Live accompaniment by Ben Model, piano.
Silent screen star Colleen Moore epitomized the ’20s flapper aesthetic and, more importantly, the associated attitude of freedom and frivolity. While her contemporary Clara Bow portrayed sirens on the big screen, Moore played up the fun-loving, carefree, often feckless angles of the archetype. Restored in 2007 but rarely screened, Her Wild Oat finds Moore playing to type as a poor young girl who falls for a young man she thinks is a lowly chauffeur. A case of double mistaken identity full of hilarious, silent-movie hijinks ensues. (Marshall Neilan, 1927, silent, 90 minutes)
Ben Model is one of the nation’s leading silent film accompanists, performing on both piano and theater organ. He has created and performed thousands of live scores around the US and the world over the past 40 years, carrying on a tradition he learned from silent film organist Lee Erwin (1919-2000). Ben is also a resident film accompanist at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and at the Library of Congress’ Packard Campus Theater.
Restored in 2007 by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with Národní filmový archív, Prague.
Part of the Fall Cine-Concert film series.