Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
ANDREW ROGERS, organist supremo, practices the score he developed for "The Cat and the Canary," which is playing Saturday evening in the Historic Ironwood Theatre. Rogers said every playing is different.
By IAN MINIELLY
Ironwood - This Saturday the Historic Ironwood Theatre is showing "The Cat and the Canary," a 1927 silent horror film adaptation of John Willard's 1922 black comedy play.
According to the HIT website, the wealthy Cyrus West is on his deathbed and his nephews and nieces gather around him like cats around a canary to get their greedy mitts on his estate.
Due to the machinations of his family, West inserts a provision in the will that it not be read until 20 years after his death.
During these familial machinations, a mysterious figure stalks the family around the mansion. "The Cat," a lunatic housed in a nearby asylum, is discovered to have escaped.
Organist Supremo Andrew Rogers from Ann Arbor's Michigan Theatre will play the Barton organ for the movie's score. Rogers said the silent movies do not come with their own accompaniment, so each organist develops his own score, based on his impression of the movie. "It is always a panic the first time you play a film," said Rogers.
Rogers began practicing the the outline he developed for "The Cat and the Canary" on the Barton in the theater on Thursday and expected to continue practicing today and even Saturday before the 7:30 p.m. showing.
Rogers likes to focus on the emotion in the film, saying he even walked out on a different film when the organist did not match the emotion on the screen. Rogers emphasized he pays attention to the crowd as he plays, so each playing is unique. "Each time I play a film, it's different," he said.
