Author
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Topic: Lost films.
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Allan Broadfield
Master Film Handler
Posts: 452
From: Bromley, Kent
Registered: Nov 2010
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posted July 11, 2013 02:36 PM
I don't know how many of you are interested in the terrible loss of many films from the silent and early sound days, but, judging by various net sites I've come across people actually feel a sense of loss when they read about films that they'll never get a chance to see. In actual fact, some of these titles have been partly recovered, some with sound or picture missing, and in one case, the Gainsborough 1931 version of 'The Hound of the Baskervilles', long thought lost because of the missing soundtrack, now lays in the National Film Archive. 'The Hound's' track has been recovered and gifted to the BFI by the Rank organisation, and a complete copy is available to view on request. I've written to the archive department and suggested that such titles, including the incomplete 1931 'Ghost Train' could be issued on DVD's, as I believe there is a market that would snap anything on offer up. They say that they will consider it, but I'm sure that if enough people got in touch they would take it more seriously. If interested the email address is Sonia.Mullet@bfi.org.uk
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Robert Crewdson
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1031
From: UK
Registered: Jun 2013
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posted July 11, 2013 03:48 PM
Greetings Allan, I don't think I would be interested in purchasing an incomplete film, but I am concerned at the loss of any film. Old British films rarely get an outing on TV. I have noticed in the last 6 years or so that not so many vintage films British or American are being shown, the Bogarts, Cagneys. When was the last time you saw a film starring Ronald Shiner (Reluctant Heroes, Worm's Eye View). One British film I would love to see is 'The Mystery of the Mary Celeste' (1935), starring Bela Lugosi, and made by Hammer Productions. P.M. Films of Stoke Poges used to sell copies of The Wrecker, a 1928 outing from Gainsborough Pictures. I had just bought a copy when it was announced that the 2 missing reels had shown up, and it was the first time the film had been seen in its entirety since the 1950s. You may remember an announcement in one of the Amateur movie mags in the late 70s/early 80s, that a lost Laurel and Hardy film had turned up as a 9.5mm copy. It was being carefully blown up to 35mm, and the French captions replaced with English titles.
In 1970, The Observer gave away a series of supplements on the history of the cinema, these could be put in a custom made binder. They stated that a British film 'The Tunnel' (1935), starring Richard Dix, and C. Aubrey Smith, was 'A sci-fi film, now lost'. The film is available to view in full on archive.org, and recently I saw a 16mm copy for sale on Ebay. I can find no evidence of it ever being a lost film; it doesn't appear among the listings of such films on Wikipedia.
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