THE SAPHEAD
Special Features: New DCP Restoration. Live musical accompaniment by the Andrew Simpson Ensemble, performing a world premiere live performance of a new original score. Intro by Karen Burditt, Art Deco Society of Washington
Douglas Fairbanks originated the role of Bertie Van Alstyne on stage and recommended his friend Buster Keaton for the screen adaptation. Until then, Keaton had only played in comedic short films, but his fine performance here clinched his leap from short film comic to feature film star in the '20s, an evolution that very few slapstick comedians made successfully. As Variety remarked, "His quiet work in this picture is a revelation." Gentle Bertie is the son of fearsome financier Nicholas Van Alstyne (William H. Crane), known as the "The Wolf of Wall Street," with his shy son mockingly referred to as "The Lamb." Bertie eschews work in favor of all-night partying and gambling because he thinks this daring behavior will impress the girl of his dreams, his adopted sister Agnes (Beulah Booker). Instead, it leads to his father disowning him. But when Bertie's scheming brother-in-law Mark (Irving Cummings) plots to swindle away the family fortune, this not-so-prodigal son stumbles upon a way to win back the wealth, his father's approval and maybe even the heart of his beloved Agnes. DIR Herbert Blaché; DIR/PROD Winchell Smith; SCR June Mathis, from the plays "The Henrietta" by Bronson Howard and "The New Henrietta" by Victor Mapes and Winchell Smith; PROD John L. Golden, Marcus Loew. U.S., 1920, b&w, 77 min. Silent with English intertitles. NOT RATED
Restored by Cineteca di Bologna in collaboration with the Cohen Film Collection.
Co-presented by Art Deco Society of Washington.
No AFI Member passes accepted.
Run Time: 77 Minutes
Opening Date: Sunday, November 06, 2022
Genre: Silent comedy
