“Peter Pan” (Paramount, 1924) The first film adaptation of J.M. Barrie’s enormously successful 1902 stage play “Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up,” remains one of the silent era’s most successful fantasies, notable not only for Betty Bronson’s exquisitely stylized performance as Peter, but also for its elaborate settings and special effects. Directed by Herbert Brenon and featuring Mary Brian as Wendy and Anna May Wong as Tiger Lily, the film closely follows the plot of the original play, and even
goes so far as to incorporate much of its original stage dialogue in the intertitles. Thought to be lost for decades, James Card, film restorer and curator of George Eastman House in Rochester, New York, discovered a well-preserved copy in a vault at the Eastman School of Music in the 1950s, and made a preservation of that source. Film historian David Pierce (and now Assistant Chief of the Library of Congress National Audio Visual Conservation Center) discovered an additional and hitherto unknown 16mm copy at the Disney Studios which had been made when the company acquired the rights to the property in 1938. A new restoration was undertaken by the George Eastman House combining the two sources in 1994. “Peter Pan” was added to the National Film Registry in 2000. London based musician Stephen Horne will provide live musical accompaniment for the film. 7:30 p.m. Free, at the Library of Congress Packard Campus Theater located at 19053 Mt. Pony Rd. in Culpeper, VA. No reservations taken.