BEVERLY OF GRAUSTARK w/ Pipe Organ Soundtrack by Ben Model!

Name: BEVERLY OF GRAUSTARK w/ Pipe Organ Soundtrack by Ben Model!
Start: 2025-04-18T19:00:00-04:00
End: 2025-04-18T21:00:00-04:00
Location: Epsilon Spires

Schedule

Fri Apr 18 2025 at 07:00 pm to 09:00 pm

UTC-04:00

Location

Epsilon Spires | Brattleboro, VT

Mistaken identities, intrigue, a chase, a swordfight and more! Silent film star Marion Davies sparkles in this 1926 gender-bender comedy. Featuring a live musical score performed on our Historic Estey by Ben Model, resident silent film accompanist at MoMA and The Library of Congress!
Beverly of Graustark, starring Marion Davies at her comedic best is the kind of material that allowed her to shine and proved to be a key title in the making of her star persona. She stars as Beverly Calhoun, an American co-ed whose cousin Oscar (Creighton Hale) is a Prince and heir to the throne of Graustark. In a twist of fate, she must switch places with him in order to prevent the conniving General Marlanax (Roy D’Arcy) from becoming King. Along the way, Beverly (as Oscar) meets goatherd Dantan (Antonio Moreno), hires him as her bodyguard… and to no one’s surprise, winds up falling for him. Marking a stylistic shift from Marion Davies’ earlier features, Beverly of Graustark – expertly directed by Sidney Franklin – is more akin to her playful 1928 rom-corns Show People and The Patsy. This new restoration by the Library of Congress includes the film's recently discovered Technicolor ending!
Performing in male drag was not new to Davies, she had already donned men’s garb in When Knighthood Was in Flower (1922) and Little Old New York (1923). Even if the film ultimately reaffirms fixed gender roles, it does imply different ways in which the Davies-Moreno relationship could go, and scenes exploring their bromance offer some very queer possibilities indeed.
Ben Model is one of the nation's leading silent film accompanists, performing on both piano and theatre organ. Over the past 40 years, he has created and performed thousands of live scores for silent films at universities, museums, and historic theaters, and is one of the few exponents of this craft who is working at it full-time. Ben is a resident film accompanist at the Museum of Modern Art (NY) and at the Library of Congress’ Packard Campus Theatre, and he accompanies silents at classic film festivals around the USA and internationally. Ben’s Blu-ray/DVD label Undercrank Productions works with archives and collectors to bring undiscovered gems of silent cinema to fans. The Online Film Critics Society recently awarded him a Special Achievement Award in for his work restoring and releasing silent films on home video. Ben is a Visiting Professor of Film at Wesleyan University. This will be Ben Model's 6th time performing at Epsion Spires!