Lost Films

[L.A.]

SPACE MONSTER WANGMAGWI: SRS Cinema Acquires North American Rights to Long Lost Korean Monster Movie!

[yoloswegmaster]

Supposedly 'London After Midnight' has been found but this is all based on an edit that was made on the film's wiki page, so there's a good chance that this is a hoax.

[Computer Raheem]

Supposedly 'London After Midnight' has been found but this is all based on an edit that was made on the film's wiki page, so there's a good chance that this is a hoax.

The article that is hyperlinked on the Wikipedia page does state that there is a search going on in Australia, but that's as far as any recent news has gone. If it was found, you'd think people would be making a bigger deal out of it...

[dustybooks]

It seems like Nitrateville gets a specious thread announcing it’s been found every few years, it’s almost a meme at this point.

[Gregor Samsa]

A long-lost 1976 Sesame Street episode with Margaret Hamilton reprising her role as the Wicked Witch of the West was very recently made available in high quality.

[Never Cursed]

The full animatic for Genndy Tartakovsky‘s cancelled Popeye film has leaked online

[Stefan Andersson]

The Harold Lloyd film Luke´s Double (1916) has been rediscovered:
https://www.nitrateville.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=33591

[beamish14]

In 1995, the band Blur commissioned a tour documentary/musical fantasia in the style of The Song Remains the Same and Magical Mystery Tour that was dubbed B-Roads. Unsatisfied with what was made, they suppressed it, and it has never been leaked in any form until now

[ryannichols7]

In 1995, the band Blur commissioned a tour documentary/musical fantasia in the style of The Song Remains the Same and Magical Mystery Tour that was dubbed B-Roads. Unsatisfied with what was made, they suppressed it, and it has never been leaked in any form until now

now that's a find! this has been mythic for ages...good timing with Blur's new concerts coming up in 2023

[Saturnome]

40 seconds of Cleopatra (1917) found in a toy film projector, uploaded to YouTube in 4k

[Walter Kurtz]

Theda Bara. G.O.A.T.

[yoloswegmaster]

A silent Brazilian documentary from 1918 titled Amazonas, Maior Rio do Mundo has been located in a Czech archive.

[Petty Bourgeoisie]

Has anybody seen the 1983 experimental/documentary SL-1 about the 1961 nuclear disaster in Idaho?

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0323857/?ref_=tt_mv_close

Technically I'm sure it's not "lost", due to one of the codirectors still being alive, but it seems that the only people who've seen it were at the 1983 Sundance premiere or were Navy members who were beginning their training in the nuclear program. The directors had to submit a FOIA request to finish the film and apparently there might have been two versions, classified and unclassified. To make it even more confusing, the government made their own internal documentary called SL-1 (available on youtube and very technical) and National Geographic made their own documentary called (of course) SL-1.

From my understanding the Orr & Roberts documentary is more interested in the human story of the accident.

P.S. this is the only review I can find: https://www.nytimes.com/1984/03/21/movi ... icity.html

[TechnicolorAcid]

Has anybody seen the 1983 experimental/documentary SL-1 about the 1961 nuclear disaster in Idaho?

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0323857/?ref_=tt_mv_close

Technically I'm sure it's not "lost", due to one of the codirectors still being alive, but it seems that the only people who've seen it were at the 1983 Sundance premiere or were Navy members who were beginning their training in the nuclear program. The directors had to submit a FOIA request to finish the film and apparently there might have been two versions, classified and unclassified. To make it even more confusing, the government made their own internal documentary called SL-1 (available on youtube and very technical) and National Geographic made their own documentary called (of course) SL-1.

From my understanding the Orr & Roberts documentary is more interested in the human story of the accident.

P.S. this is the only review I can find: https://www.nytimes.com/1984/03/21/movi ... icity.html

Okay one very interesting thing I got out of the review was that the Sundance film premiere was not the only official public screening as the review mentions The Film Forum in 1984 (most likely somewhere around March). C. Larry Roberts is unfortunately dead but I did some digging and based off what I found, you unfortunately can't contact Diane Orr unless she has some Linkedin or something like that. However, I found a major clue in solving your dilemma, it turns out that the Utah Independent Film Archive holds a copy of SL-1 per their description on their website's home page:

A0428 Diane Orr
1970s-2000s - News and documentary films, some made in conjunction with the now defunct KUTV Documentary Division. The collection includes material about the Wounded Knee standoff, the plight of Utah's Native Americans, the SL-1 nuclear disaster, the Teton Dam break, and the mystery of Everett Ruess, etc.

