was luckily deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” by the United States Library of Congress, and subsequently preserved in the National…

1926, Douris Corp., 80 min, USA, Dir: Buster Keaton During the Civil War, train engineer Johnny Grey (Keaton, at his most fearless and funny) has his beloved locomotive stolen by Union spies. He boards and mans another massive train, appropriately named "Texas," and sets out to pursue and catch up to his kidnapped steam engine. This classic film is not only an inimitable comedy but also a feat of physical daring, and is not to be missed! Includes Keaton riding…

  Feat. Live Accompaniment from Cliff Retallick! The first of three King Vidor films featuring Marion Davies, The Patsy is an energetic and frothy comedy, charmingly driven by its screwball leading lady. Vidor—one of the great filmmakers of the 1920s—made the film at the insistence of William Randolph Hearst, newspaper man and media mogul, who confidently cooked up the idea for this hit. Davies, previously known for drama, shines as something of a proto-teenager in an auspicious start to her…

100 years ago this month, Charlie Chaplin became the highest paid entertainer in the world when he signed with the Mutual Film Corporation; the dozen shorts he produced for them include some of the funniest and most brilliant sequences of his career. Program includes: “The Immigrant” (1917, 22 min.) The Tramp sails to America and falls in love with Edna Purviance in Chaplin’s favorite two-reel comedy. “The Cure” (1917, 31 min.) Chaplin plays a drunkard who inebriates an entire health…

Our "Retroformat," movies on 8mm series presents “Fatty and Mabel at Keystone” in our intimate, Spielberg Theatre. This two hour program is an evening of silent shorts on 8mm featuring two of the era’s most beloved stars, Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle and Mabel Normand. The program includes a 100th anniversary screening of the beautifully made comedy classic “Fatty and Mabel Adrift” (1916, 34 min. Dir. Roscoe Arbuckle), a true gem from the Keystone studios, plus “Mabel, Fatty and the Law” and…

A famous opera singer lost her voice when her son was born, and has drowned her sorrows in drink. When a murder is committed near her house, she invents a story in order to get herself back in front of the public again. However, the story she comes up with results in her son being arrested for the murder. Staring Jack Pickford, Constance Bennet and Louise Dresser. Dir Clarence Brown, 1925, 35mm (Print Restored Courtesy of the UCLA Film &…

A rare comedy from the typically austere D.W. Griffith, Sally of the Sawdust is a delightful gem and the veritable kick off of W.C. Fields’s unmatched career. Based on the 1923 stage musical Poppy, Sally is rife with what we now know as trademark Fields — bumbling idiocy, juggling, dog-kicking — all in the midst of circus antics galore. Fields plays Prof. Eustace, a lovably notorious juggler who becomes the unlikely guardian of Sally after her mother (rejected by her affluent parents for marrying…