PARAMUS, N.J. – Bergen Community College will continue its “Cinema Ciccone” silent film program virtually with a complimentary “Gangster Classics of the Silver Screen” series hosted by film, stage and television star Tony Darrow, of Goodfellas and The Sopranos, in February. Darrow will introduce each film and moderate discussions with the composer/performers before each screening. The films will also include live music accompaniment by Donald Sosin and Joanna Seaton and Academy Award-nominated film score composer John La Barbera.
Featuring “The Black Hand” and “The Musketeers of Pig Alley” Thursday, Feb. 18, “Outside the Law” Friday, Feb. 19 and “The Adventures of Lieutenant Petrosino” Saturday, Feb. 20, the films begin at 7 p.m. through a virtual stage presentation offered by the College’s Anna Maria Ciccone Theatre. While complimentary to patrons of the Ciccone Theatre, a suggested donation of $10 to foundation.bergen.edu helps support the arts at Bergen. To register and sign up for the Ciccone Theatre email list, visit bergen.edu/silentfilm.
Each silent film brings its own unique plot to the series:
- Thursday, Feb 18: “The Black Hand”- From 1906, the first film about the Mafia. Directed by Wallace McCutcheon with cinematography by Billy Bitzer and starring Anthony O’Sullivan.
- Thursday, Feb. 18: “The Musketeers of Pig Alley”- From 1912, the film was shot in Fort Lee, where many other early film studios in America’s first motion picture industry were based at the beginning of the 20th The film was directed by the controversial D.W. Griffith. The film stars Lillian Gish.
- Friday, Feb. 19: “Outside the Law”- From 1920, directed by Todd Browning (Dracula, West of Zanzibar, The Devil Doll) and starring Lon Chaney (Phantom of the Opera, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Oliver Twist).
- Saturday, Feb. 20: “The Adventures of Lieutenant Petrosino”- From 1912, the story of real-life NYPD detective Joseph Petrosino who was the first police officer assigned to investigate the Mafia in New York. His case took him to Sicily, where he was murdered in Palermo by a Mafia gunman. An upcoming film on his life will star Leonardo DiCaprio.
Based in Paramus, Bergen Community College (www.bergen.edu), a public two-year coeducational college, enrolls more than 13,000 students at locations in Paramus, the Philip Ciarco Jr. Learning Center in Hackensack and Bergen Community College at the Meadowlands in Lyndhurst. The College offers associate degree, certificate and continuing education programs in a variety of fields. More students graduate from Bergen than any other community college in the state.
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