CHANEY RESTORATIONS: Turner Classic Movies continues its film history preservation mission, having commissioned new scores to accompany three silent films starring Lon Chaney that have not been seen publicly in 80 years. The newly scored films will air as part of the network's Chaney film festival in October. The two-day festival, highlighted by the documentary Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces (Oct. 24 and Oct. 31, 8 p.m.), will feature the world premieres of The Ace of Hearts (1921, Oct. 24, 1 a.m.), scored by Vivek Maddala, the winner of TCM's first annual Young Film Composers' Competition; Tell It to the Marines (1926, Oct. 24, 9:30 p.m.), with an original score by Robert Israel; and Mr. Wu (1927, Oct. 31, 11:30 p.m.), with an original score by Maria Newman. The Unknown (1927, Oct. 31, 3 a.m.), with an original score performed by the Alloy Orchestra, will also be featured as part of the eight-film festival. Maddala, a skilled engineer and musician, scored Chaney's The Ace of Hearts, a political drama about an anarchist organization whose members assassinate wealthy capitalists. Composing music and recording in professional studios by the seventh grade, as well as recently having worked with a variety of top performing artists, Madalla was chosen as a winner of the Young Films Composers Contest by a panel of industry experts for creating a sample score that was fresh and innovative, while also respecting traditional disciplines. He composed and recorded the score for The Ace of Hearts, to match the emotions of the characters, while fitting the time period of the movie with percussion, strings and woodwinds. Renowned composer Israel scored Tell It to the Marines, a film about a young recruit coming of age under the auspices of a sergeant with a heart of gold. This film earned Chaney the distinction of being the first actor to be made an honorary member of the United State Marine Corps. Considered one of the world's finest practitioners of the art of silent film accompaniment, Israel's recent credits include composing an original orchestral score for the four-hour restoration of Greed(1924), which also premiered in 1999 on TCM. Capturing the grandness of the production, which features locations including America, the South Seas and China, Israel composed the score for Tell It to the Marines using a full symphonic orchestra. A classical composer, Newman scored Mr. Wu, a film about a Chinese man who kills his own daughter when he discovers her involvement with British aristocrat. Chaney used his signature make-up techniques to portray both Mr. Wu and Mr. Wu's grandfather. Newman created her score with a string quartet and solo string instruments to capture the stark but passionate and emotional environment where the ideas of two cultures come together. Of the 110 films Chaney starred in for Universal, only four survive today, and of the 151 films he made, many are still in need of restoration The commission of these scores is part of TCM's ongoing initiative to add music to more than 200 silent films in its library. Most of these historic films have not been seen publicly since their theatrical presentations, because no score was ever recorded; they were originally accompanied by live music. The most recent in TCM's on-going initiative includes the creation of its annual Young Film Composer's contest.