Spooky Silents

My wife and I (and several of our friends) were treated to an event at Maryland Hall in Annapolis last night called “Spooky Silents: A Silent Film Halloween,” featuring three silent short films with live music provided by the Peacherine Ragtime Society Orchestra, a 12-member group of local musicians led by Andrew Greene. 

Greene began the performance with a couple of short tunes, “More Candy: One Step” (1917) by Mel. B. Kaufman and “The Peacherine Rag” (1901) by Scott Joplin before giving the audience a brief history lesson on silent films and how they were enjoyed by audiences nearly 100 years ago. 

I’ve never done much research on silent movies and how the music accompanying them was performed, but I always imagined that most theaters (especially small-town ones) hired a local pianist to play during the films. Larger venues were lucky enough to have combos or small orchestras, such as the Peacherine group. 

I’ve always thought that watching films with an audience adds a completely different dimension than watching them at home, even if you invite several guests over. (I touched on this a few months back after visiting a small-town theater in West Virginia.) Adding live music takes that sense of community one step further, creating an atmosphere that’s instantly more exciting and spontaneous. That certainly was the case as the Peacherine Orchestra provided music for the following short films: 

“Haunted Spooks” (1920) starring Harold Lloyd, directed by Hal Roach and Al Goulding

Lloyd seeks to end it all after being dumped by the love of his life, but what’s this??? A young woman - needing a husband in order to receive an inheritance, which includes an old mansion - hurriedly marries Lloyd. Yet there’s some strange (and hilarious) stuff going on in this old house... (You can find an excellent review of the film here.) 

“One A.M.” (1916) starring Charlie Chaplin, directed by Chaplin

In what is essentially a one-man show, Chaplin plays a young man who’s totally wasted after a night on the town, simply trying to get into his house and go to bed to sleep it off. But things aren’t quite that simple. Only Chaplin could pull off a “Man Against House” comedy that involves sliding carpets, a tiger rug, a spinning table, a Murphy bed and much more. You just can’t beat Chaplin’s physical comedy and inventiveness. 

“The Haunted House” (1921) starring Buster Keaton, directed by Keaton and Clyde Bruckman

The deadpan “Great Stone Face” Keaton plays a bank teller who unknowingly finds himself in the middle of a group of counterfeiters posing as ghosts in a haunted house. I’ve seen some of Keaton’s other short films, and while this one isn’t exactly his best, it’s still very entertaining (especially the impossibly long set of stairs in the dream sequence). 

I’d always wondered what it was like to have been a part of a movie audience during the silent film era, and now I have at least an idea. I sensed an unmistakable feeling of community that Greene touched on during one of his remarks. He mentioned that even though the members of the audience might never see each other again, we shared - for a few moments - something that binds us together. It’s not just a love of film, although that’s certainly a part of it, but I think it’s also a sort of community agreement, that - despite all of the negative things that may be going on in the world and in our lives - we can all agree that the hero onscreen deserves to be cheered, the heroine is beautiful, the villains deserve our enthusiastic contempt, and - perhaps most importantly - we give ourselves permission to laugh out loud with no restraint. 

I hope this isn’t the last silent film project with live music we see in this area. I also hope that other cities and towns are fortunate enough to hold similar events. Silent films on DVD and Blu-ray make for some wonderful viewing, but those same films on a big screen (even if they’re not the best prints) combined with live music (even if it includes a few clunkers here and there) is a treat you shouldn’t miss if you have the opportunity to do so.