A film featuring John Barrymore will return to the silver screen as Town Hall Theatre, 40 Main St. in Wilton presents “Beau Brummel,” a 1924 period drama produced  by Warner Bros., Sunday, Aug. 20 at 2 p.m.

Admission is free, with a suggested donation of $10. Silent film accompanist Jeff Rapsis will provide live music.

The screening is part of a series of early films that never played at the Wilton venue when originally released. The “Not Known to be Shown” series runs through October and features obscure dramas, comedies and adventure flicks from the silent era.

“Beau Brummel” is a historical drama set in the 18th century starring Barrymore as George Bryan Brummel, a British military officer. Brummel loves Lady Margery (played by Mary Astor), the betrothed of Lord Alvanley. Despite her own desperate love for Brummel, she submits to family pressure and marries Lord Alvanley. 

Brummel, broken-hearted, embarks upon a life of revelry. He befriends the Prince of Wales and leaves the army, becoming subsequently the best-known rake and decider of fashion in Europe. As his affairs flourish, he falls out of favor with his benefactor, the prince. Only Lady Margery has any chance of helping him, but will she?

Barrymore first achieved fame on the stage, later moving into motion pictures. He starred in more than 60 feature films, during both the silent and sound era, before dying of alcoholism at age 60 in 1942.

Shooting on “Beau Brummel” began in September 1923, with Barrymore and Astor conducting an affair throughout the production. Barrymore and Willard Louis, who played the Prince of Wales, frequently told off-color jokes during camera takes rather than say their lines, since it was a silent film. However, they did not take into account audience members who were deaf, who could lip-read what they were saying. Many patrons wrote to Warner Bros. to complain about the actors' antics.

The picture was a remake of a 1913 version and was in turn remade in 1954 with Stewart Granger, Elizabeth Turner and Peter Ustinov.

Upcoming films in the Town Hall Theatre's “Not Known to be Shown” series include:

-- Sunday, Aug. 27, 2 p.m.: "The Divine Lady" (1929) starring Corrine Griffith. Frank Lloyd won the Best Director Oscar for this romantic melodrama about British naval hero Horatio Nelson's romantic adventures.

-- Sunday, Sept. 17, 2 p.m.: "Eagle of the Night" (1928) starring Frank Clarke and Shirley Palmer. An inventor creates a new muffler for noisy airplane engines, but the bad guys are out to steal the breakthrough and put it to evil use.

-- Sunday, Oct. 8, 2 p.m.: "The Red Kimona" (1925). A small-town girl finds escape from her cruel home life in the arms of a handsome stranger, a situation that leads her to work as a prostitute in New Orleans.