Sat. March 15

They were one of the first to do it, and they remain one of the best. That is: To make their own soundtracks to silent classic (and non-classic and even, yes, old porn) movies, and play them live, mixing the concert/movie soundtrack experience and brining the whole thing to another level. They are the 17-year-old Alloy Orchestra and they've scored new soundtracks for comedy,  drama and even, well, as we said, porn. Keyboardist Roger Miller and percussionists Ken Winokur and Terry Donohue are now tacking "Underworld," Joseph von Sternberg's first professional film and the one that launched his very successful career. Ben Hecht, who wrote the screenplay for the film, won the first-ever Academy Award for best writing (before they started calling it "screenplay"). "Underworld" was gangster before "American Gangster" - in fact 80 years before. it is credited as the first gangster film. What's it all about? It opens with an explosion in a bank and crime kingpin Bull Weed is crawling from the wreckage. The title cards wryly note he has "closed another account." Is there a witness? Yes, but he's a bum - what you would have, in 1927, called a homeless person. Weed kidnaps him and figures to off him, but quickly takes a liking to him - ah, doncha love it when opposites attract in movies? - and renames him "Rolls Royce." The girl in the middle is Feathers - she's Bull's gal, but arch-rival Buck Mulligan is sweet on her too and, wouldn't you know it, so becomes Rolls. It all comes to a head an an annual gangsters confab - aka a drunken brawl, at the height of prohibition - and there's a thrilling expressionist ending we shouldn't tell you about. Says the Alloys' Miller: "'Underworld' was our new score last fall, and lots of folks have said it's one of our best.  It certainly was smooth composing it.  Not so much banging of metal, but alot of rich strings, piano, accordion and clarinet.  Of course there's a shootout at the end with plenty of bashing.  The film is the first gangster film made, and as such was the model for tons of gangster films in the following decades.  Oddly, to viewers now it barely seems dated."

This screens (and the Alloys) play Saturday March 15 at 8 at the Somerville Theater. Tickets: $20.

55 Davis Square, Somerville, 617-876-4275 www.CRASHarts.org