Lost Films

[Tommaso]

That's what I did, too, if only to save my player from damage (and that noise would have made any enjoyment of the film impossible, of course). Thank God I already had Filmmuseum's "The River", so I didn't have to torture the computer drive with the flipside, too.

[Westwood]

Wow it makes this set all the more appetizing

[strangerinparadise]

Ah, that's right, I forgot about 7th.

Otherwise my box was pristine (and I was able to watch 7th all the way thru, and Decrypt it to make a file copy).

Regarding 7th, Schreck - could you please educate an ignorant soul as how to decrypt it to make a file copy? If you elect to answer, please feel free to send me a private message if you think that's preferable.

[HerrSchreck]

Search the name of the program, you'll find it. It's freeware.

[strangerinparadise]

Search the name of the program, you'll find it. It's freeware.

I hope my idle brain cells will figure this out all by themselves. Thank you for responding.

[HerrSchreck]

pm'd u.

[ianungstad]

Lost film by Francis Ford (John Ford's older brother) found:

http://movies.yahoo.com/news/movies.ap. ... cleanup-ap" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Tribe]

From today's NY Times:

June 7, 2010
After Long Sojourn, Silent Films Return Home

By DAVE KEHR
A late silent feature directed by John Ford, a short comedy directed by Mabel Normand, a period drama starring Clara Bow and a group of early one-reel westerns are among a trove of long-lost American films recently found in the New Zealand Film Archive.

Some 75 of these movies, chosen for their historical and cultural importance, are in the process of being returned to the United States under the auspices of the National Film Preservation Foundation, the nonprofit, charitable affiliate of the Library of Congress’s National Film Preservation Board. (This writer is a member of the board, and has served on grant panels for the foundation, though none related to the current project.) Chris Finlayson, New Zealand’s minister for arts, culture and heritage, is expected to announce the discovery and the repatriation officially this week.

The films came to light early in 2009, when Brian Meacham, a preservationist for the Los Angeles archive of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, dropped in on colleagues at the New Zealand Film Archive in Wellington during a vacation.

“The conversation inevitably turned to what films we held in our collection,” recalled Steve Russell, the New Zealand archive’s manager of corporate services. “Brian was not surprisingly excited to learn the Film Archive held a number of non-New Zealand titles, primarily early nitrate films, including a substantial number of American films. We offered to compile a list of the U.S. material, and it was a short step to here.” Many foreign films remained in New Zealand after their commercial lives were over because the studios didn’t think the return shipping was worth the expense. “It’s one of the rare cases where the tyranny of distance has worked in our and the films’ favor,” Mr. Russell said.

Because of the importance of the John Ford film, “Upstream” — a backstage drama from 1927, a year that was a turning point in the development of one of America’s greatest filmmakers — it is being copied to modern safety film stock in a New Zealand laboratory, rather than risk loss or further damage in transit.

Although Ford was already famous as a director of epic westerns like “The Iron Horse” (1925) and “Three Bad Men” (1926), “Upstream” appears to be his first film reflecting the influence of the German director F. W. Murnau, who had arrived at Ford’s studio, Fox, in 1926 to begin work on his American masterpiece, “Sunrise.” From Murnau, Ford learned the use of forced perspectives and chiaroscuro lighting, techniques Ford would use to complement his own more direct, naturalistic style.

Richard Abel, a professor of film studies at the University of Michigan and an authority on early cinema, was one of the experts called in by the National Film Preservation Board to evaluate the inventory and establish priorities for films to be returned. “ ‘Upstream’ was an obvious choice,” Mr. Abel said, “and I suggested strongly that they do ‘Dolly of the Dailies’ with Mary Fuller, because there’s very little that survives of her films. But we were also looking to fill in gaps, which is why many of the early westerns were chosen.”

Internationally popular, westerns were an important export for the early American film industry, as were short comedies, with their broad physical humor that required no translation. The New Zealand collection features nine comedies, including the 1918 “Why Husbands Flirt” from the prolific producer-director Al Christie.

