Lost Film
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A lost film is a
feature Feature may refer to: Computing * Feature (CAD), could be a hole, pocket, or notch * Feature (computer vision), could be an edge, corner or blob * Feature (software design) is an intentional distinguishing characteristic of a software item ...
or
short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...
that no longer exists in any studio archive, private collection, public archive or the U.S.
Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
.


Conditions

During most of the 20th century, U.S. copyright law required at least one copy of every American film to be deposited at the
Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
at the time of
copyright registration The purpose of copyright registration is to place on record a verifiable account of the date and content of the work in question, so that in the event of a legal claim, or case of infringement or plagiarism, the copyright owner can produce a cop ...
, but the Librarian of Congress was not required to retain those copies: "Under the provisions of the act of March 4, 1909, authority is granted for the return to the claimant of copyright of such copyright deposits as are not required by the Library." A report created by Library of Congress film historian and archivist David Pierce claims: * 75% of original silent-era films have perished. * 14% of the 10,919 silent films released by major studios exist in their original 35 mm or other formats. * 11% survive only in full-length foreign versions or film formats of lesser image quality. Of the American
sound film A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed before ...
s made from 1927 to 1950, an estimated half have been lost. The phrase "lost film" can also be used in a literal sense for instances where footage of
deleted scene A deleted scene is footage that has been removed from the final version of a film or television show. There are various reasons why these scenes are deleted, which include time constraints, relevance, quality or a dropped story thread. A similar o ...
s, unedited, and alternative versions of feature films are known to have been created but can no longer be accounted for. Sometimes, a copy of a lost film is rediscovered. A film that has not been recovered in its entirety is called a partially lost film. For example, the 1922 film '' Sherlock Holmes'' was eventually discovered with some of the original footage missing.


Stills

Many film studios hire a
still photographer A unit still photographer, or simply a still photographer, is a person who creates film stills, still photographic images specifically intended for use in the marketing and publicity of feature films in the motion picture industry and network tele ...
to take pictures during production for potential publicity use. Some are produced in quantity for display use by theaters, others in smaller numbers for distribution to newspapers and magazines, and have subsequently preserved imagery from otherwise lost films. In some cases, such as '' London After Midnight'', the surviving coverage is so extensive that an entire lost film can be reconstructed scene by scene from still photographs. Stills have been used to stand in for missing footage when making new preservation prints of partially lost films: for example, with the
Gloria Swanson Gloria May Josephine Swanson (March 27, 1899April 4, 1983) was an American actress and producer. She first achieved fame acting in dozens of silent films in the 1920s and was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, most f ...
picture '' Sadie Thompson''.


