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The Monday Morning Question: Lost Films
Monday, October 20, 2008
Sorry today's question is late, sweet tarts, I have been swamped the last few days.
Today's question is pretty simple, and is probably more for fans of silent and early talkie films: What lost film would you most like found?
For me, the answer is "Convention City" (1933). There are two great pages about this film that you should read, especially if you've never heard of the movie before: Vitaphone Varieties' "Not Quite Decent", and the Vitaphone Project's "Lost or Just Hiding?"
In short, the legend is that this film was so risque that it had to be destroyed after overwhelming complaints and problems. The truth, however, is less exciting. The film did push the standards of pre-code cinema but by no means was the only one; when films were re-released later in the 30s, "Convention City" could not be shown as it didn't meet the strict Code standards. This was the fate of many other films, such as "Baby Face" and "Female" and pretty much all of Mae West's early work. What happened to "Convention City" after that, though, is unclear. It wasn't included in the list of films available for television broadcast in the 1950s, although some people claim it was shown on European television in the 1960s. It has so thoroughly disappeared that no footage -- save some stock Atlantic City footage used in the film -- has ever been recovered, not even the trailer.
What lost films would you like to see, and why?
Posted by Stacia at 1:40 PM 19 comments
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19 comments:
First choice: "Rolled Stockings"
Second Choice: "Now We're in the Air"
Both from 1927
Frank T. Thompson wrote a book that came out many years appropriately titled Lost Films, which was a cherry-picked checklist of silent films he'd dearly love to be afforded the opportunity to see.
One of the films he describes is William Wellman's Ladies of the Mob (1928), and I don't know if it's Thompson's excellent salesmanship but it sounds like it may be in the same league as Beggars for Life (1928)--one of my personal favorite silents.
I can't limit this list to just one: I'd also like to see The Miracle Man (1919), Hollywood (1923), The Legion of the Condemned (1928, also by Wellman) and The Case of Lena Smith--as well as "better-known" lost films like 4 Devils (1928), Thunder (1929) and The Patriot (1928). You can include me in on Convention City, too.
Unfortunately I'm a bit too lazy--or tired--at the moment to do some perfunctory research, but I'd select any one of the early sound musicals that have disappeared, or exist only in fragments. The never completed MARCH OF TIME (1930) from MGM has all sorts of surviving footage, but perhaps not all, and some of what survives is in bad shape. However, some early musicals are totally MIA, and I wish a few would resurface in some Ukranian vault. Sad to think that for a time there were perfectly good nitrate prints of such films just sitting on a shelf somewhere.
This is not an answer to your question! But it is sort of related, which I believe is good enough for the internet. I always feel bad when I think of certain movies that never GOT made... so those are lost movies, right? Like the movie that Billy Wilder was planning as a comeback for Laurel and Hardy... and the one that Godard was going to make in America - starring Gene Kelly and William Faulkner! But Faulkner died. And then there was the brief time that Bob Hope - not Ray Walston - was supposed to replace Peter Sellers in KISS ME, STUPID. Not to mention the idea of Sellers getting to finish the film (I'd like to see his footage... there, that's sort of like a lost film). Well, these are the things I think about.
I never heard of the Wilder Laurel/Hardy project (it would've been no later than the early '50s); maybe you're thinking of the proposed Marx Bros. film, A DAY AT THE UNITED NATIONS, which was definitely speculated about but stopped when Chico died in 1961.
Hi, King of Jazz! The way I remember it, Wilder wanted Laurel and Hardy cast as two down-on-their-luck (homeless, actually) Hollywood bit players. The movie was supposed to open with them asleep in the O's of the Hollywood sign. Where I read about it, I can't recall. But I'll try to dig through my junk - uh, I mean, my "archives" - and find out. I believe Ollie died while plans were underway.
P.S., King: I do find it mentioned (along with the Marx Bros. one, of which I had never heard - thanks for giving me something else to lose sleep over!) on Wilder's imdb "trivia" section... which proves nothing except that someone else must have read the same book or article I did...
OK! Sorry to be a comment hog. But I just want to let KOJ know that the plan is discussed in both the Zolotow and Sikov bios of Wilder, mentioning Laurel and Hardy as the stars. In the Charlotte Chandler bio, they are called "Laurel and Hardy type characters," but in the other two bios, they are Laurel and Hardy. I promise not to comment again for a month! I feel like I'm taking up valuable space on the internet. There's only so much internet to go around!
It would probably be "4 Devils" certainly followed by "Convention City".
Then if I had 3 or 4 more they'd be Laurel and Hardy's "Hats Off", Brendel's "The Golden Calf" and "Born To Fight" and Emil Jannings in "The Way Of All Flesh".
Thanks for following through, Jack; I never heard of the L&H reference, so I was curious. I know the Marx Bros. scenario was a real possibility.
Elsewhere, THE GOLDEN CALF would sure be on my list.
I'd love to see James Cruze's "Hollywood" from 1923. That, and Alfred Hitchcock's uncompleted "Number 13" from 1922.
You all remind me of films I keep forgetting are lost, primarily "Rolled Stockings" and "The Golden Calf". Louie can attest to me constantly forgetting "The Golden Calf" is nowhere to be found!
For years I wanted to see "Thunder", but I admit my fondness for Chaney lately has been waning. I think I saw "The Unholy Three" too many times or something.
Please, Jack, you are more than welcome to be a comment hog. I expect, nay, I demand it from you!
I never knew that about Hope in "Kiss Me, Stupid." I liked Walston in the role, although I think he overdid the sad sack moments a bit. Sellers would have, too, I'm sure of it.
Note to everyone:
Never, ever ignore Stacia's demands.
Ever.
;D
Hmmm. Usually I only accede to women in leather, but I'll make an exception in Mistress Stacia's case - woken up one too many times in strange hospitals to chance it again.
Haha, poor Jack. He'll never come back here now.
There are indeed quite a lot of early Technicolor musicals still to be found in that Ukranian vault. The first that springs to mind is On With the Show (1929), the first all color talkie which today only exists in b/w. Gold Diggers Of Broadway another all color talkie from 1929 which is almost entirely lost. Sally (1929), starring Marilyn Miller which today only have about four minutes of color footage left.
I would also like to see the talkie version of Paul Fejos' Broadway which is said to exist, tucked away on a museum shelf somewhwere. The full 140 minute 1929 release of Rio Rita is another gem probably collecting dust somewhere.
I have several. I would love to see the lost Norma Shearer silents. Broadway After Dark (1924), A Slave of Fashion (1925), etc. Simply because I love Norma Shearer.
I would LOVE to see the pre-code musical Convention City (1933), but alas it is not to be!
It's amazing how films even in the 50s and 60s were lost or destroyed. I know there is an Italian film with Chet Baker that was burned by Italian censors.
For years I wanted to see "Thunder", but I admit my fondness for Chaney lately has been waning. I think I saw "The Unholy Three" too many times or something.
I suspect it has more to do with all the work you did debunking the latest LAM "sighting."
According to the cable schedule, TCM's showing The Black Bird (1926) this evening, another Chaney-Browning collaboration. I haven't seen it, so I'm anxious to check it out.
I saw "The Blackbird" was going to be on and already have the recorder all warmed up. Not just for "Blackbird", but also "The Unknown", "Vampyr", "Black Room" and "Before I Hang". I love October on TCM.
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