There’s a special cache that lost films seems to have in our minds, a sort of unattainable treasure just beyond our grasp. Looking at surviving stills, posters and lobby cards tend only to increase our longing to view the movies. The fact that a number of “lost” films have surfaced in the last ten years or so, and some have even made it to home video DVD or Blu-ray, only increases our hopes that more of these elusive antiques will be found.
Here to tantalize us is artwork of some of the better known “lost” films beyond the obvious ones such as LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT (1927) or CONVENTION CITY (1933). Well, we can dream, can’t we?
I decided to choose one particular year – in this case 1928 – and focus on notable films by big stars that are gone.
I have confirmed the “lost” status of each title with the 2018 listing of “7,200 Lost U.S. Silent Feature Films” by the National Film Preservation Board. You can access this document at https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/SFF-LostFilmsList050118.pdf
Clara Bow has an unfortunate run of four lost films from this one year:
THREE WEEK ENDS (1928)
THE FLEET’S IN (1928)
LADIES OF THE MOB (1928)
RED HAIR (1928)
There exists a few bits of RED HAIR that only make it more tantalizing:
Next, let’s take a look at a couple of Gary Cooper‘s lost films:
THE LEGION OF THE CONDEMNED (1928) with Fay Wray getting top billing over Coop
BEAU SABREUR (1928)
The films of Greta Garbo enjoy a high survival rate except for this 1928 MGM film:
THE DIVINE WOMAN (1928)
About nine minutes were found in a Russian archive but the rest of the film is considered lost at this time:
Considering John Gilbert‘s legendary status as one of the greatest stars of the 1920s, it’s surprising that one of his 1928 films is among the lost. This film is also one of his most intriguing:
THE MASKS OF THE DEVIL (1928)
We’ve only scratched the surface of reviewing important lost films. Sadly, there are many more so perhaps we might do a “Lost Films 2” in the near future.