Its about how The New Zealand Movie Archive discovered they had copies of a bunch of silent films that have been lost for decades. One of them is the only known copy of a drama by legendary director John Ford called "Upstream". All the movies are slowly being sent back to the United States to be restored.
I thought fellow movie buffs would find this interesting.
Post by afriendlychicken on Jun 9, 2010 0:44:59 GMT -5
I wonder if Hats Off, the only lost Laurel and Hardy short, is there.
That may be wishing for too much. Whatever is there, it'll be great to see.
Not that the cinema-goer is to be blamed for his poor taste - life doesn't give us all the same opportunities for developing our aesthetic perceptions. That's where the real difficulty lies. - Andrei Tarkovsky
TODAY'S HOROSCOPE: "Beware of Leos."
"Turkey is made out of three parts. White meat, dark meat and the parts I get" - Jack Benny
Post by stevehadcrackers on Jun 9, 2010 10:43:35 GMT -5
I wonder if they found "London After Midnight"? Probably not; that's something i'm sure they would have mentioned in the article. I love silent films, so this is pretty exciting news, especially considering that so many of the actors I like don't have too many surviving films. It would be nice if they found a Colleen Moore movie in there, she's my favorite.
I wonder if they found "London After Midnight"? Probably not; that's something i'm sure they would have mentioned in the article. I love silent films, so this is pretty exciting news, especially considering that so many of the actors I like don't have too many surviving films. It would be nice if they found a Colleen Moore movie in there, she's my favorite.
I have to agree, if they had found a copy of London After Midnight that would have been mentioned and trumpeted along with the Ford film. That is one of the most sought after lost films, people are still hoping to find a copy. I've read alot of articles over the years about London After Midnight.
As a fan of the Three Stooges, this article reminded me that one of their early shorts, a MGM short they did with Ted Healy, called Hello Pop has been lost for decades. Another short starring Moe and Curly called Jailbirds of Paradise is also lost.
After they found a nearly complete copy of Fritz Lang's Metropolis in Argentina in 2008, it gave fans of many lost films hope that they may be found.
I wonder if the long lost Marx Brothers silent movie "Humorisque" (sp) is amongst those that were found.
Though then again, the rumor is that Groucho bought and burned all of the negatives for that movie, so probably not.
I've read about that one too (I love the Marx Brothers) and if its true Groucho destroyed the negatives because the movie was so bad, it will never be found.
Its really special they found these movies, its estimated that about 80% of movies from the silent era/early talkies era of 1894 to 1930 are lost. That's really sad.
Last Edit: Jun 9, 2010 11:19:02 GMT -5 by Justin T
Post by Trumpy's Magic Snout on Jun 9, 2010 17:19:51 GMT -5
Sunrise isn't lost, it's quite easy to get on DVD (here at least). I'd love to see some of the other F.W. Murnau films that have been declared missing.
It always comes crashing down around your ears. At least they may have hurt their bums on my monitors.
Post by stevehadcrackers on Jun 9, 2010 20:56:18 GMT -5
I think Janet Gaynor won the first best actress Academy Award for Sunrise. Amazing movie.
Isn't Greed still kicking around somewhere? I thought it was available, but missing a lot of footage. I also thought the Mae Murray version of The Merry Widow was available, but I could be out of my mind.
I love the idea of all these long-lost silent films... it makes silent movies even more mysterious.
Post by stevehadcrackers on Jun 10, 2010 9:32:34 GMT -5
I was curious about Greed, so I looked it up on IMDB:
"The original version was 42 reels, and ran for 9 hours at 20 fps. Von Stroheim then shortened it to 24 reels (just over 5 hours - the "Director's Version"). It was then cut again, not once, but twice. The first time by Rex Ingram, who cut the film down to 18 reels, and forbade Stroheim to let anyone cut it again. The final cut was performed by MGM editing department's Joseph Farnham acting on orders from Irving Thalberg, who without having read the book ("McTeague") or the script, cut the film down to 10 reels. This final version was released with a runtime of 2-1/4 hours. No copies of the earlier versions were made, and the entirety of the 32 reels that did not make the final release version were destroyed - along with all of the outtakes - so that the silver could be extracted from the film celluloid. It is in this way, that most of the movie was lost forever. "
I'm curious as to what could have eaten up 9 hours of film... it would be awesome if they had found the rest of that footage, but it's probably something they would have mentioned in the article, as that would have been a pretty significant find.