Celebrated writer and Algonquin wit Ben Hecht, in 1927, wanted to create a topical movie based on his experiences as a Chicago crime-beat reporter. "No film had as yet been made of this deplorable phase of our culture," said director Josef von Sternberg, who shared Hecht's cynical view of American values and worked with him to produce "Underworld," the first great gangster drama of silent film.

		Preview 'Underworld' With: Alloy Orchestra. Where: Three Rivers Film Festival at Regent Square Theater. When: 8 p.m. tonight. Tickets: $12; available at the door.

It is silent no more. In a one-night-only screening, at 8 tonight at the Regent Square, "Underworld" will be accompanied by Alloy Orchestra, a three-man band from Boston specializing in the fine art of performing -- and matching -- live electronic synthesizer music to classic pre-sound films.

The classic at hand ranks just above "Public Enemy" and just below "Scarface" -- also written by Hecht -- in the gangster-film pantheon. It's the story of Bull Weed (George Bancroft), a Prohibition crook with a soft spot for his moll "Feathers" (Evelyn Brent) and for a down-and-out lawyer called "Rolls Royce" (Clive Brook), whom he takes under his wing.

The resulting disputes and shoot-outs relate more to the cute chick than to the hooch territory. Midway, the tone shifts from crime yarn to mood piece: Sternberg's obsession with love triangles (reaching apotheosis in his later pix with Marlene Dietrich) manifests itself here first.

So does his retrospective bitchiness. "The wife of one of the studio executives was assigned to me as leading lady," he wrote of the much-maligned Brent in his wonderfully blunt autobiography, "and several other unimportant players were added, making certain that no valuable personality would be risked in this gamble."

It gambled on gangster fantasyland. The public wasn't quite ready for realistic gangsterdom. It would take two more years and the stock market crash to tap into the reverse-American Dream sagas of James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson and Paul Muni.

Silent film historian Kevin Brownlow calls it "the film that began the gangster cycle, containing all the elements which became cliches in later pictures." The crazy, expressionistic shadowplay of its gangland ball sequence -- confetti raining down on the debauched revelers -- is a fine example.

As for von Sternberg himself?

"I care nothing about the story, only how it is photographed and presented," he said. "In spite of all the concessions I made to popular taste, I had fooled neither the author nor the studio sales force. They recognized it for what it was -- an experiment in photographic violence and montage."

Fully expected to be a flop, "Underworld" was shelved by Paramount and later released in just a single New York theater. The writer so hated Sternberg's artsy embellishments that he demanded his name be removed from the credits.

He and Paramount revised their opinions only after "Underworld" became a huge hit and won Hecht the first-ever Oscar for original screen story.

"Underworld" is unrated but PG-13 in nature for violence.