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You can move Seventh Commandment, The 32 HLWPP to the "incomplete" list -- apparently a reel or two exist of this early Dwain Esper subject do exist. It was described to me as "very, very depressing."

spadeneal

CURSE OF THE UBANGI (1946) is lost in the United States.

But a print exist in Argentina.

Hi. Does anyone have any info on what material (length, gauge, condition etc) survives on THE DRAKE CASE? We have a 16MM print that I want to pull and check and it would be good to know how it stacks up.

Best,
Tim

I've only ever heard of 16mm prints out there. What vintage is the print you have, Tim?

Hi. I just pulled it and did a quick inspection. While I was hoping that maybe Raymond had another gem hiding in the stacks, the total footage count is 1,633 feet (about 45 minutes at 24fps) and it has a Castle Films credit logo at the end.
Tim

RIDIN' LAW (1930) also exists, terrible as it is.

My #1 is THE CAT CREEPS. Others are...
THE GORILLA
THE MONKEY'S PAW
THE TERROR
STARK MAD

You can add these:

'NEATH WESTERN SKIES 29 SYND
PARTNERS OF THE TRAIL 31 MONO
GALLOPING THRU 31 MONO
VANISHING MEN 32 MONO
THE MAN FROM NEW MEXICO 32 MONO
CLANCY OF THE MOUNTED (serial) 33 UNIV

spadeneal

One clarification; 'Neath Western Skies was likely a silent -- AFI states it was a silent, but imdb says sound.

These items all come from Tom Tyler's portion of the list on this page, which may hold info about other relevant lost titles and perhaps a few survivors:

http://www.b-westerns.com/lost.htm

spadeneal

Anyone know of the existence of The Girl in the Case (1934/5)? I can't find much on it.

More updates on that listing of lost pre-1940 sound features:

NOT LOST:
"For Love Or Money" (1939) - Universal.
A friend has a good complete 16mm print. I've seen it a few times. Interesting to see the original story that was remade in 1948 with Abbott & Costello as "The Noose Hangs High" (but not by Universal!).

"Melody Lane" (1929) - Universal.
I recently acquired all but one of the Vitaphone discs for this and was told that a restoration is now possible. I still need to learn more, but I assume that means a silent print exists.

"Sheer Luck" (1931) - Big 4.
There are at least two prints of this out there, under the reissue title "Luck of a Man". I have a video made from one.
And the movie was shown on the old "Satellite Programming Network" about 1980.

Incomplete films:
"Take the Stand" (1934) - Liberty.
This one should be moved to the "Incomplete List" from the "Missing List". One reel is accounted for. And then again in this case there's the unconfirmed claim made to me by a collector that he has a print. But anyway, one reel does exist, at least.

"The Singing Fool" (1928) - WB.
Aren't all known prints missing the "The Spaniard That Blighted My Life" song number? If so, then this one should be in the "Incomplete" list.

And to confirm the earlier statements that "Freckles" (1935) - RKO Radio has been found and will be shown at Cinefest in 2010: yes it was indeed shown.
(And sorry, Louie...I liked it!)

Can anyone truly verify what exists of THE MONKEY'S PAW (RKO, 1933)?

"The Singing Fool" (1928) - WB.
Aren't all known prints missing the "The Spaniard That Blighted My Life" song number? If so, then this one should be in the "Incomplete" list.

Wellllll . . . yes and no. "The Spaniard That Blighted My Life" was deleted from THE SINGING FOOL shortly after release when Billy Merson, who wrote the song, objected to Al Jolson's rendition and sued to have it removed from the film. The audio survives; it was included in the TCM/Rhino CD Let Me Sing And I'm Happy: Al Jolson at Warner Brothers, 1926-1936.

But I, for one, still hope that the film for the number will turn up somewhere, sometime . . .

The problem with The Singing Fool is that by the time the British courts decided that Billy Merson was out of order, the run was over and no one bothered to re-instate the song. It would seem that the US original version disappeared for the film and only the British version survived with the clip missing. What happened to the US material, I don't know but the song was not cut for USA where Merson had no known following.

Any other theories??

