Buster Keaton in
STEAMBOAT BILL, JR.
Preceded by MIGHTY LIKE A MOOSE
starring Charley Chase

Smith Rafael Film Center, 1118 Fourth St, San Rafael, CA 94901
415.454-1222; http://www.cafilm.org

$14 ($10 CFI Members & Youth 12 & under)

Experience classic silent film comedy the way you were meant to enjoy it: with a live orchestra and beautiful 35mm film prints in the setting of a magnificent theater. The Mont Alto Picture Orchestra, a quintet based in Colorado, is an internationally acclaimed ensemble practicing the traditional art of silent film scoring. Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928), the last independently produced feature from the imcomparable Buster Keaton, stars the stone-faced comic as the citified son of a Mississippi riverboat captain who has to prove himself worthy in the eyes of his father and his sweetheart. In the most incredible acrobatic feats ever committed to screen, Buster battles a cyclone to save the day.

Preceding the feature is Mighty Like a Moose (1926), starring Charley Chase and one of the finest comedy shorts directed by Leo McCarey for producer Hal Roach. A husband and wife undergo cosmetic surgery without telling each other and, not recognizing themselves, each find the other irresistible!

The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra includes: Brian Collins, clarinet; Darcy Dennison, cello; Dawn Kramer, trumpet; Britt Swensen, violin; under the direction of Rodney Sauer, piano. We would like to extend special thanks to film archivist and distributor David Shepard for his 35mm prints and to the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, which takes place July 13-15 and features The Mont Alto Silent Film Orchestra playing for different silent classics.