Tweet BFI Most Wanted List

This has probably already been discussed somewhere here before, but I found this list to be very interesting.
http://www.bfi.org.uk/nationalarchive/n ... -list.html" target="_blank
Is "Double Confession" (1950) with Peter Lorre really lost? They mention that it could exist somewhere in the US. It also explains why I could never find a copy of Robert Donat's earliest film, either (apparently his second one is also lost). "Too Many Crooks" (1930) with Laurence Olivier and quite a few others I had been wondering about. I wonder why so many British sound films are lost compared to American ones?

I wonder why so many British sound films are lost compared to American ones?

I imagine the regular bombings the Brits faced during WWII had something to do with the lost of some of them anyway.

Joe Moore

The shortened version of THE MAN BEHIND THE MASK does survive, William K. Everson acquired a 16mm print of it in Toronto, of all places. It's 65 minutes, according to his notes.

I have a copy of "Double Confession" - it was on vhs from Video Yesteryear. It is not lost. Nice detective job by Naunton Wayne.

I could add at least two other "most wanted titles" to the list, but this is of course a very subjective and personal opinion. The first one is DARBY AND JOAN (1937), directed by Syd Courtenay, produced by Rock Studios and released by MGM-British. It was probably a mediocre movie - according to contemporary reviews - but Tod Slaughter was in the cast, and it's the ONLY "lost" title in his Thirties movies.
The other is THE MYSTERY OF THE MARIE CELESTE, with Bela Lugosi. Of course, the American editing still exist, but is cut to ribbons, to the point that some notable performer like D.J. Williams, credited in this US print, just doesn't appear in it. A truncated print is - perhaps - preferable than nothing, but in this case it's rather frustrating...
And of course there is a LOT of other "lost" British movies, without speaking of the thousands of TV films and episodes foolishly erased by BBC until the mid-1970s (including most of the Sherlock Holmes / Peter Cushing episodes).