The Strand Theatre in Schroon Lake has announced two nights of classic film screenings, set for Monday, July 29th, and Monday, August 12th.

On Monday, July 29, at 8 pm, the 2019 edition of “Summer Classics @ the Strand” opens with an evening of three silent comedy shorts starring one of the most physically daring actors ever to perform in movies — Buster Keaton — with live piano scoring by Ben Model, resident film accompanist at the Library of Congress and New York City’s Museum of Modern Art.

The films One Week, The Scarecrow and The Blacksmith, all of which date from the Golden Age of silent movies – the early 1920s – were recently restored by Lobster Films and have been handpicked by Model, who will introduce each short and lead a question and answer discussion with the audience following the screenings.

Then on Monday, August 12, at 8 pm, “Summer Classics @ the Strand” presents one of the most iconic romantic films ever made and what Turner Classic Movies (TCM) hails as “Our candidate for the best Hollywood movie of all time.”  Casablanca (1942), stars Humphrey Bogart as American ex-patriate saloon owner Rick Blaine and Ingrid Bergman as Rick’s long-lost love, Ilsa Lund. The program will be hosted by film historian Jeremy Arnold, himself a TCM contributor and author of the TCM-tie-in books, The Essentials: 52 Must-See Movies and Why They Matter and his latest work, Christmas in the Movies: 30 Classics to Celebrate the Season.

Tickets to each evening’s program are $10 and will be available at the door (cash only). The historic Strand Theater is located at 1102 Main Street (U.S. Route 9), Schroon Lake. For more information, contact Fred Balzac, Program Director, at (518) 588-7272 or by e-mail at fredbalzac@aol.com or adirondackfilmsociety@gmail.com.

Photo of Buster Keaton, right, and Sybil Seeley in the silent comedy short “One Week” courtesy Ben Model.