Reasons for film loss

Most lost films are from the
silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized Sound recording and reproduction, recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) ...
and early talkie era, from about 1894 to 1930.
Martin Scorsese Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Scorsese emerged as one of the major figures of the New Hollywood era. He is the recipient of many major accolades, inclu ...
's Film Foundation estimates that more than 90% of American films made before 1929 are lost, and the
Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
estimates that 75% of all silent films are lost forever. The largest cause of silent film loss was intentional destruction. Before the era of
television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
(and
home video Home video is prerecorded media sold or rented for home viewing. The term originates from the VHS and Betamax era, when the predominant medium was videotapes, but has carried over to optical disc formats such as DVD, Blu-ray and streaming me ...
), films were viewed as having little future value when their theatrical runs ended. Similarly, silent films were perceived as worthless after the end of the silent era. Film preservationist
Robert A. Harris Robert A. Harris (born 1945) is an American film historian, archivist, and film preservationist. Life Robert A. Harris was born in 1945. Harris is often working with James C. Katz and has restored such films as ''Lawrence of Arabia'', ''Ve ...
has said, "Most of the early films did not survive because of wholesale junking by the studios. There was no thought of ever saving these films. They simply needed vault space and the materials were expensive to house." Meanwhile, the studios could earn money by recycling the film for their silver content. Many
Technicolor Technicolor is a series of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black and white films ...
two-color negatives from the 1920s and 1930s were thrown out when studios simply refused to reclaim their films, still being held by Technicolor in its vaults. Some used prints were sold to scrap dealers and ultimately cut up into short segments for use with small, hand-cranked 35 mm movie projectors, which were sold as a toy for showing brief excerpts from Hollywood movies at home. Sometimes, the destruction was proactive. In 1921, actor
Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle Roscoe Conkling "Fatty" Arbuckle (; March 24, 1887 – June 29, 1933) was an American silent film actor, comedian, director, and screenwriter. He started at the Selig Polyscope Company and eventually moved to Keystone Studios, where he worked w ...
was charged with the rape and murder of actress
Virginia Rappe Virginia Caroline Rappe (; July 7, 1891 – September 9, 1921) was an American model and silent film actress. Working mostly in bit parts, Rappe died after attending a party with actor Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, who was accused of manslaughter a ...
. Following a series of trials, he was ultimately acquitted; however, by this time, his name had become so toxic that studios engaged in the systematic destruction of all films in which he had a starring role. Many other early motion pictures are lost because the
nitrate film Nitrocellulose (also known as cellulose nitrate, flash paper, flash cotton, guncotton, pyroxylin and flash string, depending on form) is a highly flammable compound formed by nitrating cellulose through exposure to a mixture of nitric acid and ...
used for nearly all 35 mm negatives and prints made before 1952 is highly flammable. When in very badly deteriorated condition and improperly stored (e.g. in a sun-baked shed), nitrate film can spontaneously combust. Fires have destroyed entire archives of films. For example, a storage vault fire in 1937 destroyed all the original negatives of pre-1935 films made by Fox Pictures. The 1965 MGM vault fire resulted in the loss of hundreds more silent films and early talkies. Nitrate film is chemically unstable and over time can decay into a sticky mass or a powder akin to
gunpowder Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, carbon (in the form of charcoal) and potassium nitrate (saltpeter). Th ...
. This process can be very unpredictable: some nitrate film from the 1890s is still in good condition today, while some much later nitrate had to be scrapped as unsalvageable when it was barely 20 years old. Much depends on the environment in which it is stored. Ideal conditions of low temperature, low humidity, and adequate ventilation can preserve nitrate film for centuries, but in practice, the storage conditions were usually far from ideal. When a film on nitrate base is said to have been "preserved", this almost always means simply that it has been copied onto
safety film Cellulose acetate film, or safety film, is used in photography as a base material for photographic emulsions. It was introduced in the early 20th century by film manufacturers and intended as a safe film base replacement for unstable and highly ...
or, more recently, digitized; both methods result in some loss of quality. Eastman Kodak introduced a nonflammable 35 mm film stock in spring 1909. However, the
plasticizer A plasticizer ( UK: plasticiser) is a substance that is added to a material to make it softer and more flexible, to increase its plasticity, to decrease its viscosity, and/or to decrease friction during its handling in manufacture. Plasticiz ...
s used to make the film flexible evaporated too quickly, making the film dry and brittle, causing splices to part and perforations to tear. By 1911, the major American film studios were back to using nitrate stock. "Safety film" was relegated to sub-35 mm formats such as 16 mm and 8 mm until improvements were made in the late 1940s. Some pre-1931 sound films made by
Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
and First National have been lost because they used a
sound-on-disc Sound-on-disc is a class of sound film processes using a phonograph or other disc to record or play back sound in sync with a motion picture. Early sound-on-disc systems used a mechanical interlock with the movie projector, while more recent syste ...
system with a separate soundtrack on special phonograph records. If some of a film's soundtrack discs could not be found in the 1950s when 16 mm
sound-on-film Sound-on-film is a class of sound film processes where the sound accompanying a picture is recorded on photographic film, usually, but not always, the same strip of film carrying the picture. Sound-on-film processes can either record an analog ...
reduction print There are two different meanings for the term reduction print. In cinema it is a film print reduced in size, typically for showing in smaller cinemas. In printmaking it is a (rather uncommon) form of colour printing by working the same block (so ...
s of early "talkies" were being made for inclusion in
television syndication Broadcast syndication is the practice of leasing the right to broadcasting television shows and radio programs to multiple television stations and radio stations, without going through a broadcast network. It is common in the United States wher ...
packages, that film's chances of survival plummeted: many sound-on-disc films have survived only by way of those 16 mm prints. As a consequence of this widespread lack of care, the work of many early filmmakers and performers has made its way to the present only in fragmentary form. A high-profile example is a case of
