On the bill tonight is a programme of little-seen British silent films, including a new print of the British crime film A Woman Redeemed (Sinclair Hill, 1927), starring Brian Aherne and Joan Lockton, with musical accompaniment from Stephen Horne. This stylish and pacy spy thriller will be introduced by Amy Sargeant, author of British Cinema: a Critical History (BFI, 2005).

A Woman Redeemed was adapted from Frederick Britten Austin’s Strand magazine short story, ‘The Fining Pot is for Silver’, with a plot that capitalised on the contemporary appetite for tales of espionage perhaps best exemplified by John Buchan’s The Thirty-Nine Steps and Greenmantle.

The film follows the fortunes of Geoffrey Wayneflete (Brian Aherne), an irreproachable young pilot distinguished for his service in the Great War, who has designed a wireless controlled, pilotless aeroplane ‘that shall make Britain strong enough to keep peace in the world’. An organisation of foreign agents conspire to steal his plans, pressing into service Felice Annaway (Joan Lockton), ordering her to use her ‘charm and beauty’ to seduce Geoffrey. Stella Arbenina, meanwhile, plays the darkly enigmatic and heartless Marta, threatening to expose Felice should she fail to comply with the instructions of a dastardly ‘Twisted Genius’…

A masked ball afforded Walter Murton, Sinclair Hill’s designer, the opportunity to produce the most spectacular set witnessed to date in British Cinema: spangled bathing belles dive into a pool from tiered platforms. A 1927 Bioscope reviewer commented wryly on the decor provided for Felice’s Paris hotel suite: “The bedrooms with gold and silver draperies seem rather to suggest Hollywood taste, but for anything we know that may be the taste that appeals to ladies in the pay of alien governments.”

Amy Sargeant teaches film studies for Tisch School of the Arts, NYU, and has written widely on British, European and Russian cinemas and cultural exchange.

Doors open at 18.30 for a 19.30 start, and the event is expected to end at 22.30. Refreshments will be available.

Tickets & Pricing

Spring Season 2012 ticketing applies.