Douglas Fairbanks in THE MARK OF ZORRO (1920) in 35mm with Live Music December 13th at Webster University

THE MARK OF ZORRO Screens Sunday, December 13^th at Webster University’s Winifred Moore Auditorium (470 E. Lockwood Ave., St. Louis, MO 63119) with Live piano by Ben Model, one of the nation’s leading silent film accompanists.

I used to check out THE MARK OF ZORRO on 8mm film from the library and watch it over and over in my basement when I was a kid in the early ‘70s and I can’t wait to see it in glorious 35mm (the print is from the Museum of Modern Art) this Sunday night (December 13^th) at Webster University’s Winifred Moore Auditorium. Admission is $6 ($4 for seniors and free for WU students)

In THE MARK OF ZORRO (1920), Don Diego Vega (Douglas Fairbanks), a foppish son of a wealthy rancher, disguises himself with a mask and cape and becomes the legendary Zorro, defender of the people when corrupt Governor Alvarado (George Periolat) crushes the poor people of Spanish California under his rule. Alvarado sends his henchman Captain Juan Ramon (Robert McKim) and Sergeant Pedro Gonzales (Noah Beery) to kill and unmask Zorro. Ramon and Zorro fight for their lives and for the hand of Lolita Pulido (Marguerite De La Motte).

Gliding breezily along on his charm and daring-do, Fairbanks must have wowed the audiences in 1920 with his athletic swordplay while wearing a confident smile in the midst of it all. The hilarious nuance he brings to the meek Don Diego provides the film some with some of its funnier moments and respite from the brawling. Noah Beery is wildly over the top as Sgt. Gonzales and the rest of the cast is memorable as well as they watch Doug Fairbanks coming to the rescue in scene after scene.

Ben Model, one of the country’s leading silent film accompanists, creates all his own original scores and performs them live on piano or theatre organ. A silent film pianist for the Museum of Modern Art in New York since 1984, he is also cofounder with film historian Bruce Lawton of the popular Silent Clowns Film Series, and travels around the USA and overseas to accompany silent movies. His recorded scores are available on DVDs from Kino, Image, Reel Classic DVD and Unknown Video.

Ben composes and improvises all his own scores, and performs in a style that is both evocative of the silent era and also aware of a contemporary (and younger) audience’s awareness of music and film scoring. Ben is also a silent film historian, and often introduces the films he accompanies. In the spring of 2006, Ben coorganised MoMA’s two-month retrospective of the films of Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle.

Ben has been fortunate to have had his lifelong passion for silent film fostered by important figures in classic cinema: he grew up watching silent movies at the home of Walter Kerr, drama critic and author of The Silent Clowns (Knopf, 1975), he accompanied silent movies for noted film historian William K. Everson’s classes at New York University while attending film school there, and learned the craft and technique of silent film scoring from legendary silent film organist Lee Erwin.

Ben has also made the silent film experience portable, by teaming up with fellow film historian Bruce Lawton. Together, they have brought their projectors, films, music and knowledge to schools, universities libraries, museums and churches all over the northeastern USA.

Don’t miss THE MARK OF ZORRO!