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San Francisco Silent Film Festival

San Francisco Silent Film Festival

The San Francisco Silent Film Festival is a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating the public about silent film as an art form and as a culturally valuable historical record.

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  • Event
  • San Francisco Silent Film Festival 2025

The Unknown

Live musical accompaniment by Utsav Lal
Director
Tod Browning
Cast
Lon Chaney, Joan Crawford, Norman Kerry, Nick De Ruiz

Of all the Tod Browning-Lon Chaney collaborations, this is the one, says critic Michael Atkinson, “that melts your face.” When fugitive-in-disguise Alonzo the Armless falls for a beautiful carnival girl who’s terrified of a man’s embrace, he decides to turn his sideshow act into the real thing. Equal parts over the top and enormously affecting, The Unknown is now restored to within a minute of its original runtime.

  • 75 min.
  • United States
  • 1927
  • DCP
Introduction
Peter Bagrov

Live musical accompaniment by Utsav Lal

Steinway’s Young Artist of 2010, UTSAV LAL made his debut at the age of eighteen with his rendition of Indian ragas on the piano, stunning the world with his innovative handling of Hindustani classical music on a Western instrument.

Details

Director
Tod Browning
Country
United States
Year
1927
Cast
Lon Chaney, Joan Crawford, Norman Kerry, Nick De Ruiz
Runtime
75 min.
Source
George Eastman Museum
Format
DCP
Sat, Nov 15, 2025
9:00 PM
Orinda Theatre
$20 general
$18 member
12 and under, free
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