Some movies you have to see to believe; count The Unknown among them. The most celebrated and exquisitely perverse of the many collaborations between director Tod Browning (Freaks) and his legendary leading man Lon Chaney, The Unknown features a wrenchingly physical performance from “the Man of a Thousand Faces” as the armless Spanish knife thrower Alonzo (he flings daggers with his feet… for real!), whose infatuation with his beautiful assistant (very young Joan Crawford)—a woman, it just so happens, who cannot bear to be touched by the hands of any man—drives him to unspeakable extremes. Sadomasochistic obsession, deception, murder, disfigurement, and a spectacular Grand Guignol climax—Browning wrings every last frisson from the lurid premise.

This screening features a live improvised score by Wren Kitz & John Flanagan. Wren is a songwriter and field recordist who blends traditional guitar-and-voice songwriting with field recording and tape collage experimentation. In his attempt to develop a ghostly and contemplative form of musical expression, Wren considers ways to break down walls between genre categorizations. John plays guitar in the surf power trio The Wet Ones! and has participated in many bands and projects including Heavy Plains, Friends Below the Gangway, Spirit Animal/Wolvings, In Memory of Pluto, and Reorder Narcotic.