WILTON – He never smiled on camera, earning him the nickname of “the Great Stone Face.” But Buster Keaton’s comedies rocked Hollywood’s silent era with laughter throughout the 1920s.

See for yourself with a screening of ‘Sherlock Jr.’ (1924) and ‘The Cameraman’ (1928), two of Keaton’s landmark feature films, on Sunday, Sept. 20 at 2 p.m. at the Town Hall Theatre, 40 Main St., Wilton, N.H.

The screening, the latest in the Town Hall Theatre’s silent film series, will feature live accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis, a New Hampshire-based composer who specializes in creating music for silent films.

Admission is free; a donation of $10 per person is suggested to help defray expenses.

The Town Hall Theatre is observing procedures to comply with all state and CDC public health guidelines, including reduced seating capacity. For complete information about safety protocols, visit www.wiltontownhalltheatre.com

In ‘Sherlock Jr.,’ Buster plays a small-town movie projectionist who dreams of working as a detective. But then Buster’s romantic rival frames him for stealing a watch from his girlfriend’s father.

Fortunately, the situation mirrors the plot of the movie currently playing at Buster’s theater. Inspired by the movie, can Buster find the real thief and win back his girl?

‘The Cameraman’ tells the story of a young man (Keaton) who tries to impress the girl of his dreams (Marceline Day) by working as a freelance newsreel cameraman.

His efforts fail spectacularly, but then a lucky break gives him an unexpected chance to make his mark. Can Buster parlay the scoop of the year into a secure job and successful romance?

Both films focus on exploring the potentials of the motion picture, then a brand-new medium.

In ‘The Cameraman,’ Keaton uses the movie business itself to create comedy that plays with the nature of film and reality.

Keaton, along with Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd, stands as one of the three great clowns of the silent screen. Many critics regard Keaton as the most timeless; Roger Ebert wrote in 2002 that “in an extraordinary period from 1920 to 1929, (Keaton) worked without interruption on a series of films that make him, arguably, the greatest actor-director in the history of the movies.”

As a performer, Keaton was uniquely suited to the demands of silent comedy. Born in 1895, he made his stage debut as a toddler, joining his family’s knockabout vaudeville act and learning to take falls and do acrobatic stunts at an early age. He spent his entire childhood and adolescence on stage, attending school for exactly one day.

A remarkable pantomime artist, Keaton naturally used his whole body to communicate emotions ranging from sadness to surprise. In an era when movies had few special effects, Keaton’s acrobatic talents enabled him to perform all his own stunts.

All those talents are on display in ‘Sherlock Jr.’ and ‘The Cameraman,’ which was selected in 2005 for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”