Silent Film with Live Accompaniment: SPEEDY (1928)
‘Speedy,’ Lloyd’s final silent feature before the transition to talkies, finds Harold as a baseball-crazed youth who must rescue the city’s last horse-drawn streetcar from gangsters bent on running it out of business.
Filmed almost entirely on location in New York, ‘Speedy’ features remarkable glimpses of the city at the end of the 1920s, including footage of Coney Island and the original Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.
The latter scenes include an extended appearance by Babe Ruth, then at the height of his career during the team’s storied 1927 season.
“In ‘Speedy,’ New York City is practically a part of the cast,” Rapsis said. “In filming it on location, Lloyd knew scenes of New York would give the picture added interest to audiences across the nation and around the world.
“But what he didn’t anticipate was that today, the location shots now provide a fascinating record of how life was lived in the Big Apple in the 1920s,” Rapsis said.
Rapsis will improvise a musical score for ‘Speedy’ as the film is screened. In creating accompaniment for vintage classics, Rapsis tries to bridge the gap between silent film and modern audiences.
“Creating the music on the spot is a bit of a high-wire act, but it contributes a level of energy that’s really crucial to the silent film experience,” Rapsis said.
