Chuck and I and our friends Skip and Diane headed over to Catalina Island this past Saturday for the 25th annual Catalina Island Museum Silent Film Benefit. The museum is located in the Catalina Casino, as is a movie theater and a ballroom. The movie theater was the first to be constructed for either sound or silent films and the jewel in its crown is a 1929 pipe organ.

When we were in Avalon for Chuck’s birthday in March, we saw the ads for the silent film benefit but forgot about it until a few weeks ago when we quite spontaneously decided to go see the film for Skip’s birthday. The part that really caught my eye was the film they were showing: Wings, a 1927 silent film that was also the first film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. What made this even more exciting was that the film was going to be shown with live organ accompaniment.

I’ve seen a few silent movies, but the sound has always been prerecorded (like this version of The Kid). I never gave a lot of thought to what role music played in silent movies until this weekend. The organ became the voice of the film – it provided the emotions, it let us know when bad or good things were about to happen (like every time a German came on screen – cue the bad guy music!). Taking the music away would have left us watching actors make faces on screen (and very dramatic over-the-top faces they were! Of course, when you can’t talk, your face and body are all the tools you have to express yourself. Clara Bow especially was a hoot, showing pretty impressive athleticism and real knack for physical comedy).

But back to the music -take Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid – here’s a version with no sound. Weird, huh? Without music it becomes so much harder to get what is happening with the actors on the screen. In the case of the Wings screening what was most amazing of all, when we remembered to notice because we were so sucked into the film, was that the organist was down by the screen at the organ, watching the movie and playing along to all of the action! He was interpreting all of the action – the flying, the dogfights, the tragedy, the fun, the romance – on the fly (so to speak, again). Wow. Just wow.

This was a pretty long movie for a film with no dialog: over two hours. But the time literally flew by (Wings, get it?) as the music swept us along with all the action and drama. I can’t wait for next year’s benefit. I hope they show The Sheik!

Now I feel a need to watch The Purple Rose of Cairo again.