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Lost film

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A lost film is a film which, for any of several reasons, is no longer in existence.

Sometimes a copy of a "lost film" is rediscovered; these have been referred to as "Lazarus" films. Some "partially lost films" do not exist in full versions.

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[edit] Reasons for film loss

Most lost films are from the silent film era, from the 1890s to the late 1920s. Some estimates suggest that most of the films from this era are lost. Particularly striking is the case of Theda Bara: of the 40 films she made, only three and a half survive. Similarly, of the 57 movies made by Clara Bow, 20 are completely lost and 5 more are incomplete <ref>Clara Bow.net</ref>.

  • Many early motion pictures are lost because the nitrate film used in that era was very unstable, and was extremely flammable.
  • Film can deteriorate rapidly if not preserved in temperature and humidity controlled storage.
  • Fires have destroyed entire archives of films. For example, a storage vault fire in 1937 destroyed the original negatives of pre-1935 movies from Fox Pictures.
  • Many films were recycled for their silver content or ignited to create explosion special effects in other films.
  • With the eras of home video and television decades away, films were viewed as having little value after their theatrical run ended. Thus, many films were deliberately destroyed: either by the studios as a space-saving maneuver, or in some cases by the cast and crew themselves.

In order to preserve films with a nitrate base, they can be copied to safety film or digitised.

[edit] Later lost films

35mm safety film was introduced in 1949; it was much more stable than early nitrate film and as a result, there are comparatively few lost films from after about 1950. However, color fading of certain color stocks and vinegar syndrome threaten the preservation of films made since about 1950.

Most mainstream movies from the 1950s and beyond survive today, but several early pornographic films and some B-Movies are lost. In most cases these obscure films go unnoticed and unmissed, but some films by noted cult directors have been lost as well:

  • Cult favorite Herschell Gordon Lewis' 1972 film Black Love has disappeared, as have two of his 1969 films, Ecstasies of Women and Linda and Abilene. The latter of these is notorious for being filmed at the Spahn Ranch shortly before the arrival of the Manson Family.
  • Ed Wood, Jr.'s The Undergraduate (1972) has been lost and his 1970 film Take It Out In Trade exists only in fragments without sound. Wood's 1971 film Necromania was believed lost for years until an edited version resurfaced at a yard sale in 1992, followed by a complete unedited print in 2001 <ref>New Yorker:In the Vault</ref>.
  • Many classroom educational, training, and religious short films of the 1940s through 1970s are also lost as they were thought of as "disposable" or upgradable.

[edit] Almost lost films

Many, many important silent-era films, and films which involve important actors, directors, and creative talent, exist in single prints in museums, archives, and private collections — single prints which have not been copied, digitized, or preserved in any way. The possibility of losing these films forever is very real, unless they are preserved.

Tod Browning's London After Midnight still existed in 1967 — as a single print in a MGM warehouse that was destroyed by fire in that year. London has since come to be regarded as one of the most important lost films.

[edit] Commercially unavailable films

The term "lost films" has also been applied to films that do survive in their entirety, but have never been made available to the public on VHS or DVD. In some cases, the films have never been aired on television either. Many of these "lost" films do circulate on bootleg copies of varying quality. The John Wayne film The High and the Mighty from 1954 was one famous example, until it was finally issued on DVD in 2005. Another well known example is Disney's Song of the South, which is legitimately available in Europe and Asia, but not in North America.

[edit] Lost television broadcasts

[edit] List of selected lost films

[edit] List of incomplete or partially lost films

[edit] List of found films

The following films were once thought to be lost but have now been recovered.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

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[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikivisual.com/index.php/Lost_film"
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