So there's some clear evidence that there is at least one copy still standing. If you want to know more though, on the U.I.F.A.'s home page, they list a Molly Rose Steed and a Rebecca Roper with their email information to contact them so I recommend just doing that and asking them if they could publish it online or something like that.

[TechnicolorAcid]

Okay actually nevermind I found something that will cheer you up. There is an official DVD release of this from the production company, Direct Cinema, Ltd. Though I'm basing this based off the directors listed, it could be the other one you were talking about.
Here you go:
http://www.directcinema.com/dvds/580
I think you can still buy this since it appears to be in print and in stock so that's even better news if you want to actually watch it and/or publish it online for others to see.

[agnamaracs]

"The Pill Pounder" with Clara Bow found at auction of shuttered Omaha film distributor's assets.

Also, Taylor Swift, because why not.

[captveg]

The Player (1971)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JV6Biseuoc&t=3s

This is believed to be the only surviving print of 30.

[Stefan Andersson]

Captain Thunderbolt (Cecil Holmes, Australia 1951) rediscovered in Prague:
https://postersmo.blogspot.com/2023/09/ ... -1951.html
https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2014/key ... lmes-1953/
https://www.nfsa.gov.au/latest/captain- ... lost-films

[GaryC]

Captain Thunderbolt (Cecil Holmes, Australia 1951) rediscovered in Prague:
https://postersmo.blogspot.com/2023/09/ ... -1951.html
https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2014/key ... lmes-1953/
https://www.nfsa.gov.au/latest/captain- ... lost-films

Wow. I'm not doubting this, but only the first of those links mentions a rediscovery, and the other two articles are older. But if it is true, that's something quite a few people I know (either have met in person or online) have been searching for for years.

There was a rumour that the 53-minute version was shown on British TV in the 1950s, but there's no evidence that it was. It was shortened for UK release (56 minutes as per the BBFC and Monthly Film Bulletin), presumably to play as a supporting feature.

[furbicide]

Sydney Film Festival co-founder David Donaldson is the source for this, and that’s about as good as it gets, as he’s championed the film for years (he also introduced the screening of the shorter UK cut at Melbourne Cinémathèque just last year). You can read his summary of the situation here:

https://filmalert101.blogspot.com/2024/ ... orter.html

CAPTAIN THUNDERBOLT HAS BEEN FOUND
Back in the 1950s, I saw the New England and Sydney production of Captain Thunderbolt at its one-week city release and twice later. At a session in 2010 at Art Gallery of NSW, the Archive named Captain Thunderbolt as first in its Most Wanted list, since the full release film had been considered lost.

Now, thanks to searching by independent archivist Michael Organ, a full-length print in 35mm was located in Prague. It is currently in Canberra and being examined as to restoration possibilities.

Treating the film as a theatrical feature, much has been written over the years about some remarkable merits. The annual award of the Australian Directors Guild carries the name of the director, Cecil Holmes. The award of the Australian Cinematographers Society carries the name of Ross Wood.

Not only, though, is the film significant as a creative outburst in Sydney in that meagre film time of 1951. It came out of essentially a Radio background and Associated Productions further had a pioneering place in Television. No wonder it was chosen as Most Wanted!

To my mind, a re-presentation could take place in the Sydney Film Festival in June 2025 (a 70-year anniversary). ....AND at Armidale where the Australian premiere was held..... AND perhaps at Cockatoo Island, the site of the thrilling escape sequence. Much work and thought will be needed before any of that can happen. Many people and authorities will have to contribute.

[GaryC]

Sydney Film Festival co-founder David Donaldson is the source for this, and that’s about as good as it gets, as he’s championed the film for years (he also introduced the screening of the shorter UK cut at Melbourne Cinémathèque just last year). You can read his summary of the situation here:

I've since seen that blog post. I look forward to seeing the film in due course, as I haven't seen it in any version. David Donaldson is a remarkable man, whom I've met if you count being on the same Zoom webinar as meeting someone. He must be glad he's lived to see this film recovered, as he's in his mid-nineties.

[furbicide]

I was very fortunate to spend an evening with him in Adelaide a couple of years ago when I was writing an article on another largely forgotten Australian film, Time in Summer (you can read the piece here if you're interested: https://metromagazine.com.au/mixed-up-w ... es-dreams/). He had a wealth of knowledge and remarkable collection of memorabilia – and, I must say, for a man of that age he's incredibly sharp. To get to meet someone who was influential in Australian film culture as far back as the early 1950s (when he was the head of the Federation of Film Societies) and who is still very active in that space was a rare privilege indeed.