Theda Bara Theda Bara ( ; born Theodosia Burr Goodman; July 29, 1885 – April 7, 1955) was an American silent film and stage actress. Bara was one of the more popular actresses of the silent era and one of cinema's early sex symbols. Her femme fatal ...
: one of the best-known actresses of the early silent era, she made 40 films, but only six are now known to exist.
Clara Bow Clara Gordon Bow (; July 29, 1905 – September 27, 1965) was an American actress who rose to stardom during the silent film era of the 1920s and successfully made the transition to "talkies" in 1929. Her appearance as a plucky shopgirl in the ...
was equally celebrated in her heyday, but 20 of her 57 films are completely lost, and another five are incomplete. Once-popular stage actresses who made the jump to silent films, such as
Pauline Frederick Pauline Frederick (born Pauline Beatrice Libbey, August 12, 1883 – September 19, 1938) was an American stage and film actress. Early life Frederick was born Pauline Beatrice Libbey (later changed to Libby) in Boston in 1883 (some sources stat ...
and
Elsie Ferguson Elsie Louise Ferguson (August 19, 1883 – November 15, 1961) was an American stage and film actress. Early life Born in New York City, Elsie Ferguson was the only child of Hiram and Amelia Ferguson. Her father was a successful attorney. Raise ...
, are now largely forgotten, with little left of their film performances; fewer than 10 movies exist from Frederick's work from 1915–28, and Ferguson has just two surviving films: one from 1919, and her only talkie from 1930. All of the film performances of the stage actress and Bara rival
Valeska Suratt Valeska Suratt (June 28, 1882 – July 2, 1962) was an American stage and silent film actress. Over the course of her career, Suratt appeared in 11 silent films, all of which are now lost, mainly due to the 1937 Fox vault fire. Early life and ...
have been lost.
William Farnum William Farnum (July 4, 1876 – June 5, 1953) was an American actor. He was a star of American silent film cinema and became one of the highest-paid actors during that time. Biography Farnum was born on July 4, 1876, in Boston, Massachuse ...
, a Fox player like Bara and Suratt, was one of the early screen's big Western actors, rivaling the likes of William S. Hart, Tom Mix, and
Harry Carey Harry Carey may refer to: *Harry Carey (actor) (1878–1947), American actor * Harry Carey Jr. (1921–2012), American actor * Harry Carey (footballer) (1916–1991), Australian rules footballer See also * Henry Carey (disambiguation) * Harry Car ...
. However, today only three of his Fox films are extant. Others, such as Francis X. Bushman and William Desmond, had numerous film credits, but films made in their heyday are missing due to junking, neglect, warfare, or studios becoming defunct. Nevertheless, unlike Suratt and Bara, these men continued working into the sound era and even on television, so their later performances can be viewed. Almost all of the films made by Charlie Chaplin have survived, as well as extensive amounts of unused footage dating back to 1916. The exceptions are ''
A Woman of the Sea ''A Woman of the Sea'', also known by its working title ''Sea Gulls'', is an unreleased silent film produced in 1926 by the Chaplin Film Company. It is one of only two lost Charlie Chaplin films (the other being '' Her Friend the Bandit''), havin ...
'' (which he destroyed himself as a tax write-off) and one of his early Keystone films, ''
Her Friend the Bandit ''Her Friend the Bandit'' is a 1914 American comedy silent film made by Keystone Studios starring Charles Chaplin and Mabel Normand, both of whom co-directed the movie. It is considered lost. Synopsis Charlie plays an elegant bandit with whom ...
'' (see ''
Unknown Chaplin ''Unknown Chaplin'' is a three-part 1983 British documentary series about the career and methods of the silent film luminary Charlie Chaplin, using previously unseen film for illustration. The series consist of three episodes, with title ''My H ...
''). The filmography of D. W. Griffith is nearly complete, as many of his early Biograph films were deposited by the company in
paper print Paper prints of films were an early mechanism to establish the copyright of motion pictures by depositing them with the Library of Congress. Thomas Alva Edison’s company was first to register each frame of motion-picture film onto a positive pape ...
form at the
Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
. Many of Griffith's feature-film works of the 1910s and 1920s found their way to the film collection at the
Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...
in the 1930s, and were preserved under the auspices of curator
Iris Barry Iris Barry (1895 – 22 December 1969) was a film critic and curator. In the 1920s she helped establish the original London Film Society, and was the first curator of the film department of the Museum of Modern Art, New York City in 1935. Life Ba ...
.
Mary Pickford Gladys Marie Smith (April 8, 1892 – May 29, 1979), known professionally as Mary Pickford, was a Canadian-American stage and screen actress and producer with a career that spanned five decades. A pioneer in the US film industry, she co-founde ...
's filmography is nearly complete; her early years were spent with Griffith, and she gained control of her own productions in the late 1910s and early 1920s. She also backtracked to as many of her Zukor-controlled early
Famous Players Famous Players Limited Partnership, DBA Famous Players, is a Canadian-based subsidiary of Cineplex Entertainment. As an independent company, it existed as a film exhibitor and cable television service provider. Famous Players operated numerous m ...
films as were salvageable. Stars such as Chaplin and
Douglas Fairbanks Douglas Elton Fairbanks Sr. (born Douglas Elton Thomas Ullman; May 23, 1883 – December 12, 1939) was an American actor, screenwriter, director, and producer. He was best known for his swashbuckling roles in silent films including '' The Thi ...
enjoyed stupendous popularity, and their films were reissued over and over throughout the silent era, meaning prints of their films were likely to surface decades later. Mary Pickford at one point intended to destroy her films, which she had acquired the rights to after her death, but later relented. Pickford, Charlie Chaplin,
Harold Lloyd Harold Clayton Lloyd, Sr. (April 20, 1893 – March 8, 1971) was an American actor, comedian, and stunt performer who appeared in many silent comedy films.Obituary '' Variety'', March 10, 1971, page 55. One of the most influential film c ...
, and
Cecil B. DeMille Cecil Blount DeMille (; August 12, 1881January 21, 1959) was an American film director, producer and actor. Between 1914 and 1958, he made 70 features, both silent and sound films. He is acknowledged as a founding father of the American cine ...
were early champions of
film preservation Film preservation, or film restoration, describes a series of ongoing efforts among film historians, archivists, museums, cinematheques, and non-profit organizations to rescue decaying film stock and preserve the images they contain. In the wid ...
, although Lloyd lost a good number of his silent works in a vault fire in the early 1940s. In March 2019, the National Film Archive of India reported that 31,000 of its film reels had been lost or destroyed.