Among the discoveries are several films that underline the major contribution made by women to early cinema. “The Girl Stage Driver” (1914) belongs to a large subgenre that Mr. Abel has identified as “cowboy girl” pictures; “The Woman Hater” (1910) is an early vehicle for the serial queen Pearl White; and “Won in a Cupboard” (1914) is the earliest surviving film directed by Normand, the leading female star of Mack Sennett’s Keystone comedies. The Clara Bow film “Maytime” (1923), presents the most famous flapper of the 1920s in an unusual costume role.

Getting the films, which were printed on the unstable, highly inflammable nitrate stock used until the early 1950s, to the United States hasn’t been easy. “There’s no Federal Express for nitrate out of New Zealand,” said Annette Melville, the director of the foundation. “We’re having to ship in U.N.-approved steel barrels, a little bit at a time. So far we’ve got about one third of the films, and preservation work has already begun on four titles.”

As the films arrive, they are placed in cold storage to slow further degeneration. “We’re triaging the films,” Ms. Melville said, “so we can get to the worst case ones first. About a quarter of the films are in advanced nitrate decay, and the rest have good image quality, though they are badly shrunken.”

As funds permit, the repatriated films will be distributed among the five major nitrate preservation facilities in the United States — the Library of Congress, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, George Eastman House, the U.C.L.A. Film & Television Archive and the Museum of Modern Art — where the painstaking work of reclaiming images from material slowly turning to muck will be performed.

Sony, the corporation that currently owns the Columbia library, has assumed the costs for “Mary of the Movies,” a 1923 comedy that is now the earliest Columbia feature known to survive. And 20th Century Fox, a descendant of the studio that made “Upstream,” has taken responsibility for preservation of that title. If all goes well, the restored “Upstream” will be receive its repremiere at the Academy in September.

The preserved films will be made public through archival screenings and as streaming videos on the preservation foundation’s Web site, filmpreservation.org.

[nsps]

Any news of found films is good news, and this is especially good news. Funny thing—I actually talked to Joe Lindner at the SIFF screening of THE RIVER yesterday/Saturday, and he didn't think any official announcements would be made for another month, around SFSFF.

[mentalist]

So, 75 silents uncovered in NZ, including John Ford's Upstream. Alas no Harry Carey silents.

Here is the article

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/br ... 5877087444" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[perkizitore]

Dave Kehr

[matrixschmatrix]

Every time there's a find like this, my first two reactions are 1.) Great! 2.) Goddamn it, why wasn't it (Four Devils, the complete Greed, the lost Magnificent Ambersons footage, etc.)

[Saimo]

See also http://www.ferdyonfilms.com/?p=4979" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Included is John Ford’s full-length feature Upstream (1927), a backstage romance involving an aspiring Shakespearean actor and the daring target girl from a knife-throwing act, and a trailer for the director’s lost feature Strong Boy (1929), starring Victor McLaglen.

[Tribe]

And yet another one (with Chaplin, to boot)!

[nolanoe]

There's a BIG film archive near Babelsberg that - get this - gave (or gives) away film reels for free.

The archive ran out of money, and still had thousands of roll's. So they just issued a statement that to whoever those films belong, they may come and pick them up.

I NEVER heard anything about it again, but I wonder if somebody went through them all.

Also... a part of me hopes that the Murnau film was actually found and the guy just went MIA because it all got "too hot"...

[Sanjuro]

It's never (Four Devils, the complete Greed, the lost Magnificent Ambersons footage, etc.), but the fact that they keep finding stuff means we never have to give up our foolish dreams.

[matrixschmatrix]

It's never (Four Devils, the complete Greed, the lost Magnificent Ambersons footage, etc.), but the fact that they keep finding stuff means we never have to give up our foolish dreams.

I think the newly rediscovered Metropolis footage would have been on that list up until a couple of years ago...

[Roger Ryan]

The big difference between METROPOLIS and the original cuts of GREED and AMBERSONS is that the Lang epic had actually been released in its full form, albeit briefly. Once multiple prints are made, the chances that a lost film will be recovered greatly increases. This is the reason we're seeing things like the Chaplin and Ford films showing up in New Zealand, etc. Unfortunately, Von Stroheim's long version of GREED and Welles' initial edit of AMBERSONS never had a release of any kind. Even the first two previews of AMBERSONS were recut versions of the 131 min. edit film fans long for. The one print that could have survived, the 14 reels sent to Welles in Brazil just prior to the previews, was reportedly destroyed by Dec. 1944. By comparison, R.K.O. released a heavily edited version of Welles' follow-up production JOURNEY INTO FEAR in Aug. 1942. This edit was withdrawn by the studio after only a week or two at Welles' behest who was allowed to re-edit his own version (although given little time to do so, the result was still heavily compromised). All the earlier prints were supposedly recalled, but because multiple prints were actually released, even for a short time, one of them survived and has shown up at festivals in Europe.

