A year after talkies trenchantly told of the imminent demise of silent movies, King Vidor directed one of its timeless examples. Set in a monolithic metropolis, Vidor's The Crowd chronicles an indistinct, average American (amateur James Murray) in search of the indiscriminate American Dream — circa 1928. Famously featuring the first bathroom with a toilet bowl, the realistic, episodic film is based in the banal big city, and each day is broken only intermittently by its hopeful young couple's bittersweet diversions (including a booming Coney Island daydtrip). With tonight's live piano accompaniment, Vidor's indelible image of a swallowing sea of desks, true-life examinations of Roaring '20s New York, and experiences both tragic and triumphant will shock and console.