SILVER

Lon Chaney starred in several films for Tod Browning (DRACULA, FREAKS), none better than this one. Chaney plays Alonzo the Armless, a double-amputee circus sideshow performer famed for his fancy footwork flinging knives. A young Joan Crawford plays Nanon, a fellow circus performer with an intense fear of being touched. It would seem the two are made for each other — but Alonzo is keeping a terrible secret. DIR/SCR Tod Browning; SCR Waldemar Young. U.S., 1927, b&w, 75 min. Silent with English intertitles. NOT RATED

The George Eastman Museum's 2022 digital restoration of this landmark 1927 chiller includes approximately 10 minutes of material sourced from a Czech export print in the collection of the National Film Archive in Prague. The newly restored material adds significant nuance and further background to the narrative known from the previously existing prints of this powerfully strange tale.

About the Andrew Simpson Ensemble
The Andrew Simpson Ensemble, founded in 2022, is a group of professional instrumentalists performing new, original silent film scores live to screen.  Its flexible instrumentation — including strings, guitar/banjo, woodwind, brass, keyboard, percussion and electronics — allows the ensemble to perform scores with three to seven players in styles ranging from vintage jazz to contemporary classical. Visit andrewesimpson.com for more information.