Later lost films

An improved 35 mm
safety film Cellulose acetate film, or safety film, is used in photography as a base material for photographic emulsions. It was introduced in the early 20th century by film manufacturers and intended as a safe film base replacement for unstable and highly ...
was introduced in 1949. Since safety film is much more stable than nitrate film, comparatively few films were lost after about 1950. However, color fading of certain color stocks and
vinegar syndrome Cellulose acetate film, or safety film, is used in photography as a base material for photographic emulsions. It was introduced in the early 20th century by film manufacturers and intended as a safe film base replacement for unstable and highly ...
threaten the preservation of films made since about this time. Most mainstream movies from the 1950s onwards survive today, but several early pornographic films and some B movies are lost. In most cases, these obscure films go unnoticed and unknown, but some films by noted cult directors have been lost, as well: * Several films by
Kenneth Anger Kenneth Anger (born Kenneth Wilbur Anglemyer, February 3, 1927) is an American underground experimental filmmaker, actor, and author. Working exclusively in short films, he has produced almost 40 works since 1937, nine of which have been grouped ...
from throughout his career have been lost for a variety of reasons. * The 1972 film '' The Undergraduate'', directed by
Ed Wood Edward Davis Wood Jr. (October 10, 1924 – December 10, 1978) was an American filmmaker, actor, and pulp novel author. In the 1950s, Wood directed several low-budget science fiction, crime and horror films that later became cult cla ...
, has been lost. His 1971 film ''
Necromania ''Necromania'' (sometimes subtitled ''A Tale of Weird Love'') is a pornographic horror film by Ed Wood, released in 1971. It was produced, written, directed and edited entirely by Wood. The screenplay was based on Wood's own novel, ''The Only Ho ...
'' was believed lost for years, until an edited version resurfaced at a yard sale in 1992, followed by a complete unedited print in 2001. A complete print of the previously lost Wood pornographic film ''
The Young Marrieds ''The Young Marrieds'' is an American daytime soap opera which aired on ABC from October 5, 1964 to March 25, 1966. The program was created by James Elward and written by Elward with Frances Rickett. Authors John Pascal and Francine Pascal al ...
'' was discovered in 2004. His 1970 film ''
Take It Out in Trade ''Take It Out in Trade'' is a 1970 softcore pornographic comedy, written, directed and edited by Ed Wood. The plot centers on a couple who hire a private investigator to locate their missing daughter. He finds her in a "house of ill-repute," full o ...
'' was thought to exist only in fragments without sound, released on home video in 1995 as '' Take It Out in Trade: The Outtakes'', until the release of a scanned 16mm theatrical print on Blu-ray Disc in 2018. * '' The Noble Experiment'' (1955), the first feature film from director/writer Tom Graeff (in which he played a misunderstood genius scientist), was considered lost for many years until it was found by
Elle Schneider Elle Schneider (born November 11, 1985) is an American filmmaker and camera developer, best known as co-producer and director of photography on the 2014 documentary '' That Guy Dick Miller'', and for her work creating the Digital Bolex cinema came ...
during the production of '' The Boy from Out of This World'', a documentary about Graeff. * Most of the early films of
Andy Milligan Andrew Jackson Milligan Jr. (February 12, 1929 – June 3, 1991) was an American playwright, screenwriter, actor, and filmmaker, whose work includes 27 movies made between 1965 and 1988. In spite of the fact that he directed a number of movie ...
are considered lost. * Many short
sponsored film Sponsored film, or ephemeral film, as defined by film archivist Rick Prelinger, is a film made by a particular sponsor for a specific purpose other than as a work of art: the films were designed to serve a specific pragmatic purpose for a limited ...
s—films made for educational, training, or religious purposes—from the 1940s through the 1970s are also lost, as they were thought of as disposable or upgradable. * Some of the first roles of
Jackie Chan Fang Shilong (born 7 April 1954), known professionally in English as Jackie Chan and in Chinese as Cheng Long ( zh, c=成龍, j=Sing4 Lung4; "becoming the dragon"), is a Hong Kong actor, filmmaker, martial artist, and stuntman known for ...
and
Sammo Hung Sammo Hung Kam-bo ( zh, t=洪金寶, j=Hung4 Gam1-bou2; born 7 January 1952) is a Hong Kong actor, martial artist, film producer and director, known for his work in martial arts films, Hong Kong action cinema, and as a fight choreographer for ...
, including ''
Big and Little Wong Tin Bar ''Big and Little Wong Tin Bar'' (), also known as ''Seven Little Valiant Fighters'' () and ''Two of a Kind'', is a 1962 Hong Kong film. It is notable for being Jackie Chan's and Sammo Hung's film debut. Until 2016, the film was considered lost. ...
'', were considered lost until their discovery and re-release in 2016. * The first three films of noted Finnish melodrama actor and director
Teuvo Tulio Theodor Antonius Tugai (23 August 1912 – 8 June 2000), better known as Teuvo Tulio, was a Finnish film director and actor. Beginning his career as an actor at the end of the silent era, Tulio turned to directing and producing in the 1930s. His ...
were lost, along with several other films that were of interest at least for historians of Finnish cinema, when the film depository of the company Adams Filmi burned down in Helsinki in 1959. * Sometimes, only certain aspects of films may be lost. Early color films such as ''
The Show of Shows ''The Show of Shows'' is a 1929 American pre-Code musical revue film directed by John G. Adolfi and distributed by Warner Bros. The all-talking Vitaphone production cost $850,000 and was shot almost entirely in Technicolor. ''The Show o ...
'' ( John G. Adolfi, 1929) exist only partially or not at all in color because the copies that were made of the film which still exist were created on black-and-white stock. (See
List of early color feature films This is a list of early feature-length color films (including primarily black-and-white films that have one or more color sequences) made up to about 1936, when the Technicolor three-strip process firmly established itself as the major-studio f ...
.) * Two three-dimensional films from 1954, '' Top Banana'' and ''
Southwest Passage ''Southwest Passage'' is a 1954 American Pathécolor Western film directed by Ray Nazarro and starring Joanne Dru, Rod Cameron and John Ireland, who are determined to make a unique trek across the west, using camels as his beasts of burden. T ...
'', exist only in their flat form because only one print, made for either the left or right eye, exists. * '' Golden Dawn'' was an early
Technicolor Technicolor is a series of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black and white films ...
musical with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. All surviving prints are in black and white, which is how it was released on
DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...
by
Warner Archive Collection The Warner Archive Collection is a home video division for releasing classic and cult films from Warner Bros.' library. It started as a manufactured-on-demand (MOD) DVD series by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment on March 23, 2009, with the inte ...
. This does not include films that underwent revision, "director's cuts", etc., resulting in the original versions being taken out of general circulation, as in rare cases have the original versions been destroyed. Notable examples of revised films replacing the originals in circulation are the "Special Edition" versions of the George Lucas-produced '' Star Wars'' films from 1977 to 1983, which are now circulated with revisions primarily made in the 1990s (though further revisions were made in later releases, and the original versions were available for a short time on DVD). Another Lucas revision, to his film '' THX-1138'', also replaced the original print in circulation.


