SILENT FILM CATALOG

Get ready for an unbeatable blend of cinema and concert you won't find online! The Invincible Czars transform classic silent films into electrifying live experiences, blending our tastefully modern soundtracks with timeless movies. From art house cinemas to colleges, our shows have entertained audiences across the US and Canada.

Using flute, clarinet, guitars, piano, drums and more we craft scores that perfectly complement each film's vibe, drawing inspiration from legends like Bernard Herrmann, Carl Stahling and Ennio Morricone. But our performances aren't just museum pieces—they're interactive, thrilling, and downright fun! Join us in spooky attire, howling, laughing, and even leaving your seat—it's all part of the show! And it doesn't stop there—we've got custom artwork, merch, and photo ops to make sure you can take the magic home. Don't miss our upcoming 2025 Phantom of the Opera Centennial Tour celebrating 100 years of Lon Chaney and Mary Philbin in this icon of early American film!

NOSFERATU

We have performed this score hundreds of times - more than any other in our catalog. Many call Nosferatu the first vampire film but it is universally recognized as a milestone of early cinema and a quintessential piece of German Expressionism. Max Shreck terrified audiences as Count Orlok in the 1920s.

We debuted an early draft of score in 2015, refined it over years of performances and then finally released a DVD with our soundtrack for the film's centennial in 2022. At nearly every show, someone tells us they never want to see the movie without our soundtrack again. Wow!

After the tour, we released a DVD of our live performance from The Normal Theater in Normal, IL. That audience was the star of the show!

If you've only seen us do this live, don't skip the 2022 DVD; it features more lush orchestration that would require twice as many people to perform live. It's really a pleasure to hear!

PHANTOM OF THE OPERA

We are currently updating our Phantom of the Opera soundtrack for the film's centennial in 2025! This is the same classic story that was on Broadway for decades. No, we didn't incorporate any Andrew Lloyd Webber music into our score. :)

Phantom is an American movie an benefits from great acting, editing, sets and little if any lost footage. It's also notable for a short color sequence during the bal masque scene. Lon Chaney and Mary Philbin are forever icons of horror and silent film thanks to the movie's famous unmasking scene.

Here's a preview video from our 2018 tour with Phantom -->

THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI

This is one of the move important films in the history of cinema. Dr. Caligari kicked off the German Expressionist movement and many say that it is the movie that made film an art form and not just a novelty.


The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari inspired modern day filmmaker Tim Burton and musicians like David Bowie with its strikingly modern visuals. Its craggy edges, disjointed backgrounds and heavy make-up have earned this dark fairy tale a reputation as the quintessential German Expressionist film. Its twist ending is also considered the first in cinematic history (and something Rod Sterling’s The Twlight Zone capitalized upon in the 1960s.)

Our score is the most angular music we've ever recorded, full of piano chords that sound like broken glass, ominous bass clarinet and tense violin passages. We released a flash drive of our 2020 draft but retired it when we released a DVD and flash drive of our 2023 version. We also recorded a rock version of Dr. Caligari's theme music entitled "Return of the Pink Elephants"

DR. JEKYLL & MR. HYDE

This film stars Drew Barrymore's grandfather John Barrymore as both Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde! We debuted this score in 2011 and finally toured nationally with it in 2017, including our first appearance The Seattle International Film Festival. This was our first soundtrack to incorporate vocals.

THE WIND

This is an excellent film with fantastic acting by the entire cast who were chosen by the star Lillian Gish. It's very late in the silent era, overlapping with the earliest talkies like The Jazz Singer. As a result, its pacing, shots and editing are much closer to what we are used to today with more humor and no long, slow sequences that seem pointless and boring to modern viewers. That made writing the score easier in some ways and more difficult in others. We chose to go very minimal, eliminating drums completely and using all acoustic instruments except the bass guitar (the bass violin was too big and delicate to truck around the country on tour!) Our soundtrack is as stark as the West Texas setting of the film.

The Bullock Museum in Austin asked us to create and perform a score for this psychological thriller / western for a month of Women in Texas History in May 2014.

MARTYRS OF THE ALAMO

We created this score at the request of The Bullock Museum in Austin. We did an entire Ennio Morricone influenced soundtrack. This picture is permanently retired from our catalog.

THE UNKNOWN

Lon Chaney stars as an armless knife thrower in a Spanish circus alongside a very young Joan Crawford for this bizarre film about a love triangle gone really super wrong. We debuted this for a sold out audience at the Alamo Drafthouse Ritz in 2010 and performed it for the hand-off between SxSW Film and SxSW Music that same year. Later we brought it to Discovery Green and the Alamo Drafthouse, both in Houston.

DESTINY

Destiny is a lovely Fritz Lang film about cheating death. The main character travels to three regions of the world in a deal to try to save her lover from death's grip. We performed this score only twice in 2009 at Discovery Green in Houston and the Alamo Lake Creek in Austin.

AELITA QUEEN OF MARS

Aelita was out first foray into the realm of silent film accompaniment! The original Alamo Drafthouse had been doing these kinds of shows through the 90s and 00s with bands performing the music. We part of a later wave of groups to participate, debuting this soundtrack in the summer of 2006.

Hans Rickheit did the fabulous poster art pictured here.

Aelita is ultimately Soviet propaganda picture and our Russians-sounding name was the reason behind the Alamo's request for us to do this title. Like many silent films, the movie suffers from lost footage resulting in subplots that seem to go nowhere. We created our own edit of the film for our performances and for that reason, we've never revisited it. We performed this soundtrack live only twice at the original Alamo Drafthouse and then Lake Creek Alamo Drafthouse. Later we recorded the score but never released it.