Event

THE IRON HORSE

Tuesday, November 24 at 7:30pm
Live Musical Accompaniment by BEN MODEL on the Cinemas Miditzer Theater Organ
$9 Members / $12 Public / Includes Reception

Active Membership Will Be Checked

LeDavid Brandon is a surveyor in the Old West who dreams that one day the entire North American continent will be linked by railroads. However, to make this dream a reality, a clear trail must be found through the Rocky Mountains. With his boy Davy, David sets out to find such a path, but he's ambushed by a tribe of Indians. While the boy manages to escape, David is killed. Years later, the adult Davy Brandon still believes in his father's dream of a transcontinental railroad, and legislation signed by President Abraham Lincoln has made it an official mandate. Davy is hired on as a railroad surveyor by Thomas Marsh, the father of his childhood sweetheart Miriam. While Davy hopes to win Miriam's heart as he helps to find the trail that led to his father's death years ago, he's disappointed to discover that Miriam is already married -- and shocked to discover her husband is Peter Jesson, now working with the railroad as a civil engineer. As the Union Pacific crew presses on to their historic meeting at Promitory Point, Davy must find a way to earn Miriam's love and uncover Peter's murderous past. Shot on location in Arizona in Ford's beloved Monument Valley, The Iron Horse was a massive production that employed over 6,000 people; two temporary cities were built to accommodate them, with 100 cooks on hand to serve meals.

USA, 1924, 133 min.

For over two decades Ben Model has served as resident silent film accompanist for The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Ben composes and improvises all his own scores and performs in a style that both evokes the silent era and reflects a contemporary (and younger) audience's appreciation of music and film scoring.