Down To Earth (1917)

Starring Douglas Fairbanks

If you're ever stranded on a desert island, do as Douglas Fairbanks does, and you'll never want to leave! That's the rollicking Down To Earth in a nutshell.

We tend to think of Fairbanks as the swashbuckling star of epic adventure movies, and in the 1920s, he certainly was, but in his earlier films, he was a little different: an all-American man of action and good cheer, confronting the fads of the day with a grin. That's the Fairbanks who swept to screen stardom within just a year of his debut, and that's the hero of Down to Earth.

This is the perfect film to illustrate the Fairbanks formula of an active body and a positive attitude, especially with its witty script by Anita Loos and John Emerson. When the girl he loves enters a sanitarium with nervous exhaustion, Doug rescues her and the other residents by taking them out to sea, slyly staging a fire aboard ship, leading them ashore on a deserted coast, and showing everyone how to survive (and thrive), away from their medicine bottles and butlers. Of course, it's not all that simple.  There's an enemy in the group and certain complications arise, but there isn't much that Douglas Fairbanks can't handle!

The sparkling score compiled and scored by Frederick Hodges is exclusively made up of music written by the great American ragtime composer George L. Cobb.

Plus Bonus Shorts:
A Ten-Minute Egg (1924) starring Charley Chase
The Lamb (1915) starring Douglas Fairbanks
Wild and Woolly (1917) starring Douglas Fairbanks

A terrifically entertaining Silent films brought to life by Frederick Hodges' lively and authentic piano playing. Fans of Ragtime will recognize many classic rags and Ragtime-era songs in the scores.

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Frederick Hodges, San Francisco, Piano Music, Piano, Berkeley