The Dryden will screen Old San Francisco (Alan Crosland, U.S. 1927, 88 min., 35mm).

This film follows several generations of the Vasquez family from the eighteenth century and climaxes with the famous earthquake of 1906. Dolores Costello, in her first solo-starring role as Dolores Vasquez, is menaced by the villainous Chris Buckwell (played excellently by Warner Oland) until God's intervention saves her. With trapdoors, underground passageways, and nick-of-time rescues Old San Francisco has as much action and melodrama as the best cliff-hanger. Old San Francisco was unseen for many years until restored by the UCLA Film and Television Archive in collaboration with the Library of Congress as part of The Dawn of Sound exhibition.

[source: George Eastman Museum website, 2016-Aug-8]