He was the man of a thousand faces, one of the biggest silent screen stars of all time, a genius at creating tortured, often grotesque characters.

Two of Lon Chaney Sr.'s finest films will be shown at the Stahr Center this weekend.

Friday, Chaney is the bell ringer Quasimodo in "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," from 1923.

On Saturday, Chaney plays Fagin in the 1922 film "Oliver Twist," which stars Jackie Coogan as the young Oliver.

On both nights, the 20-minute "Light of Faith" (1922) also will be shown. Chaney plays a thief who, inspired by the story of the Holy Grail, risks his life to rob a rich man of his ancient goblet to save a sick girl.

But the Lon Chaney Film Festival will be anything but silent.

Tom and Laurie Reese will perform an original score for both features, with Tom Reese on the flute and Laurie Reese on the cello.

The couple has been writing scores for silent films for a number of years.

"The key is, we respect the film and its creative integrity," Tom Reese says. "Don't chop it up; don't make a joke out of it. Take it seriously."

The Reeses have created scores for a number of famous silent films, including "Metropolis," "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" and "Nosferatu."

"It works extremely well," Reese says. "Everyone who sees them is blown away."

The couple watches the film five or six times, getting a feel for the story and the specific scenes and characters.

"You have to work like a jazz musician," Reese explains. "The influence to me is the beauty of the film. We are subordinate to the film. We are accompanying it, adding humor when needed, darkness when it is called for."

Characters often have themes, certain colors and moods.

"Our stuff is melodic," Reese says. It took years for us to develop this. There are a lot of classical influences as well as jazz. I am a jazz flutist and Laurie is a classical cellist."

Reese says working with his wife is a good partnership.

"Laurie will say something like 'You're playing too busy,' and I know she isn't saying that because she wants to be heard, but because of how it is affecting the film."

No two live performances are the same.

"Jazz music is so much like life," Reese says. "You are always dealing with pleasing people and you are always dealing with working in the moment. That's all you have, is the moment."

For Reese, creating music for movies has been a lot of fun.

"From 'The Great Train Robbery' to the present, I always loved movies," he says. "When I was a young boy, I lived on the square in Elizabethtown and on Saturday afternoons, there were films at the Moose Theater. It was a quarter to get in."

Lon Chaney made about 25 to 30 films during his brief life. He died of lung cancer at age 47 in 1930, just as talkies were coming in.

His son, Lon Chaney Jr., had his own successful horror career, most famously as the Wolfman.

Often drawn to characters who were deformed or particularly grotesque, Chaney Sr. is quoted as saying, "I wanted to remind people that the lowest types of humanity may have within them the capacity for supreme self-sacrifice. The dwarfed, misshapen beggar of the streets may have the noblest ideals."

He noted that many of the parts he played pointed out a moral.

"They show individuals who might have been different, if they had been given a different chance."

Lon Chaney Jr. Film Festival

"Hunchback of Notre Dame"

Fri. at 8 p.m. $10

"Oliver Twist," Sat. 8 p.m. $10

Stahr Performing Arts Center

438 N. Queen St., 396-7764
www.seventhsister.com