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Post by Justin T on Jun 8, 2010 9:53:39 GMT -5
I saw this article today on Yahoo News news.yahoo.com/s/ap/as_new_zealand_movie_cacheIts 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.
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Post by GProopdog on Jun 8, 2010 10:13:20 GMT -5
I'm sure film buffs and historians are salivating at the thought of what these movies are or who might be in them. I know I'm curious to find out.
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Post by Chuck on Jun 8, 2010 17:45:57 GMT -5
I started salivating when I saw it. I, for one, am looking forward to seeing these. I hope Turner Classics gets ahold of them and does a festival.
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Post by Mighty Jack on Jun 8, 2010 23:06:57 GMT -5
Cool, I wonder if Harry Langdon's last directed, lost film is among them?
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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.
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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.
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Post by GProopdog on Jun 9, 2010 10:58:13 GMT -5
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.
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Post by Justin T on Jun 9, 2010 11:10:46 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 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.
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Post by Justin T on Jun 9, 2010 11:12:21 GMT -5
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.
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Post by CBG on Jun 9, 2010 14:51:33 GMT -5
How 'bout Greed? Or The Merry Widow? Sunrise? The Fire Brigade?
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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.
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Post by solgroupie on Jun 9, 2010 19:24:16 GMT -5
i caught half of sunrise on TCM one night and ordered the dvd the next day. great, great film.
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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.
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Post by CBG on Jun 10, 2010 8:23:59 GMT -5
Okay, so I'm a little out-of-date on the 'availability' list. What a poser.
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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.
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