Dan and moviepas:
What you both said is the situation as I have understood it for years.
And yes, the soundtrack for the missing number exists on surviving Vitaphone discs. Before the TCM/Rhino CD Dan mentioned, they were also released on LP's by Take Two and Sandy Hook Records.

Richard Finegan:I was the distributor of those two LPs in Australia along with the 3 CUT!!! Lps which I never saw a CD release but they might have happened. I lost track for a few years running another type of business(grocery stores)

Richard Finegan:I was the distributor of those two LPs in Australia along with the 3 CUT!!! Lps which I never saw a CD release but they might have happened. I lost track for a few years running another type of business(grocery stores)

===================
Those were good records. A lot of us still have them and treasure them!

Speaking of Australia, a number of our talkies have ceased to be, unfortunately. Some of the best known are:

- Two Minutes' Silence (1933) - The last production by the McDonagh sisters, and their only true talkie. Contemporary descriptions make it sound much ahead of its time.
- Fellers (1930) - Australia's first part-talkie and the top prizewinner in the inaugural (and only) Commonwealth Film Prize.
-The Magic Shoes (1936) - Short film which was the first film appearance of Peter Finch.

RIDIN' LAW (1930) also exists, terrible as it is.

I will admit here, in my very first posting, that I have a keen interest in early talking westerns, even those of B-minus quality. I have never seen this title, released in May 1930, available anywhere for sale.

I would certainly be curious to see this film, if it is offered by a vendor or some other legitimate means. I don't think I'd travel to an archive to see it, much as I have my list of talking westerns from 1930 with numerous "have" and "seen" gaps due to the number from that year that are lost or unavailable for viewing. Don't even get me started on Gary Cooper's The Texan or The Spoilers from that year.

think these will ever be released on dvd or blu ray offically before the true fans who like old silents and talkies die? the pvt collectors should have their treasures transferred to a blu ray or dvd so they wont lose the only print they have.

No collector will do that, because then his print would not be unique. Someone, somewhere, could look at the film, which in his mind is immensely valuable for nothing. Far better to let it sit. After all, it would never be caught in a fire or dissolve into goo. That's something that happens to the badly-handled prints of other collectors. No, far better to wait until you are offered three million dollars, so you can start negotiating.

Bob

most ppl wouldnt pay 3 million for a movie like freckles.but i can see it for a rare chaplin etc.still some of these need to be released to dvd companies seriously.

Come now, Thomasw, your attempts to chaffer down the price before making your first offer is a feeble negotiating tactic and will just cost you another couple of million in the end.

Bob

RE: RIDIN' LAW. It's at UCLA, but hasn't been preserved yet. I watched the original nitrate on a flatbed before it was sent there. It's truly awful—boring and formulaic. Variety gave it a particularly scathing review, as I recall.

Thank you for the information about Ridin' Law. I am pretty forgiving regarding the earliest B-westerns, but I have the feeling that, if one were to get down to brass tacks, the films of Jack Perrin and Jay Wilsey, two of the most prolific B-minus stars from 1930 and 1931, and most of whose films for those years are lost, are probably pretty poor. The four that I have seen from those two gentlemen are certainly nothing to crow about, and I wonder why I would need confirmation of that. Perhaps the fact that the film is extant is more meritorious than the film itself.

the nitrate prints need to be given to ucla before we lose them forever .
sad for me i dont live in ny or calfornia so ill never see freckles
why i wanted a copy on dvd.let me go cry now.

I don't live in NY or CA either. That's why they have airplanes.

Perhaps the fact that the film is extant is more meritorious than the film itself.

That's usually the case.

I haven't been able to locate "High Society Blues" (1930) or "Merely Mary Ann" (1931) anywhere and wonder if they are also "lost" films. They
were both Fox films and co-starred Charles Farrell and Janet Gaynor.
Does anyone know anything about these films?

UCLA has the studio nitrate material on High Society Blues; it isn't available for viewing. They don't show anything for Merely Mary Ann, but it's marked "print viewed" in the AFI catalogue so it's around somewhere.

-Harold

Thanks for the info on "High Society Blues". I did read that the Museum Of Modern Art in NYC did a showing several years ago of "Merely Mary Ann" so I assume they have a copy of it in their film archives.