This swashbuckling adventure flick stars Douglas Fairbanks, Hollywood’s original action hero, and features live musical accompaniment.

He was the Indiana Jones of his day, thrilling early filmgoers with amazing stunts and feats of heroic derring-do.

He was Douglas Fairbanks Sr., one of Hollywood’s first megastars, and his timeless charisma can be seen again, free and open to the public, Saturday, July 18 at 7 p.m. at Brandon Town Hall and Community Center.

The featured attraction in July for the theater's monthly silent film series is ‘The Black Pirate’ (1926), an epic swashbuckling tale of the high seas that proved to be one of Fairbanks’ most popular blockbusters. The forerunner of all pirate movies, it was also one of the first Hollywood films to be released in color.

The screening, the latest in the Brandon Town Hall's silent film series, will feature live accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis, a New Hampshire-based composer who specializes in creating scores for silent films.

'The Black Pirate' tells the story of a ship's passenger (Douglas Fairbanks) who survives a pirate raid. Sworn to avenge his dead father, he takes command of the pirates responsible and secretly strives to free the princess whom they have kidnapped.

Fairbanks, originally a stage actor, broke into films in the industry's early years. By 1920, starring roles in romantic comedies established Fairbanks as a popular leading man. He then turned to historic adventure films, including ‘The Mark of Zorro’ (1920) and ‘The Three Musketeers’ (1921), which cemented his reputation for on-screen athleticism, heroism, and romance.

In 1920, Fairbanks’ marriage to fellow megastar Mary Pickford was one of the era’s biggest media events and resulted in Hollywood’s first celebrity power couple. They combined their last names to call their estate “Pickfair,” and massive crowds turned out everywhere during the couple’s European honeymoon.

At the peak of his popularity, pictures starring Fairbanks set the standard for Hollywood action-adventure films, including such titles as ‘Robin Hood’ (1922), ‘The Thief of Bagdad’ (1924), and ‘The Black Pirate’ (1926), all of which were major box office successes.

When the silent film era ended in 1929, an aging Fairbanks found he was less enthusiastic about the effort required to make movies and retired from the screen. He died in 1939 at age 56 after suffering a heart attack; his now-famous last words were, “I’ve never felt better.”

The Fairbanks feature is the latest in a series of monthly silent film screenings at Brandon Town Hall. The series aims to recreate the lost magic of early cinema by assembling the elements needed for silent film to be seen at its best: superior films in the best available prints; projection on the big screen; live musical accompaniment; and a live audience.

“These films are still exciting experiences if you show them as they were designed to be screened,” said Rapsis, accompanist for the screenings. “There’s a reason people first fell in love with the movies, and we hope to recreate that spirit.”

For each film, Rapsis improvises a musical score using original themes created beforehand. None of the music is written down; instead, the score evolves in real time based on audience reaction and the overall mood as the movie is screened.

When: Saturday, July 18 at 7 p.m.
Where: Brandon Town Hall and Community Center, located on Route 7 in Brandon, Vermont.

The program is free and open to the public; donations are accepted to support Brandon Town Hall's silent film programming.

For more info on the music, visit www.jeffrapsis.com.