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Post by marysara1 on Aug 9, 2023 17:31:45 GMT
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Post by NoShear on Aug 9, 2023 19:08:16 GMT
If I correctly recall counting, there are at least five Norma Shearer films listed as lost, including this one with - speaking of "LONDON After Midnight" - Lon Chaney, The TOWER of LIES:  |
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Post by vannorden on Aug 12, 2023 19:14:36 GMT
Although numbers differ, it's widely agreed that only 10%-15% of silent films survive today. That exiguous number should make every film lover sad. Here are two lost films that have long intrigued me:
The Wizard (1927): DIR Richard Rosson. Edmund Lowe, Leila Hyams, Gustav von Seyffertitz. A mystery-horror film based on a Gaston Leroux novel, with eerie shades of H.G. Welles' The Island of Dr. Moreau. It tells the story of a "mad scientist" who has affixed a human face onto an ape and dispatches the grotesque amalgamation to capture people and lure them back to his home to be tortured and killed. The film's negative was a casualty in the 1937 Fox vault fire. Here's a stunning promo photo: The Young Diana (1922): DIR Albert Capellani, Robert G. Vignola. Marion Davies, Macklyn Arbuckle, Forrest Stanley, Pedro de Cordoba. Based on Marie Corelli's novel of the same name and featuring Marion Davies as the titular Diana, this one deals with themes of rejuvenation, much in the vein of Gertrude Atherton's Black Oxen. Sadly, of the four films Davies made in 1922, The Young Diana is the only one that remains lost. Here, Dr. Dimitrius develops a new technique to restore Diana's youthful vigor and appearance:
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Post by vannorden on Aug 12, 2023 22:55:05 GMT
If I correctly recall counting, there are at least five Norma Shearer films listed as lost, including this one with - speaking of "LONDON After Midnight" - Lon Chaney, The TOWER of LIES:
The Bootleggers (1922)
The Wolf Man (1923) (some sources list the date as 1924)
Blue Water (1924)
Broadway After Dark (1924)
Broken Barriers (1924)
Married Flirts (1924) (Shearer only makes a cameo appearance)
The Snob (1924)
Excuse Me (1925)
His Secretary (1925)
The Tower of Lies (1925)
A Slave of Fashion (1926)
The Demi-Bride (1927) (only one-minute fragment survives)
The Actress (1928)
As we know, this information is subject to change and is not always accurate. Some of Shearer's films pre-Lucretia Lombard (1923) (the earliest Shearer film I have seen) have very murky details and little to no information regarding survival status. |
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Post by NoShear on Aug 13, 2023 15:45:22 GMT
If I correctly recall counting, there are at least five Norma Shearer films listed as lost, including this one with - speaking of "LONDON After Midnight" - Lon Chaney, The TOWER of LIES:
The Bootleggers (1922)
The Wolf Man (1923) (some sources list the date as 1924)
Blue Water (1924)
Broadway After Dark (1924)
Broken Barriers (1924)
Married Flirts (1924) (Shearer only makes a cameo appearance)
The Snob (1924)
Excuse Me (1925)
His Secretary (1925)
The Tower of Lies (1925)
A Slave of Fashion (1926)
The Demi-Bride (1927) (only one-minute fragment survives)
The Actress (1928)
As we know, this information is subject to change and is not always accurate. Some of Shearer's films pre-Lucretia Lombard (1923) (the earliest Shearer film I have seen) have very murky details and little to no information regarding survival status. I thought there would be more than five or six, vannorden, but my count was limited to those Norma Shearer silents I've researched: I don't want to know all there is - or isn't - all at once!! As to the substantial list of lost, vannorden, there's some sprinkling of hope: The DEVIL'S CIRCUS was once thought to be lost only to be rediscovered and restored!!  |
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Post by vannorden on Aug 24, 2023 3:24:26 GMT
Indeed, Norma Shearer's missing more than five films partly due to the 1965 MGM vault fire that destroyed a sizable chunk of their silent films, including London After Midnight and The Divine Woman. From what I gathered (from Library of Congress, IMDb, Wiki, Nitrateville, and SilentEra.com), these films are "likely lost" in Shearer's filmography:
The Bootleggers (1922)
The Wolf Man (1923) (some sources list the date as 1924)
Blue Water (1924)
Broadway After Dark (1924)
Broken Barriers (1924)
Married Flirts (1924) (Shearer only makes a cameo appearance)
The Snob (1924)
Excuse Me (1925)
His Secretary (1925)
The Tower of Lies (1925)
A Slave of Fashion (1926)
The Demi-Bride (1927) (only one-minute fragment survives)
The Actress (1928)
As we know, this information is subject to change and is not always accurate. Some of Shearer's films pre-Lucretia Lombard (1923) (the earliest Shearer film I have seen) have very murky details and little to no information regarding survival status. I thought there would be more than five or six, vannorden, but my count was limited to those Norma Shearer silents I've researched: I don't want to know all there is - or isn't - all at once!! As to the substantial list of lost, vannorden, there's some sprinkling of hope: The DEVIL'S CIRCUS was once thought to be lost only to be rediscovered and restored!!
