Organist to Accompany ‘Wings’ at Chevalier Theatre

The Chevalier Theatre Organ Society will present the classic 1927 silent film “Wings,” accompanied by internationally known organist Peter Krasinski, at 7 p.m. on Saturday, October 1, at Chevalier Theatre in Medford.

Hearkening back to Medford’s own silent movie-making days and its pioneering World War I aviator, Godfrey Chevalier, “Wings” is a spectacular film directed by another U.S. pilot from Massachusetts in the Great War, William Wellman.

The World War I adventure/romance, starring Charles “Buddy” Rogers, Richard Arlen and Clara Bow, tells the story of two American aviators in love with the same hometown girl who become friends in the service and fly daring missions together. Featuring some of the most dramatic and visually stunning aerial sequences ever portrayed on film, “Wings” won the first Academy Award for Best Picture – the only silent film so honored – as well as the Oscar for Best Engineering Effects.

Film critic James Berardinelli writes, “With its depictions of dogfights and re-creations of epic land battles, ‘Wings’ proved to be in the earliest class of Hollywood spectacle pictures. It’s a big, bold piece of entertainment that explores the limits of what could be achieved in a motion picture. . . . The climactic battle was as accurate a re-enactment as there has ever been on film.”

Enhancing the action, drama, and suspense on-screen at Chevalier will be Brookline organist Krasinski, an imaginative and energetic musician who specializes in the art of live silent film accompaniment and improvisation.

The October 1 film will be part of the month-long Medford on the Mystic Arts Festival (www.medfordfestival.org) and is co-sponsored by the Friends of Chevalier Auditorium and Gene Mack Gym, and the Chevalier Auditorium Commission. Part of the proceeds will benefit the Organ Society’s ongoing project to restore and install a 1922 Wurlitzer theatre pipe organ at Chevalier.

General admission tickets are $10 and may be purchased at Medford TV & Electronics, 25 Salem Street, Medford Square. Tickets also will be available at the door.

For more information visit www.chevaliertheatreorgan.org or call 781-874-0920.

– Submitted by Ken Krause