The Rat

Live musical accompaniment by Sascha Jacobsen and the Musical Art Quintet
Rat.AGILE.jpg

Showings

Castro Theatre Sat, Dec 2, 2017 4:30 PM
$17 general / $15 member — no service charge!
Film Info
Director:Graham Cutts
Cast:Ivor Novello
Mae Marsh
Isabel Jeans
James Lindsay
Year:1925
Country:UK
Total Run Time:78 min.

Description

Set in the criminal underworld of Paris, this 1925 British box-office smash hit features the beguiling Ivor Novello as the apache Pierre Boucheron, aka The Rat. Novello would go on to star in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Lodger (1926) and Downhill (1927), but it was The Rat that made him a Valentino-like sensation. Novello’s knife-throwing Rat (a role he created for himself on stage) is dangerous to men, irresistible to women—especially to slumming aristocrat Zélie de Chaumet (Isabel Jeans). Director Cutts does a splendid job bringing Belle Époque Paris to life in his London studio.

35mm print source: British Film Institute


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Additional Information

Accompanied by Sascha Jacobsen and the Musical Art Quintet

Bassist Sascha Jacobsen draws on a variety of musical styles from classical to jazz and Argentine Tango. He has performed with Kronos Quartet, theatrical greats Rita Moreno, Mandy Patinkin and Patti LuPone, musicians Bonnie Raitt, Randy Newman, and Raul Jaurena, among many others. Jacobsen is in demand as a performer, composer, and arranger, with commissions by the San Jose Chamber Orchestra, Berkeley Youth Symphony, and SF Arts Council among others. He is also a dedicated teacher and has coached students at numerous arts and music schools in the Bay Area. Jacobsen is the founder of the Musical Art Quintet, which performs his original compositions, and plays bass in the group, along with Matthew Szemela and Michele Walther on violin, Keith Lawrence on viola, and Lewis Patzner on cello. SF Weekly writes, "Classical training and a taste for evocative melodies underpin this sound."