A NIGHT AT THE CINEMA (program)

1. BARNEY OLDFIELD’S RACE FOR A LIFE (1913). This is the original girl tied to the train tracks film! By the Keystone gang. It has got all your favorite silent movie clichés in one short film. And the ending is shocking!

2. One of the LES VAMPIRES films: early crime thriller serials. They are regarded as classics; episodes are from 1915 and 1916, France.

3. Charlie Chaplin’s A SHOULDER ARMS. Released in October 1918. Charlie in the trenches, Charlie disguised as a tree behind enemy lines, Charlie single-handedly captures the Kaiser.

With live piano accompaniment by silent film pianist Ethan Uslan.

Krannert Art Museum Auditorium, Room 62) Free and open to the public

This sequence of American, British and French silent films  show the changes in silent film through WWI, the program starts with a typical Keystone Cops comedy from right before the war; then we have a horror film from 1915-16; we end with Chaplin’s bittersweet take on the war from 1918.