For this list of lost films, a
lost film
A lost film is a feature film, feature or short film in which the original negative or copies are not known to exist in any studio archive, private collection, or public archive. Films can be wholly or partially lost for a number of reasons. ...
is defined as one of which no part of a print is known to have survived. For films in which any portion of the footage remains (including
trailers
Trailer may refer to:
Transportation
* Trailer (vehicle), an unpowered vehicle pulled by a powered vehicle
** Baggage trailer, a large flatbed baggage trolley
** Bicycle trailer, a wheeled frame for hitching to a bicycle to tow cargo or passen ...
), see
List of incomplete or partially lost films
The following is a list of notable films that are incomplete or partially lost. For films for which no footage (including Trailer (promotion), trailers) is known to have survived, see List of lost films. For films that were never completed in the ...
.
Reasons for loss
Films may go missing for a number of reasons. One major contributing factor is the common use of
nitrate film
Nitrocellulose (also known as cellulose nitrate, flash paper, flash cotton, guncotton, pyroxylin and flash string, depending on form) is a highly flammable compound formed by nitration, nitrating cellulose through exposure to a mixture of nitri ...
until the early 1950s. This type of film is highly flammable, and there have been several devastating fires, such as the
1914 Lubin vault fire
On the morning of June 13, 1914, a disastrous fire and a series of related explosions occurred in the main film vault of the Lubin Manufacturing Company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Several possible causes for the blaze were cited at the time ...
, the
Universal Pictures
Universal City Studios LLC, doing business as Universal Pictures (also known as Universal Studios or simply Universal), is an American filmmaking, film production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered at the 10 Universal Ci ...
fire in 1924, the
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...
First National fire in 1933, the
British and Dominions Imperial Studios
Imperial Studios were the studios of the British and Dominions Film Corporation, a short-lived British film production company located at Imperial Place, Elstree Way, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire. The studios (one of several facilities historical ...
fire in 1936, and the
1937 Fox vault fire
A major fire occurred in a 20th Century-Fox film-storage facility in Little Ferry, New Jersey, United States on July 9, 1937. Flammable nitrate film had previously contributed to several fires in film-industry laboratories, studios and vaults ...
, the
1965 MGM vault fire
On August 10, 1965, a fire erupted in Vault 7, a storage facility at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio (MGM) backlot (now Sony Pictures Studios) in Culver City, California. It was caused by an electrical short that ignited flammable stored nitrate ...
.
Black-and-white film
prints judged to be otherwise worthless were sometimes incinerated to salvage the meager scrap value of the silver image particles in their
emulsions
An emulsion is a mixture of two or more liquids that are normally immiscible (unmixable or unblendable) owing to liquid-liquid phase separation. Emulsions are part of a more general class of two-phase systems of matter called colloids. Althoug ...
.
Silent films in particular were once seen as having no further commercial value and were simply junked to clear out expensive storage space.
[Robert A. Harris]
public hearing statement
to the National Film Preservation Board of the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., February 1993. Occasionally, a studio would remake a film and destroy the earlier version.
[ Films have also disappeared when production companies went bankrupt.][
]
Statistics on lost films
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November17, 1942) is an American filmmaker. One of the major figures of the New Hollywood era, he has received List of awards and nominations received by Martin Scorsese, many accolades, including an Academ ...
's Film Foundation claimed in 2017 that "half of all American films made before 1950 and over 90% of films made before 1929 are lost forever". Deutsche Kinemathek
Die Deutsche Kinemathek – Museum für Film und Fernsehen Berlin (English: "German Cinematheque – Museum of Film and Television Berlin") is a major German film archive and film museum located in Berlin, Germany. Located at Potsdamer Platz sinc ...
estimates that 80–90% of silent films are gone; the film archive's own list contains over 3,500 lost films.
A study by the Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...
of 2013 states that 75% of all silent films are lost. While others dispute whether the percentage is quite that high, it is impractical to enumerate here any but the more notable and those which can be sourced.
For example, roughly 200 out of over 500 Méliès films and 350 out of over 1,000 of Alice Guy
Alice may refer to:
* Alice (name), most often a feminine given name, but also used as a surname
Literature
* Alice (''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''), a character in books by Lewis Carroll
* ''Alice'' series, children's and teen books by ...
's films survive. Of the roughly 1,100 films made in India between 1912 and 1931, only 29 are known to have survived.
Notable lost films
Amongst the films commonly mourned among critics and film historians are early films by noted directors and films of unique cultural importance. ''The Mountain Eagle
''The Mountain Eagle'' is a 1926 silent film, and Alfred Hitchcock's second as director, following '' The Pleasure Garden''. The film, a romantic drama set in Kentucky, is about a widower ( Bernhard Goetzke) who jealously competes with his cri ...
'' is the second film directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English film director. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featu ...
in 1926; the silent melodrama has been described by the British Film Institute
The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves filmmaking and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...
as their "most wanted" lost film. '' London After Midnight'', starring Lon Chaney
Leonidas Frank "Lon" Chaney (April 1, 1883 – August 26, 1930) was an American actor and makeup artist. He is regarded as one of the most versatile and powerful actors of cinema, renowned for his characterizations of tortured, often gr ...
and directed by Tod Browning
Tod Browning (born Charles Albert Browning Jr.; July 12, 1880 – October 6, 1962) was an American film director, film actor, screenwriter, vaudeville performer, and carnival sideshow and circus entertainer. He directed a number of films of var ...
in 1927, was a silent-era mystery-thriller pseudo-vampire film that is now considered to be the "holy grail" of lost films by collectors. ''Hollywood
Hollywood usually refers to:
* Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California
* Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States
Hollywood may also refer to:
Places United States
* Hollywood District (disambiguation)
* Hollywood ...
'', a 1923 silent comedy film directed by James Cruze
James Cruze (born Jens Cruz Bosen;Sadoul, Georges (1972). Dictionary of Films'. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. p. 53. . See also:
* Parish, James Robert; Pitts, Michael R. (1974). Film Directors: A Guide to Their American Fi ...
, featured over 30 cameo appearances from major stars of the day, including Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle
Roscoe Conkling "Fatty" Arbuckle (; March 24, 1887 – June 29, 1933) was an American silent film actor, director, and screenwriter. He started at the Selig Polyscope Company and eventually moved to Keystone Studios, where he worked with Mabel ...
, Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is considered o ...
, Mary Astor
Mary Astor (born Lucile Vasconcellos Langhanke; May 3, 1906 – September 25, 1987) was an American actress. Although her career spanned several decades, she may be best remembered for her performance as Brigid O'Shaughnessy in '' The Maltese ...
and Pola Negri
Pola Negri (; born Barbara Apolonia Chałupiec ; 3 January 1897 – 1 August 1987) was a Polish stage and film actress and singer. She achieved worldwide fame during the silent and golden eras of Hollywood and European film for her tragedienn ...
, but no footage exists.
Silent films
1890s
1900s
1910s
1920s
Sound films
:From 1929 on, films are "all-talking" unless otherwise specified.
1920s
1930s
1940s
1960s
1970s
1980s
References
External links
{{Lost films
History of film
*