NitrateVille.com

Ron Hutchinson from The Vitaphone Project here.

I recently came across a Wikipeda section on lost, partially lost, and unreleased films./ It's at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?tit ... per%2C+The

In going through it I learned for the first time that a number of 1930-31 WB musicals, while heavily cut of songs in the US, were in fact released at full length with all their songs elsewhere. I wonder if anyone has ever checked any non-US holdings of the following titles to see if their running time (usually would be over 75 minutes if all the songs were included) suggests a complete print. Any ideas on who to ask or where to check?

Here are the titles:

GOLD DUST GERTIE ('31)
GOING WILD ('30)
MANHATTAN PARADE ('31)
LIFE OF THE PARTY ('30)
SIDE SHOW ('31)
SIT TIGHT ('31)
TOP SPEED ('30)

Ironically, most of these star Winnie Lightner.

Anyway, any ideas on pursuing this would be greatly appreciated.

Ron.

good question..... I have a copy of Gold Dust Gertie coming from a collector in the UK but have no idea how complete it is or if it's the US release version....

I've got "Side Show" and "Life of the Party", both of which I recorded from TNT in the 1980's. I've re-watched "Life of the Party" (a really wonderful show, by the way!) a couple of times, and I never noticed anything might be missing; however, the way TNT used to interrupt with ads you never know. Never cared for "Side Show": too much Charles Butterworth; maybe I need to watch again.

GOLD DUST GERTIE isn't a musical in its present form. Was it ever?

I don't think Gold Dust Gertie was ever a musical- I can't possibly see where even one song could be fit in. Same with Side Show- it has one song in it and I don't feel anything else is missing.

On the other hand, 50 MILLION FRENCHMEN evidently previewed as a musical but all the songs were cut (even though in existing prints they spend forever leading up to a performance of "You Do Something To Me" that never happens).
Outside of the WB-FN films, I always felt that Wheeler and Woolsey's
HOLD EM JAIL was intended to be a musical; this is most apparent in the scene where the boys clean Edgar Kennedy's room and Betty Grable turns on the radio. The "official" running time is always listed as 74 minutes, but every print I've seen is at least a reel shorter.

Just watched Gold Dust Gertie and it was not a musical. It was based on a stage play by Len Hollister but it never even played Broadway. And it is apprently NOT one of those early musicals that had its music ripped out after the fad had passed.