ANNIE LAURIE (1927)

Produced at the creative apex of the silent era, Annie Laurie (1927) was MGM’s grand-scale dramatization of the conflicts between warring clans in the 17th-century Scottish highlands.

Lillian Gish (The Wind, Broken Blossoms) stars as the daughter of a diplomat who seeks to negotiate peace between the haughty and politically-connected Campbells, and the more rough-hewn MacDonalds, led by the dashing Norman Kerry (The Phantom of the Opera). When Annie discovers that the Campbells’ chieftain is plotting to derail a treaty and justify a brutal attack upon the MacDonalds (in what would become known as the Massacre of Glencoe), she must sprint to a snowy mountaintop to light a warning signal — a thrilling sequence reminiscent of Gish’s legendary ice floe scene from D.W. Griffith’s Way Down East. This 4K restoration by the Library of Congress features an extraordinary orchestral score by Robert Israel (in 5.1 Stereo Surround), and climaxes with a beautifully preserved Technicolor sequence.