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Nate Butler At The Silent Movies
Enjoy classics from the bygone days of silent cinema as Nate Butler plays the piano and provides insightful and occassionally irreverent commentary. NOW AT TWO LOCATIONS! at The Full Circle Brewery 620 F St. Fresno, CA 93706 559-264-6323 $3.00 Admission Cartoons start at 7:00 PM - Feature film at 8:00 - Show over by 10:30 PM Beers, ales, stouts, root beer & wines brewed and sold fresh on the premises. Plus free popcorn, popped fresh on the premises. 21 and over only, unless accompanied by a parent. at The Revue: (559) 499-1844 No cover charge, but donations to the performer are gratefully accepted. Cartoons start at 7:00 PM - Feature film at 8:00 - Show over by 10:30 PM ALL AGES WELCOME! |
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Nate Butler
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COMING ATTRACTIONS:
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| Saturday, January 28 at Revue Cafe (ALL AGES): Charles Chaplin's "Modern Times" Saturday, February 11 at Revue Cafe (ALL AGES): More Movie Magic of SFX Pioneer Georges Melies Saturday, February 18 at Full Circle: Rudolph Valentino in "The Sheik" Saturday, March 17 at Full Circle: "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" No movie nights in April; we will resume in May, dates TBA. |
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Previous Films In This Series:
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Lon Chaney in "Flesh And Blood" (1922) |
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Nate At The Movies Goes Christmas I |
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Nate At The Movies Goes Christmas II Nate At The Movies Goes Christmas! ALL AGES ARE WELCOME no admission charge. |
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Georges Melies' Georges Méliès’ classic “A Trip to the Moon”! Plus other short subjects by Méliès, who is arguably the father of film special effects. |
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Douglas Fairbanks in |
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Buster Keaton in "The Haunted House” (1921) |
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"Haxan: Witchcraft Through The Ages” (1922) Häxan (English title: The Witches or Witchcraft Through The Ages) is a 1922 Swedish/Danish silent film written and directed by Benjamin Christensen. Based partly on Christensen's study of the Malleus Maleficarum, a 15th century German guide for inquisitors, Häxan is a study of how superstition and the misunderstanding of diseases and mental illness could lead to the hysteria of the witch-hunts. |
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Buster Keatron in |
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Buster Keaton
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"The Hunchback of Notre Dame” (1923) |
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Douglas Fairbanks's |
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Tod Browning's |
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Douglas Fairbanks's This swashbuckling adventure was based on the legendary tale of the Medieval hero, Robin Hood, and was the first production to present many of the elements of the legend that became familiar to movie audiences in later versions. Alan Hale, Sr. made such an impression as Little John in this film that he reprised the role sixteen years later in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) opposite Errol Flynn, then played the character again in Rogues of Sherwood Forest in 1950, 28 years after his initial performance in the original Fairbanks film, which is notable for probably being the longest period for any actor to appear in the same major role in film history. |
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D.W. Griffith's "Intolerance” |
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| An Evening of Charlie Chaplin Shorts It’s an evening of short films by Charles Chaplin! The evening begins with classic cartoons starting at 7:00 PM, then at 8:00 PM we’ll begin watching Charles Chaplin in his films “The Tramp” (1915), “Work” (1915), “The Vagabond” (1916), and “Easy Street” (1917), all with piano accompaniment provided by your host Nate Butler. |
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Chartes Chaplin
in "The Vagabond" |
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| "West of Zanzibar” and "The Adventures of Prince Achmed" It’s a double feature of “West of Zanzibar” (1928) and “The Adventures of Prince Achmed” (1926)! Classic cartoons will begin at 7:00 PM, and the first feature, the very dark and depressing “West of Zanzibar” starring Lon Chaney, will begin at 8:00 PM, with piano accompaniment provided by your host Nate Butler. At 9:30 PM we’ll lighten the mood by watching a whimsical and mysterious German masterpiece of cut-out silhouette animation, “The Adventures of Prince Achmed”, a film that some historians credit as being the first surviving full-length animated feature. NOTES: West of Zanzibar is a 1928 American silent film directed by Tod Browning (Dracula, Freaks) about the vengefulness of a cuckolded magician (Lon Chaney) paralyzed in a brawl with his rival (Lionel Barrymore). The supporting cast includes Mary Nolan and Warner Baxter. It is based on a 1926 Broadway play called Kongo starring Walter Huston. Huston starred in the 1932 talkie film adaptation of the same story using the Kongo title. The Adventures of Prince Achmed (German: Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed) is a 1926 German animated fairytale film by Lotte Reiniger. It is the oldest surviving animated feature film; two earlier ones were made in |
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Lon Chaney and Mary Nolan in "West of Zanzibar"
