“Beau Geste” (1926)
- Film
- Ticket Required
Suzanne and Paul Westlake Performing Arts Center
Ralph Forbes, Ronald Colman, and Neil Hamilton in Beau Geste. Image courtesy of the Cleveland Silent Film Festival
About The Event
After reading P. C. Wren’s new novel, Beau Geste, Irish American film director Herbert Brenon hurried to Jesse L. Lasky’s office at Paramount Pictures to pitch a film adaptation. Lasky gave Brenon free rein and resources to create a film that matches the novel’s epic scope. The story centers on the bond among three English brothers (played by Ronald Colman, Neil Hamilton, and Ralph Forbes) whose lives are disrupted by the disappearance of a precious family heirloom, leading them to the French Foreign Legion and the battlefields of North Africa. The film’s exteriors were shot on location in California’s Imperial Sand Dunes, its vast white sands standing in for the Sahara. Silent film music specialist Rodney Sauer leads a quintet in a newly compiled score created for the film, combining period music with live performance to heighten its romance, suspense, and grandeur.
More information about the Cleveland Silent Film Festival can be found on the organization’s website (opens in a new tab).
The views expressed by performers during this event are their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Cleveland Museum of Art.
Ticket Prices
Festival Pass
Guests have the option to purchase tickets to individual screenings or to buy a festival pass, which allows purchasers to attend all screenings at the Cleveland Museum of Art at a discounted fee. In addition, the festival pass includes admission to the screening of East and West on September 15 at 7:30 p.m. at the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque and The General on September 17 at 7:30 p.m. at the Cleveland Grays Armory Museum. Festival pass holders must bring their festival pass to the Cinematheque box office to receive their ticket for the East and West screening. Festival pass holders must bring their festival pass to the Cleveland Grays Armory Museum to receive their ticket for The General screening.
A festival pass costs $120 for nonmembers and $100 for members.
Sponsors
The 2026–27 Performing Arts Series is sponsored by the Musart Society. This program is made possible in part by the Ernest L. and Louise M. Gartner Fund, the P. J. McMyler Musical Endowment Fund, and the Anton and Rose Zverina Music Fund.
The Cleveland Museum of Art is funded in part by residents of Cuyahoga County through a public grant from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture.
Performing arts programs are supported in part by the Ohio Arts Council, which receives support from the State of Ohio and the National Endowment for the Arts.
