lights, action, melodrama! Silent films get new reel at London haven

London: The black and white silent movie flickered into life as the pianist started up with a dramatic flourish. Cue the latest exploits of daring...

London: The black and white silent movie flickered into life as the pianist started up with a dramatic flourish.

Cue the latest exploits of daring master criminal "Three-Fingered Kate".

The head of a gang behind a string of audacious robberies, Kate -- who is missing the last two digits of her right hand -- always manages to outwit her rival, Sheerluck Finch, aka fictional detective Sherlock Holmes.

Nearly a century after the first "talkies" displaced silent movies for good, a society of London cinephiles still gather regularly to celebrate these largely forgotten works from the dawn of cinema.

The Kennington Bioscope searches out rare films from the era -- many not seen for many decades -- and screens them with live improvised accompaniment on the piano, just as they would have been a century ago.