Lost Films

[HerrSchreck]

We also have to-- and I don't mean to come off snarky, but it's the fucking giant hippo reeking all thru this conversation-- smarten up and remember that Lotte Eisner wrote her book (I have a copy in my hands) in 1964, and that TV Guide was launched around 56 years ago... so these comments, speculations, and reveiws were written in a completely different world, age, era, when the nitrates of the film may well have existed.. at very least there was no reason at this time to consider it Lost.

To be so cavalier and flip off a "I'm positive the film exists... someone merely needs to get off their ass and use some imagination," presents a breathtakng lack of respect towards the exhaustive work that Bergstrom, UCLA, Fox, and the the German Museums and foundations (in conjunction with the Russian Gos) have been doing over the decades for this film.

As Metropolis has proven, anything is possible, even in the most seemingly bleak of circumstances... but one must come to terms with the fact that youthful enthusiam and passion for the lost (and breathing) films of FW Murnau is a well worn byway, and in the presence of the FWMS's aggressive stance towards unearthing, acquisition, and rights securing (which basically shut down a solid fat handful of little cottage industries of home vid for a good while, most famously Grapevine, that specialized in German silents) of all extant Murnau lurking in all corners of the globe. It still might turn up, but kneecapping some pretty intelligent and gifted scholars (Bergstrom is one of the few who really REALLY knows what she's doing and almost never exposes a weakness, and the FWMS has revolutionized the marketing, funding, nd profiability of the medium of the silent film) is, in my view at least, not among the more admirable of tacks t take.

[aox]

Why do you even need to find the original negative? Just go to a second hand store and find an old VHS copy which are sold now rather cheaply.

[foggy eyes]

Why do you even need to find the original negative? Just go to a second hand store and find an old VHS copy which are sold now rather cheaply.

Of 4 Devils?

[PimpPanda]

Of course, I saw a bunch of 4 Devils copies in the Walmart discount bin just last week!

[HerrSchreck]

This thread is......... the walmart bargain bin.

[aox]

et tu?

how is it the more 'intelligent' the board, the more gullible? ](*,)

people, lighten up. Spend your energy trying to get Playtime on Blu Ray.

[HerrSchreck]

Geeez yox, don't be touchy-- I was not talking about you.

[Tommaso]

According to the German Stummfilm-Forum ,where there is a link to this Yahoo article, quite a few early silents have been found in a Polish cellar.

An early film by Stiller ("People of the Border"), films by Oswald and Rippert, and some more. I don't know how many of these had actually been considered lost, and there's still no "4 Devils" among them, but good news in any case.

[Saturnome]

Anything found is good news. The Stiller is very good news! Was it lost?
The Sherlock Holmes certainly was, if I'm not mistaken the 1922 film was the lone surviving silent Sherlock.

[Tommaso]

I don't know whether the Stiller was lost, though it seems not unlikely; at least I hadn't heard about the film before at all, and 1913 is very early indeed.

There's at least one more surviving silent Sherlock though, Rudolf Meinert's "Der Hund von Baskerville" (1914), which has been announced as 'in preparation' by Edition Filmmuseum for ages now.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Eille Norwood's 1921 feature version of The Hound of the Baskervilles survives in the UK National Film and Television Archive.

[Felix]

I don't know whether the Stiller was lost, though it seems not unlikely; at least I hadn't heard about the film before at all, and 1913 is very early indeed.

Hollywood Destinies (1985, though there may have been others found since then) quotes his earliest surviving film as Love and Journalism, 1916.

Great news though and I am amazed and delighted that these things keep appearing. How the hell did they survive the war and a further sixty years? I'd still like decent, or any, releases of the Stillers that have not needed to be rediscovered though...

[HerrSchreck]

I'm still trying to hunker down to these Thomas Graal films... after the epiphany of Sir Arne, the whole universe is a letdown.

[whaleallright]

If you know of other sources for the GRAAL films than the Grapevine boots, please let me know. Those are unwatchable -- bad even by Grapevine's low standards.

[HarryLong]

Eille Norwood's 1921 feature version of The Hound of the Baskervilles survives in the UK National Film and Television Archive.

I hope they're treating it better than the archive (I'm blanking on which one) that has the Stoll Fi Manchu films. A friend went there to view them for a book he was reaearching & the gave him one of those editing type viewers without a takeup reel. They were completely unconcerned that the films would unspool onto the floor as he watched them. They are also, apparently completely uncorncerned about preserving them. They're not important enough, apparently.

[MichaelB]

Eille Norwood's 1921 feature version of The Hound of the Baskervilles survives in the UK National Film and Television Archive.

I hope they're treating it better than the archive (I'm blanking on which one) that has the Stoll Fi Manchu films. A friend went there to view them for a book he was reaearching & the gave him one of those editing type viewers without a takeup reel. They were completely unconcerned that the films would unspool onto the floor as he watched them. They are also, apparently completely uncorncerned about preserving them. They're not important enough, apparently.

Was it the only print? The BFI National Archive has a strict policy of only allowing study access to films where they have more than one copy - and of course the better-quality copy is the one that's kept more or less permanently locked away in the vaults, accessed only under strictly controlled conditions by trained personnel.

This drives me up the wall at times - I've lost count of the number of titles I've tried to research only to discover that there's just one copy and no funds to make another - but I can't really argue with the policy as a general principle.

[Saturnome]

Unknown Chaplin film found on eBay

The film is what could be a propaganda piece by Essanay featuring outtakes or parts of Chaplin's films, along with stop-motion to create a new film.

[HarryLong]

No, at least, not with an apostrophe.

That was the impression my friend got & passed on to me (and I don't know that it was the BFI - I'd have to check on which archive it was).

[MichaelB]

That was the impression my friend got & passed on to me (and I don't know that it was the BFI - I'd have to check on which archive it was).

I'd be truly gobsmacked if it was the BFI - there's no way your friend wouldn't have been given a take-up reel (even in the unlikely event that there weren't already several in the viewing cubicle, he could easily have asked for one), and if he'd treated the film in the way you described he'd have been firmly escorted from the premises.

[Westwood]

I found it both nice and somewhat embarassing (for us) that Bergstrom recounted that whole affair in her book in the Fox set. But I liked the way how she insisted that one should never give up hope that the film eventually might be found somewhere, given that it had very wide international distribution at the time. I don't know, but that "Metropolis"-find in Buenos Aires seems to be an indication that she might be right.

I have read all this thread only tonight and at times I was so excited, borderline teary-eyed. Oh well, maybe someday...

What is this Fox set being mentioned here?

[HerrSchreck]

Murnau, Borzage, and Fox.

Last years golden followup to the previous years Ford At Fox box.

[Westwood]

Murnau, Borzage, and Fox.

Last years golden followup to the previous years Ford At Fox box.

Ah that one! Thanks HS, I remember reading a bit about this box and all its defects. Has it been bettered in some way or if one buys it there is still a chance it's in bad condition?

[HerrSchreck]

All its defects? I think it's the single greatest DVD release ever to come out of a big studio.

[Tommaso]

I completely agree, Schreck, of course, but don't forget the helicopter/motor-saw noises that both your and my "Seventh Heaven" disc produced....

But despite these little flaws to which you might add scratched discs and a torn book-holder in my case: there's absolutely nothing like that box set, and anyone with the mildest interest in late silent and early sound films should have and treasure it.

[HerrSchreck]

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).