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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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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 .
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.
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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:
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 .
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.
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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.
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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.
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Lost television broadcasts
Many early television series episodes were lost because they were aired live and no recording ever was made, or because the highly expensive early video tape was erased and re-used by the network. Most episodes of important, popular shows like Captain Video and Your Show of Shows are presumed lost.
Over 100 early episodes of the cult BBC sci-fi show Doctor Who do not exist in the BBC's archives, though they have an ongoing appeal for help from viewers who may have recorded the shows during their original airings.
Many other BBC programmes are missing from the archives, including the BBC studio footage from the Apollo 11 moon landings. Many series are missing in their entirety, such as A for Andromeda, a science fiction series that was Julie Christie's first major role. Also missing are episodes of Dad's Army, Hancock's Half Hour, Doomwatch, Out of the Unknown, The Quatermass Experiment, Dixon of Dock Green, Z Cars, and many others.
Almost all of NBC's The Tonight Show with Jack Paar and the first ten years hosted by Johnny Carson were taped over by the network and no longer exist; this is why Carson's The Tonight Show picture looked muddy during broadcast in the late 60s: the videotape was being used repeatedly. A single episode from Carson's first year turned up in a closet a few years ago.
With home VCRs being uncommon until the mid-1980s, it is unlikely that lost television episodes exist in the collections of individuals, though this occasionally happens. One well-known example is a clip of John Lennon visiting the announcers booth during a 1974 Monday Night Football broadcast. ABC lost the footage of this event, but a private collector's copy of the event appears in the Beatles Anthology.
Also lost is the broadcast of the first Super Bowl, even though NBC and CBS both originally broadcast the game.
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List of selected lost films
El Apostol (1917), Argentine production, believed to be the world's first animated feature film.
A Fable/The Slave (1972): based on LeRoi Jones' play "Slaves" about a race war in America's future. Directed by Al Freeman Jr.
HIM (1974): Gay porn take on the life of Christ, directed by Ed D. Louie.
Hollywood (1923), which contained cameos of many silent film stars playing themselves
Le Grand Depart (1972): experimental film by painter/sculptor Martial Raysse, starring Sterling Hayden.
Sunseed (1973) directed by Frederick Cohn
Together For Days (1972): directed by Michael Schultz; Samuel L. Jackson's first film.
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List of incomplete or partially lost films
The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906). Only nine minutes of this 70 minute feature survive; it is often considered to be the world’s first full-length motion picture.
Caligula This much-maligned film was originally 210 minutes long. The content of the deleted footage is discussed here, along with production stills. *
Metropolis (1927) Fritz Lang. The German premiere cut no longer survives. When the film was sent to the US, it was truncated greatly by Paramount. Subsequently, UFA re-cut the film after the financial success of Paramount's version. Both of these latter versions, as well as international versions and incomplete elements survive. Existing prints are cobbled together from these various sources.
My Man (1928) starring Fanny Brice — almost complete set of soundtrack discs plus soundtrack trailer survive
On With the Show (1929) First All-Technicolor All-Talking Feature. Survives only in black and white.
Thunder (1929), directed by William Nigh, and starring Lon Chaney, Sr. (his last silent film). Several clips exist.
Lost Horizon (1937) directed by Frank Capra. Capra's initial 210 minute version was cut down to 131 minutes after a preview went awfully. In his autobiography, Capra claims to have personally destroyed the first two reels. In many currently used versions, still photos and individuals frames are used to replace missing footage that accompanies the soundtrack.
Top Banana (1954) with Phil Silvers. Originally shot and edited in 3-D, the film was released flat. The film only exists in 16mm, and does not exist in 3-D at all.
A Star Is Born (1954) starring Judy Garland and James Mason. Originally premiered at 181 minutes, Warner Bros. cut the film down by about 27 minutes for general release. The 1983 restoration included soundtrack from this cut and a few establishing shots, with stills filling in the rest.
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List of found films
The following films were once thought to be lost but have now been recovered.
Duck Soup (1927) starring Laurel & Hardy. Was thought lost until a copy surfaced in the 1980s.
Frankenstein (1910) starring Charles Ogle. A print was bought by a film collector in the 1950s, who was not aware of its rarity until decades later.
Napoléon (1927) directed by Abel Gance. Never totally lost, but existing prints were once only half as long as the current restoration.
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See also
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