Given that 4 DEVILS saw a release, I think there's still hope that this one could show up!

[HarryLong]

the Lang epic had actually been released in its full form, albeit briefly.

But only in Berlin, if I recall correctly. Additionally there are memos in the ufa archives (per Martin Korber) that detail how many meters of film and negative were burned in order to reclaim the silver content. BVy their calculations, this accounted for all the footage chopped out of all the prints & the negative. By everyone's reckoning the print that traveled to South America should not even have existed... I wonder if there was some chicanery whereby someone made a tidy little sum selling the print without passing the money on to Ufa.
But you're right; once multiple prints go into release, there's always the possibility of one turning up.
BTW: I recall reading varioius people relate how EvS subjected them to the full 8-hour GREED. It would seem he had his own print of the full version. What happened to that...?

[MichaelB]

The BFI attempts to reconstruct 75 missing British films with the aid of contemporary reviews, reminiscences, distribution and screening records, stills, pressbooks and other memorabilia.

[Roger Ryan]

The BFI attempts to reconstruct 75 missing British films with the aid of contemporary reviews, reminiscences, distribution and screening records, stills, pressbooks and other memorabilia.

Quite interesting - thanks for the link.

I'm a bit taken aback by the number of missing British films from the 50s, 60s, 70s, even 80s on that list. You wouldn't think a film produced by the Salkinds starring Tony Curtis and Orson Welles which premiered at Cannes in '83 would simply vanish (not that I imagine WHERE IS PARSIFAL? was any good).

[Lemmy Caution]

I had an odd thought the other day --
I was wondering if any (now lost) films had been placed in time capsules and buried. They frequently used to include music records, though I guess that would be much cheaper than reels of films. But they did like to preserve relics of the modern culture and technology of the day. And early one or two reel prints might have been reasonable to save for posterity. It would be nice since film itself is basically a kind of time capsule of people, places and images past.

Likely one big dead end, but who knows what some research could turn up.
I guess for starters my question would be whether films were buried in time capsules at all.
Is anyone an expert in this area?

[movielocke]

the 75 films found in New Zealand

it was explained tonight that part of the reason the films were in such remarkable condition (all on nitrate) was that every two years every can of nitrate was opened and wound--but not projected--so decay was not allowed to spread throughout the film. Apparently the archive was following best practices and kept really remarkable care of their material, most of which they've had since the 70s or 80s. 90% of the 75 films are extant, and apparently 70% of their nitrate materials are still extant, which for films 90-100 years old on volatile nitrate is stunning.

[HarryLong]

I had an odd thought the other day --
I was wondering if any (now lost) films had been placed in time capsules and buried.

Might not have done any good if they had been. I read a news report in the past month or so where a time capsule buried in 1957 - which included a Plymouth of that very year (and looks exactly like the one my dad still owned when I was learning to drive) - was opened & everything was pretty much trash. I guess water, or at least moisture, got in, cuz that Plymouth looked like it had been sitting in the scrap yard, rusting away all those years.
Also, as I understand it, most time capsules are effectively lost, as no one seems to remember where they were buried. Most of the ones that are opened are discovered by chance while excavation is going on for some new building project. So any lost films that might be in time capsules are still pretty much lost.

[Lemmy Caution]

Also, as I understand it, most time capsules are effectively lost, as no one seems to remember where they were buried. Most of the ones that are opened are discovered by chance while excavation is going on for some new building project. So any lost films that might be in time capsules are still pretty much lost.

Yeah, I did a little modest research and it seems most time capsules indeed get lost or forgotten. Also, it seems that the time capsule craze took off in the wake of the massive 1939 World's Fair time capsule project, so most time capsules post-date that.
But one never knows ...