Lost film soundtracks

Some films produced from 1926–31 using the
Vitaphone Vitaphone was a sound film system used for feature films and nearly 1,000 short subjects made by Warner Bros. and its sister studio First National from 1926 to 1931. Vitaphone was the last major analog sound-on-disc system and the only one ...
sound-on-disc Sound-on-disc is a class of sound film processes using a phonograph or other disc to record or play back sound in sync with a motion picture. Early sound-on-disc systems used a mechanical interlock with the movie projector, while more recent syste ...
system, in which the soundtrack is separate from the film, are now considered lost because the soundtrack discs were lost or destroyed, while the picture elements survive. Conversely, and more commonly, some early sound films survive only assets of soundtrack discs, with the picture elements completely missing (e.g. ''
The Man from Blankley's ''The Man from Blankley's'' is a lost 1930 American pre-Code comedy film, directed by Alfred E. Green. It starred John Barrymore and Loretta Young. The film was based on the 1903 play by Thomas Anstey Guthrie, writing under the pseudonym "F. An ...
'' (1930), starring
John Barrymore John Barrymore (born John Sidney Blyth; February 14 or 15, 1882 – May 29, 1942) was an American actor on stage, screen and radio. A member of the Drew and Barrymore theatrical families, he initially tried to avoid the stage, and briefly att ...
) or surviving only in fragmentary form (e.g. ''
Gold Diggers of Broadway ''Gold Diggers of Broadway'' is a 1929 American pre-Code musical comedy film directed by Roy Del Ruth and starring Winnie Lightner and Nick Lucas. Distributed by Warner Bros., the film is the second all-talking, all-Technicolor feature-length ...
'' (1929) and ''
The Rogue Song ''The Rogue Song'' is a 1930 American pre-Code romantic and musical film that tells the story of a Russian bandit who falls in love with a princess, but takes his revenge on her when her brother rapes and kills his sister. The Metro-Goldwyn-Maye ...
'' (1930), two highly popular and profitable early musicals in two-color
Technicolor Technicolor is a series of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black and white films ...
). Many stereophonic soundtracks from the early to mid-1950s that were either played in interlock on a 35 mm full coat magnetic reel or single-strip magnetic film (such as Fox's four-track magnetic, which became the standard of mag stereophonic sound) are now lost. Films such as '' House of Wax'', ''
The Caddy ''The Caddy'' is a 1953 American semi- musical-comedy- sports film starring the comedy team of Martin and Lewis. It is noteworthy for Dean Martin introducing the hit song "That's Amore". Plot Harvey Miller, whose father was a famous golf pro, is ...
,'' ''
The War of the Worlds ''The War of the Worlds'' is a science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells, first serialised in 1897 by ''Pearson's Magazine'' in the UK and by ''Cosmopolitan (magazine), Cosmopolitan'' magazine in the US. The novel's first appear ...
'', ''
War and Peace ''War and Peace'' (russian: Война и мир, translit=Voyna i mir; pre-reform Russian: ; ) is a literary work by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy that mixes fictional narrative with chapters on history and philosophy. It was first published ...
'', '' The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T'', and ''
From Here to Eternity ''From Here to Eternity'' is a 1953 American drama romance war film directed by Fred Zinnemann, and written by Daniel Taradash, based on the 1951 novel of the same name by James Jones. The picture deals with the tribulations of three U.S. A ...
'' that were initially available with 3-track, magnetic sound are now available only with a monophonic optical soundtrack. The chemistry behind adhering magnetic particles to the tri-acetate film base eventually caused the
autocatalytic A single chemical reaction is said to be autocatalytic if one of the reaction products is also a catalyst for the same or a coupled reaction.Steinfeld J.I., Francisco J.S. and Hase W.L. ''Chemical Kinetics and Dynamics'' (2nd ed., Prentice-Hall 199 ...
breakdown of the film (vinegar syndrome). As long as studios had a monaural optical negative that could be printed, studio executives felt no need to preserve the stereophonic versions of the soundtracks.