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"The Adventures of Prince Achmed"
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| John Barrymore as "Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde” (1920) The evening begins at 7:00 PM with a few classic Betty Boop cartoons from 1934, including “Betty Boop’s Rise To Fame” and “Betty In Blunderland”. Then, we’ll watch a ten-minute excerpt from another 1920 version of “Dr. Jekyll”, this one starring Sheldon Lewis, followed by the 1925 Stan Laurel comedy “Dr. Pyckle and Mr. Pride”! Shortly after 8:00 PM we’ll begin the main feature, John Barrymore’s 1920 take on “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”. The main feature will be followed by a Keystone Kops comedy. |
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“Broken Blossoms” (1919)
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“The Man Who Laughs” (1928)
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Conrad Veidt as Gwynplaine
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"Laugh Clown Laugh"
Laugh, Clown, Laugh is a 1928 silent film starring Lon Chaney and Loretta Young. The movie was directed by Herbert Brenon and produced and released through MGM Studios. This was Loretta Young's first major movie role, at the age of fourteen. In interviews near the end of her life, she remembered her gratitude towards Chaney for his kindness and guidance, and for protecting her from director Brenon's sometimes harsh treatment. |
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"The Lost World"
The Lost World is a 1925 silent film adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's 1912 book of the same name. The movie stars Wallace Beery as Professor Challenger. This version was directed by Harry O. Hoyt and featured pioneering stop motion special effects by Willis O'Brien (an invaluable warm up for his work on the original King Kong directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack). In 1998, the film was deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the |
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"The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari"
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is considered to be one of the most influential and spooky -- of the early German Expressionist films. The narrator, Francis, and his friend Alan visit a carnival in a village where they see Dr. Caligari and the somnambulist Cesare (Conrad Veidt), whom the doctor is displaying as an attraction. Caligari brags that Cesare can answer any question he is asked. When Alan asks Cesare how long he has to live, Cesare tells Alan that he will die before dawn tomorrow a prophecy which is fulfilled. Soon, somnambulism, murder, abduction, and madness play out against some of the most deliriously off-kilter sets of all time. When Producer Erich Pommer began to have second thoughts about how the film should be designed, designer Hermann Warm and painters Walter Reimann and Walter Röhrig had to convince him that it made sense to paint lights and shadows directly on set walls and floors and background canvases, and to place flat sets behind the actors. Pommer first approached Fritz Lang to direct this film, but eventually gave directorial duties to Robert Wiene. Wiene filmed a test scene to prove Warm, Reimann, and Röhrig's theories, and it was so impressive that Pommer gave his artists free rein. |
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| “The Phantom of the Opera” (1925/1929) Regarded by many as the first great horror film, the earliest version of The Phantom of the Opera stars Lon Chaney, the ‘Man of A Thousand Faces,’ so-called because of his mastery of early film makeup. Chaney plays Erik, the horribly disfigured Phantom who leads a menacing existence in the catacombs and dungeons beneath the Paris Opera House. When Erik falls in love with a beautiful prima donna (Mary Philbin), he kidnaps her and holds her hostage in his lair, where he is destined to have a showdown with her fiancé (Norman Kerry) and the secret police. When the movie was first released, it shocked audiences throughout the world, and many weak-hearted patrons fainted at the sight of Chaney’s hideous makeup, which he designed and applied himself. There are actually several existing versions of The Phantom of the Opera. Not one of them has exactly the same sequences, score (if any), title cards, or cast of characters. The first screening of a preview version took place in one of Sid Grauman’s THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA Universal Studios. 10 reels, 8,464 ft. (Our version: 92 minutes). Released September 6, 1925. Originally released with Technicolor sequences. Re-issued with sound effects, musical score and talking sequences on February 21, 1929. Presented by Carl Laemmle. Directed by Rupert Julian; Supplemental Direction by Edward Sedgwick. Scenario by Edward T. Lowe, Jr. Adapted from Gaston Leroux’s novel by Elliott J. Clawson and Raymond L. Schrock. Photographed by Charles Van Enger, A.S.C., Milton Bridenbecker, and Virgil Miller. Art Direction by Charles D. Hall. Cast includes Lon Chaney (Erik, the Phantom), Mary Philbin (Christine Daae), Norman Kerry (Raoul de Chagny), and Arthur Edmund Carewe (Ledoux). |
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“Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror” (1922)
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"Metropolis" (1927) |
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“The Hunchback of Notre Dame” (1923) |
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Join the MOUSETRAP, Nate Butler's Email List. Just send a blank Email by clicking here. It'll be fun, you'll see! All contents Copyright © 2011 by Nate Butler. |
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