Posted on 02/19/2023 3:56:40 PM PST by MAGA2017
The history of film is long and complex, dating back as early as the year 1888 with Louis Le Prince's first-ever motion picture. Since then, film has grown and evolved with more complex stories, better audio and visuals, and enhanced cinematography. Yet what has perhaps improved the most are film preservation techniques that ensure a film can be viewed and studied for decades to come.
However, some films are considered forever lost; whether they were destroyed in a horrible accidental fire or simply corroded away due to the passage of time, lost films are mesmerizing for their mystery and serve as a harsh reminder of the consequences of poorly preserving history. It's estimated that as many as 90% of films produced before the year 1929 are permanently lost, never to be viewed again.
We take a look back at the films that are considered indefinitely lost, where no known print exists.
11 Valley of Fear (1916)
Sherlock Holmes is perhaps one of the most beloved literary sleuths of all time. The 1916 silent film called Valley of Fear centered around the famous detective and was the second installment in which actor Harry Arthur Saintsbury portrayed the leading man.
Today, not even a production still of the film exists; no known copy of the film has ever resurfaced, making this film a highly sought after piece of history that is likely to remain lost forever.
10 Treasure Island (1920)
Lon Chaney was one of the greatest stars of the silent film era; known for his highly expressive face, Chaney even earned the nickname "Man of a Thousand Faces." However, Chaney's work in the 1920 film Treasure Island is considered lost forever.
(Excerpt) Read more at movieweb.com ...
There are so many lost films.
This list seems a little odd with a heavy emphasis on Lon Chaney. Granted, he’s a big name and certainly London After Midnight is the quintessential lost film. But stars like Olive Thomas and Mary Pickford have their share of lost films as well.
I’m watching a 1957 movie
‘Silk Stockings’ fun clean film.
.
DVDs rock!
At the time they were trying to make money in a new industry.
All the early TV shows were lost, because they used to use the videotape over again after it was finished. To save a few bucks, we lost all that 1940s-early 1950s history.
The first season of 1960s The Avengers TV series has been lost except for the first 30 minutes of episode one. The other 19 episodes have never been found.
That sounds like theft rather than the cultural/historical blindness that erased Captain Video and The Magic Cottage.
We’re watching The Longest Day with John Wayne
DVDs rock.
I’ve been watching the early black and white ones on Pluto TV.
Most of them are very well written.
Honor Blackman is a plus.
Bk
The reason the U.S. lost most of its very early (late 40’s - early 50’s) was due to it’s mostly being broadcast live and only preserved to kinescope, if at all. Besides, kinescope sux.
Then, there was the case of most of the old Dumont shows being dumped in the Hudson…
Movie script opportunities? Especially #s 1 & 11. Sure sounds like some of them may be just that, and they won’t be silent movies. 🙂
Only show biz history buffs care about this. If you ask most of the current generation they wouldn’t even know anything about the classics that have survived and exist.
Early film was highly combustible and would deteriorate over time. Videotape starts deteriorating at about twenty years.
I helped throw away a few portable dumpsters of videotape.
Not just videotape. When I was in college I co-oped at a company with the contract to run a military archive. We had a whole wall of 9-track data tapes from the Vietnam War. When someone wanted to get some data from them we found the tapes were unreadable by normal means (stick them in the tape drive and read them) and no one wanted to spend money on exploring extreme means to read them. So they were degaussed and thrown out. We believed they had been damaged when stored for a decade in a non-climate controlled warehouse before we got them.
Super Circus was live, and anything like a telethon for a charity. And of course sports, like the Roller Derby and women’s baseball.
A friend of mine who worked for one of the big networks in the sixties said he went looking for the old tapes and that was what he was told, that they had been used over and over again. He had been thinking he would put the old shows together into a program.
I got a version of TREASURE ISLAND made
2011 IIRC and Love it !
.
Have noticed current movies are being
Censured not to mention being black listed.
Funny Russia is Enemy but the leftist are doing everything just like Them.
“Garfield Goose and Friends” was a classic local-market kids’ show that aired in Chicago, five days a week, for about 25 years.
There’s maybe one hour of known surviving footage in existence today.
They can’t lose the crap they’re making these days fast enough in my opinion.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.