List of lost films


List of incomplete or partially lost films

This list consists of films for which any footage survives, including trailers and clips reused in other films.


Rediscovered films

Occasionally, prints of films considered lost have been rediscovered. An example is the 1910 version of ''
Frankenstein ''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' is an 1818 novel written by English author Mary Shelley. ''Frankenstein'' tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific ...
'' which was believed lost for decades until the existence of a print (which had been in the hands of an unwitting collector for years) was discovered in the 1970s. A print of '' Richard III'' (1912) was found in 1996 and restored by the American Film Institute. In 2013, an early
Mary Pickford Gladys Marie Smith (April 8, 1892 – May 29, 1979), known professionally as Mary Pickford, was a Canadian-American stage and screen actress and producer with a career that spanned five decades. A pioneer in the US film industry, she co-founde ...
film, ''
Their First Misunderstanding ''Their First Misunderstanding'' is a 1911 American short silent drama film directed by Thomas H. Ince and starring Mary Pickford and Owen Moore. Pickford and Moore married on January 7, 1911. Cast * Mary Pickford as Mae Darcy * Owen Moore a ...
'', notable for being the first film in which she was credited by name, was found in a
New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...
barn and donated to
Keene State College Keene State College is a public liberal arts college in Keene, New Hampshire. It is part of the University System of New Hampshire and the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges. Founded in 1909 as a teacher's college (originally, Keene Norm ...
. '' Beyond the Rocks'' (1922), with
Gloria Swanson Gloria May Josephine Swanson (March 27, 1899April 4, 1983) was an American actress and producer. She first achieved fame acting in dozens of silent films in the 1920s and was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, most f ...
and Rudolph Valentino, was considered a lost film for several decades. Swanson lamented the loss of this and other films in her 1980 memoirs but optimistically concluded: "I do not believe these films are gone forever." In 2000, a print was found in the Netherlands and restored by the Nederlands Filmmuseum and the Haghefilm Conservation. It turned up among about two thousand rusty film canisters donated by Haarlem's eccentric Dutch collector, Joop van Liempd. It was given its first modern screening in 2005 and has since been aired on
Turner Classic Movies Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of At ...
. In the early 2000s, the German film ''
Metropolis A metropolis () is a large city or conurbation which is a significant economic, political, and cultural center for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections, commerce, and communications. A big ci ...
''—which had been distributed in many different edits over the years—was restored to as close to the original version as possible by reinstating edited footage and using computer technology to repair damaged footage. However, at that point, approximately a quarter of the original film footage was considered lost, according to the
Kino Video Kino Lorber is an international film distribution company based in New York City. Founded in 1977, it was originally known as Kino International until it was acquired by and merged into Lorber HT Digital in 2009. It specializes in art house films, ...
DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...
release of the restored film. On July 1, 2008,
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
film experts announced that a copy of the film had been discovered in the archives of the film museum Museo del Cine in
Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
, Argentina, which contained almost all of the scenes still missing from the 2002 restoration. The film now has been restored very close to its premiere version. The restoration process is featured in the documentary '' Metropolis Refundada''. In 2010, digital copies of ten early American films were presented to the
Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
by the
Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library () is one of the three national Libraries in Russia. Located in St. Petersburg, its focus is on electronic collections on all topics Russian, not just the life of its namesake. Established in May 2009 by then ...
, the first film installment from the Russian state archives to be repatriated. The rare has happened, as in 2018, when the rediscovered film ''
Something Good – Negro Kiss ''Something Good – Negro Kiss'' is a short silent film from 1898 of a couple kissing and holding hands. It is believed to depict the earliest on-screen kiss involving African Americans and is known for departing from the prevalent and purely ste ...
'' was inducted posthumously into the National Film Registry, as it was a monumental film showing black portrayals completely differently to that of the time. Sometimes, a film believed lost in its original state has been restored, either through the process of colorization or other restoration methods. " The Cage," the original 1964 pilot film for '' Star Trek'', survived only in a black-and-white print until 1987, when a film archivist found an unmarked (mute) 35 mm reel in a Hollywood film laboratory with the negative trims of the unused scenes.Bob Furmanek
post to Classic Horror Film Board
April 21, 2008. The reconstruction used the soundtrack of Roddenberry's 16mm print for those scenes otherwise without sound.


