Moral (1928), directed by Willi Wolff. Sunday, February 19 at the Trylon Cinema with live accompaniment by Dreamland Faces.

And yet another silent film classic is rediscovered… and likely forgotten. One of the things I adore about silent film is that it’s often a movie that’s a shocking discovery. Here, in Moral (awful title), in some small German burg, a woman is the star of a burlesque but runs afoul of the Morals committee, which seems to be made up of fat blowhards who all want to sleep with her, barely in secret (I mean, one of them tries to grab on a train full of people). Starring the amazing Ellen Richter, who radiates charisma, Moral is funny and sexy and an endless parade of screwball and slapstick, made even better by Dreamland Faces’ live music, which suited the film perfectly. I’d never heard of this movie, most of the crowd hadn’t, and so we all piled in and witnessed something as special as a sunset or a birthday party–a moment in time, fleeting, and never to be seen again. Yes, we could watch this movie again someday, but the thrill of seeing it with a live audience and with that score, well, that’s gone like Orson Welles’ plays or Miles Davis’ Birdland concerts. Au revoir.

One sad note that occurred to me: the film is chock full of hypocritical buffoons who have no problem condemning our hero while secretly lusting for her. And I thought: this was 1928, and in just a few years these assholes are going to be Nazis.