Mon. Sept.17

Live music/old movies. The Alloy Orchestra has been doing this for a long time, and tonight Monday Sept. 17 Roger Miller, Ken Winokur and Terry Donahue set their musical silents on Alfred Hitchcock's rare (and last) silent film, "Blackmail." The sound version has been in circulation, but this silent 35 mm print is on loan from the British Film Institute. Plot: Alice White (Anny Ondra), girlfriend of Scotland Yard detective Frank Webber (John Longden), murders an artist in self-defense but fears being discovered. In the muddle of trying to cover her tracks, she mistakenly leaves her gloves at the crime scene. Frank is assigned to the case and immediately recognizes the gloves as belonging to Alice. He attempts to conceal her involvement, but local petty thief Tracey (Donald Calthrop) saw Alice leave the artist's apartment the night of the murder and begins to blackmail the couple. Hitchcock began the production as a silent film. Halfway through filming, however, the producer wanted to cash-in on the success of "talkies", and so had Hitchcock begin shooting two versions - one silent, one sound. This film, emails, Miller is a "subtly different version, which may well be Hitch’s greatest achievement of the silent era. The gripping story of a young British woman and her detective boyfriend begins conventionally, but quickly – and horrifyingly – spirals into an unpredictable tale of terror and suspense." We can expect intense and poweful accompaniment from the mad scientists of Alloy. Starts at 7 a the Coolidge Corner Theatre. Tix: $23.

290 Harvard St., Brookline, 617-734-2500 http://www.coolidge.org/programs/sounds-of-silents