Stock footage

Several films that would otherwise be entirely lost partially survive as stock footage used for later films. For example, the
Universal Pictures Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...
short Short may refer to: Places * Short (crater), a lunar impact crater on the near side of the Moon * Short, Mississippi, an unincorporated community * Short, Oklahoma, a census-designated place People * Short (surname) * List of people known as ...
'' Boo!'' (1932) contains the only remaining footage of the Universal feature film '' The Cat Creeps'' (1930). However, UCLA still has a copy of the soundtrack. The James Cagney film '' Winner Take All'' (1932) used scenes from the early talkie ''
Queen of the Night Clubs ''Queen of the Night Clubs'' is a 1929 American Pre-Code musical drama film produced and directed by Bryan Foy, distributed by Warner Bros., and starred legendary nightclub hostess Texas Guinan. The picture, which featured appearances by Eddi ...
'' (1929), starring
Texas Guinan Mary Louise Cecilia "Texas" Guinan (January 12, 1884 – November 5, 1933) was an American actress, producer and entrepreneur. Born in Texas to Irish immigrant parents, Guinan decided at an early age to become an entertainer. After becoming a st ...
; that footage is all that remains of the earlier film. Actress-turned-gossip columnist
Hedda Hopper Hedda Hopper (born Elda Furry; May 2, 1885February 1, 1966) was an American gossip columnist and actress. At the height of her influence in the 1940s, her readership was 35 million. A strong supporter of the House Un-American Activities Committ ...
made her screen debut in the Fox Film ''
The Battle of Hearts ''The Battle of Hearts'' is a 1916 American silent drama film written and directed by Oscar Apfel, and produced and distributed by Fox Film Corporation. It starred William Farnum and Elda Furry (later known as Hedda Hopper). The story was by F ...
'' (1916). Twenty-six years later, in 1942, Hopper produced her short series "Hedda Hopper's Hollywood #2". In the short, Hopper,
William Farnum William Farnum (July 4, 1876 – June 5, 1953) was an American actor. He was a star of American silent film cinema and became one of the highest-paid actors during that time. Biography Farnum was born on July 4, 1876, in Boston, Massachuse ...
(the film's star), her son
William Hopper William DeWolf Hopper Jr. (January 26, 1915 – March 6, 1970) was an American stage, film, and television actor. The only child of actor DeWolf Hopper and actress and Hollywood columnist Hedda Hopper, he appeared in predominantly minor r ...
, and William Hopper's wife Jane Gilbert view brief portions of ''The Battle of Hearts''. More than likely, Hopper had an entire print of the movie in 1942. However, like many early Fox films, ''The Battle of Hearts'' is now lost or missing. One of the best-known of Charlie Chaplin's works, the silent film ''
The Gold Rush ''The Gold Rush'' is a 1925 American silent comedy film written, produced, and directed by Charlie Chaplin. The film also stars Chaplin in his Little Tramp persona, Georgia Hale, Mack Swain, Tom Murray, Henry Bergman, and Malcolm Waite. Chapl ...
'' (1925), was re-released in 1942 to include a musical track and narration by Chaplin himself. The reissue would end up having the unintentional result of preserving the film, as the original film (though generally not considered a lost film) shows noticeable degradation of image and missing frames, damage not evident in the 1942 version. The Polish film ' (1939) contains three short fragments of ''Arabella'' (1917), one of the early films of
Pola Negri Pola Negri (; born Apolonia Chalupec ; 3 January 1897 – 1 August 1987) was a Polish stage and film actress and singer. She achieved worldwide fame during the silent and golden eras of Hollywood and European film for her tragedienne and femm ...
which were later lost.


