''The Lost Lie'' is a 1918 American

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 ...

comedy film directed by

King Vidor King Wallis Vidor (; February 8, 1894 – November 1, 1982) was an American film director, film producer, and screenwriter whose 67-year film-making career successfully spanned the silent and sound eras. His works are distinguished by a vivid, ...

Cast

* Ruth Hampton * Mike O'Rourke * William Vaughn *

Judge Willis Brown Willis Brown (July 31, 1881 – October 20, 1931) was a permanently removed Utah juvenile court judge, falsely-claimed lawyer, self-described humanitarian, and filmmaker. Born James Willhenry Brown in Columbus, Indiana to James W. Brown and L ...

(as himself)

Production

''The Lost Lie'' is one of ten short films written and produced by

that were directed by King Vidor. They were filmed at Boy City Film Company in

Culver City, California Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,779. Founded in 1917 as a "whites only" sundown town, it is now an ethnically diverse city with what was called the "third-most d ...

and released by

General Film Company The General Film Company was a motion picture distribution company in the United States. Between 1909 and 1920, the company distributed almost 12,000 silent era motion pictures. Formation The General Film Company was formed by the Motion Pictu ...

between January and May 1918. Film historian and archivist

Raymond Durgnat Raymond Durgnat (1 September 1932 – 19 May 2002) was a British film critic, who was born in London to Swiss parents. During his life he wrote for virtually every major English language film publication. In 1965 he published the first maj ...

reports that all of Vidor’s films from the Judge Willis Brown series are lost, with the exception of

Bud's Recruit ''Bud's Recruit'' is a 1918 American short comedy film directed by King Vidor. A print survives at the UCLA Film and Television Archive. In February 2020, the film was shown at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival, as part of a retrospe ...

of which one reel survives.

Theme

Brown was a

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

juvenile court judge who specialized in “rehabilitating juvenile offenders.” He based the series on his experiences operating his “Boy’s Cities” (not to be confused with Boys Town). The movies depict “inter-ethnic” city youth facing and resolving social and moral challenges constructively. Director Vidor declared that he "deeply believed" in the value of the films.Baxter 1976 p. 8
Durgnat and Simmon 1988 p. 24-25, p. 335

Footnotes

References

*Baxter, John. 1976. ''King Vidor''. Simon & Schuster, Inc. Monarch Film Studies. LOC Card Number 75-23544. * Durgnat, Raymond and Simmon, Scott. 1988. ''King Vidor, American.'' University of California Press, Berkeley.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lost Lie, The 1918 films Silent American comedy films American black-and-white films Films directed by King Vidor 1918 short films American silent short films 1918 comedy films American comedy short films 1910s American films