NoShear, check out this image from MoMA's 1969 exhibition, "Stills from Lost Films," when Benjamin Christensen's The Devil's Circus (1926) was still labeled as lost. The collection showcased Erich von Stroheim's The Devil's Passkey (1920), Josef von Sternberg's The Case of Lena Smith (1929), and Victor Sjostrom's The Tower of Lies (1925), among others. Interestingly, according to film historian Richard Koszarski, The Devil's Circus print was found in conjunction with the MoMA exhibition in 1969.
Let's hope another trapeze drama resurfaces soon: F.W. Murnau's 4 Devils (1928). |
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Post by NoShear on Aug 25, 2023 16:33:47 GMT
I thought there would be more than five or six, vannorden, but my count was limited to those Norma Shearer silents I've researched: I don't want to know all there is - or isn't - all at once!! As to the substantial list of lost, vannorden, there's some sprinkling of hope: The DEVIL'S CIRCUS was once thought to be lost only to be rediscovered and restored!!
NoShear, check out this image from MoMA's 1969 exhibition, "Stills from Lost Films," when Benjamin Christensen's The Devil's Circus (1926) was still labeled as lost. The collection showcased Erich von Stroheim's The Devil's Passkey (1920), Josef von Sternberg's The Case of Lena Smith (1929), and Victor Sjostrom's The Tower of Lies (1925), among others. Interestingly, according to film historian Richard Koszarski, The Devil's Circus print was found in conjunction with the MoMA exhibition in 1969.
Let's hope another trapeze drama resurfaces soon: F.W. Murnau's 4 Devils (1928). Again, vannorden, thank you for your Norma Shearer posts and the knowledge imparted with them... This side of WINGS, The DEVIL'S CIRCUS has probably been the most interesting silent viewing for me thus far. If I could pick just one silent to be rediscovered, I'd choose The Tower of Lies...
I don't suppose another Norma left a print of it in her sixteen-millimeter shrine.
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Post by NoShear on Sept 4, 2023 15:11:06 GMT
NoShear, check out this image from MoMA's 1969 exhibition, "Stills from Lost Films," when Benjamin Christensen's The Devil's Circus (1926) was still labeled as lost. The collection showcased Erich von Stroheim's The Devil's Passkey (1920), Josef von Sternberg's The Case of Lena Smith (1929), and Victor Sjostrom's The Tower of Lies (1925), among others. Interestingly, according to film historian Richard Koszarski, The Devil's Circus print was found in conjunction with the MoMA exhibition in 1969.
Let's hope another trapeze drama resurfaces soon: F.W. Murnau's 4 Devils (1928). vannorden, I caught Jacqueline Stewart's intro for F. W. Murnau's silent CITY GIRL last night and thought of your MoMA post here: She mentioned that the lost version of the 1930 movie turned up the same year as the aforementioned 1969 exhibition. |
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Post by Swithin on Oct 8, 2023 4:24:39 GMT
I'm sad that the dubbed version of Black Pit of Dr. M is lost. Normally, I prefer subtitles, but the dubbed-into-English version of Misterios de ultratumba is brilliant!
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