Film historian, collector and preservationist Eric Grayson will screen the 1920 version of “The Mark of Zorro” at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Garfield Park Arts Center, 2450 Shelby St. The silent film, with a live score by Roger Lippincott, stars Douglas Fairbanks Sr., Noah Beery Sr. and Marguerite De La Motte. Grayson, who will provide the audience with background on the film, will field questions afterward. The movie gets under way in California, where a rich landowner sends his son (Fairbanks) to Spain for education. “When he returns,” Grayson says, “the young man is a simpering homebody, unable to stand up to the increasingly corrupt government officials, who beat priests and kill peasants.” No one suspects that the young nobleman is actually the vigilante hero Zorro, who uses his secret identity to fight injustice and defend the downtrodden. Fairbanks does all of his amazing stunts in the film, Grayson said. “Fairbanks is the very soul of irrational exuberance: No one ever danced around the screen as he does as Zorro, with swashbuckling swordplay and daring leaps between buildings.” Admission is $5. Concessions $1. Info: 327-7135. For more information about Grayson’s work, visit www.drfilm.net/blog. |
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