In film and television

Several films have been made with lost film fragments incorporated into the work. ''
Decasia ''Decasia'' is a 2002 American collage film by Bill Morrison, featuring an original score by Michael Gordon. In 2013, ''Decasia'' was included in the annual selection of 25 motion pictures for preservation in the United States National Film Regi ...
'' (2002) used nothing but decaying film footage as an abstract tone poem of light and darkness, much like the more historical ''
Lyrical Nitrate ''Lyrical Nitrate'' ( nl, Lyrisch Nitraat) is a 1991 collage film by Peter Delpeut. Summary The film consists of clips from various silent films printed on decaying nitrate film stock, including shorts, documentaries, and travelogues. There is n ...
'' (Peter Delpeut, 1991) which contained only footage from canisters found stored in an Amsterdam cinema. In 1993, Delpeut released ''
The Forbidden Quest ''The Forbidden Quest'' is a 1993 pseudo-documentary written and directed by Peter Delpeut. The film won the 1994 International Fantasy Film Special Jury Award at the Fantasporto (aka Festival Internacional de Cinema do Porto) in Portugal. The ...
'', combining early film footage and archival photographs with new material to tell the fictional story of an ill-fated Antarctic expedition. The 2016 documentary '' Dawson City: Frozen Time'', about the history of Dawson City, Canada, and the 1978 discovery of previously lost silent films there, incorporates parts of many of those films. The
mockumentary A mockumentary (a blend of ''mock'' and ''documentary''), fake documentary or docu-comedy is a type of film or television show depicting fictional events but presented as a documentary. These productions are often used to analyze or comment on c ...
''
Forgotten Silver ''Forgotten Silver'' is a 1995 New Zealand mockumentary film that purports to tell the story of a pioneering New Zealand filmmaker. It was written and directed by Peter Jackson and Costa Botes, both of whom appear in the film in their roles as ...
'', made by Peter Jackson, purports to show recovered footage of early films. Instead, the filmmakers used newly shot film sequences to look like lost films. In the double feature ''
Grindhouse A grindhouse or action house is an American term for a theatre that mainly shows low-budget horror, splatter and exploitation films for adults. According to historian David Church, this theater type was named after the "grind policy", a fil ...
'' (2007), both segments—''
Planet Terror ''Planet Terror'' is a 2007 American action horror film written and directed by Robert Rodriguez. Set in Texas, the film follows the survivors of a biochemical outbreak as they battle zombie-like creatures and a rogue military unit. It stars Ro ...
'' (directed by
Robert Rodriguez Robert Anthony Rodriguez (; born June 20, 1968) is an American filmmaker, composer, and visual effects supervisor. He shoots, edits, produces, and scores many of his films in Mexico and in his home state of Texas. Rodriguez directed the 1992 ac ...
) and ''
Death Proof ''Death Proof'' is a 2007 American action-thriller film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It stars Kurt Russell as a stuntman who murders young women with modified cars he purports to be "death-proof". Rosario Dawson, Vanessa Ferlito ...
'' (directed by
Quentin Tarantino Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, writer, producer, and actor. His films are characterized by stylized violence, extended dialogue, profanity, dark humor, non-linear storylines, cameos, ensembl ...
)—have references to missing reels, used as
plot device A plot device or plot mechanism is any technique in a narrative used to move the plot forward. A clichéd plot device may annoy the reader and a contrived or arbitrary device may confuse the reader, causing a loss of the suspension of disbelie ...
s. "Cigarette Burns", an episode of the horror anthology series ''
Masters of Horror ''Masters of Horror'' is an anthology television series created by director Mick Garris for the Showtime cable network. Origin In 2002, director Mick Garris invited some director friends to an informal dinner at a restaurant in Sherman Oaks, ...
'' directed by John Carpenter, deals with the search for a fictional lost film, "La Fin Absolue Du Monde" ("The Absolute End of The World").


See also

* Archive Treasure Hunt *
Digital permanence Digital permanence addresses the history and development of digital storage techniques, specifically quantifying the expected lifetime of data stored on various digital media and the factors which influence the ''permanence'' of digital data. It is ...
*
Found film Found film is the most common name for the still film or movie footage found exposed but undeveloped; it is also often referred as ''undeveloped film'', or ''forgotten film''. A well known found film was found in 1930 at the shore of arctic islan ...
* List of missing treasures *
List of rediscovered films This is a list of rediscovered films that, once thought lost, have since been discovered, in whole or in part. See List of incomplete or partially lost films and List of rediscovered film footage for films which were not wholly lost. For a fi ...
* List of unpublished books *
Lost media Lost media are pieces of media that are nonexistent, missing, or unavailable to the general public. The term ''lost media'' primarily encompasses visual, audio, or audiovisual media such as films, television and radio broadcasts, music, and video ga ...
*
Preservation (library and archival science) In library and archival science, preservation is a set of preventive conservation activities aimed at prolonging the life of a record, book, or object while making as few changes as possible. Preservation activities vary widely and may include m ...


References


External links


List of Lost Films
article category section on the Lost Media Wiki

list at SilentEra
International Lost Films Database

''Historic Fires at Universal Studios''
essay
A Lost Film
blog about lost films, outtakes, etc.
"How Do Silent Films Become "Lost"?"
essay at Silent-ology

list of 1970s titles at the
Wayback Machine The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by the Internet Archive, a nonprofit based in San Francisco, California. Created in 1996 and launched to the public in 2001, it allows the user to go "back in time" and see ...

Film Threat's Top 50 Lost Films of All Time
an
Version 2.0

''Lost Forever: The Art of Film Preservation''
(2013) documentary

at the
Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

List of 7200 Lost U.S. Silent Feature Films 1912-29
at the Library of Congress

finds and restores
Vitaphone Vitaphone was a sound film system used for feature films and nearly 1,000 short subjects made by Warner Bros. and its sister studio First National from 1926 to 1931. Vitaphone was the last major analog sound-on-disc system and the only one ...
films and their soundtrack discs {{DEFAULTSORT:Lost Film History of film