''The Last Edition'' is a 1925 American silent

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

directed by

Emory Johnson Alfred Emory Johnson (March 16, 1894 – April 18, 1960) was an American actor, director, producer, and writer. As a teenager, he started acting in silent films. Early in his career, Carl Laemmle chose Emory to become a Universal studio leading ...

based on the story by Emilie Johnson. The photoplay is set in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

, and stars Ralph Lewis as a pressman at the ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The pap ...

'' newspaper. The movie was released on November 8, 1925 by

Film Booking Offices of America Film Booking Offices of America (FBO), registered as FBO Pictures Corp., was an American film studio of the silent era, a midsize producer and distributor of mostly low-budget films. The business began in 1918 as Robertson-Cole, an Anglo-Americ ...

. The motion picture was filmed in and around the "Old Chronicle Building" located at 690 Market Street in downtown

. However, "in 1924, ''The Chronicle'' commissioned a new headquarters at 901 Mission Street on the corner of 5th Street." ''The Chronicle'' completed the move in 1925, shortly after the film crews were finished shooting.

Plot

The story starts by introducing us to Tom McDonald, played by Ralph Lewis. Tom is a pressman and the assistant foreman in the ''

'' pressroom. Tom finds out he was passed over for the job of press foreman. The job was given to a younger man. Though disappointed, he takes solace knowing his son Ray McDonald, played by Ray Hallor, has a good job in the district attorney's office. Tom also has a daughter – Polly, played by Frances Teague. Clarence Walker, played by Rex Lease is a reporter for ''The Chronicle''. He works in the same building as Tom. Clarence secretly admires Polly McDonald. Currently, Clarence is also working on a hot story about a gang of bootleggers. The bootleggers feel Clarence is getting too close to their operations. They devise a plan to throw Clarence off their track. They create a news diversion by setting up another hot story for Clarence to follow. They frame prominent attorney Ray McDonald on a bribery charge. Clarence jumps on the new lead, investigates the accusations, and quickly files his bribery story at the front desk of ''The Chronicle''s. Clarence's account is deemed a headliner for the newspaper. When the editor checks, they find out there is just enough time for Clarence's bribery story to make ''The Chronicles last edition. Just as the story is about to hit the presses, Tom McDonald finds out the evening's headline is about his son Ray. After reading the article, Tom knows in his heart that Ray could not be guilty of any bribery charge. Tom becomes enraged and attempts to destroy the press. Tom's attempted destruction fails. During this time, the entire ''Chronicle'' plant burns to the ground. Tom is blamed for the fire. He is immediately thrown in jail, coincidentally in the same cell as his son. Clarence believes Tom when he says his son is innocent. Clarence teams up with Polly to investigate the circumstances surrounding the bribery charge. After working together, they uncover evidence exonerating both father and son. A new plant is constructed; Tom is promoted to foreman; Clarence marries Polly.

Cast

Restoration

At one time, it was believed no copies of this film had survived. In 2011, Rob Byrne, a

Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

film preservationist, discovered a surviving copy of the film in the archives of the

EYE Film Institute Eye Filmmuseum is a film archive, museum, and cinema in Amsterdam that preserves and presents both Dutch and foreign films screened in the Netherlands. Location and history Eye Filmmuseum is located in the Overhoeks neighborhood of Amsterdam i ...

. EYE is located in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. A collaboration was arranged between the

and the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. The highly flammable nitrate film was restored to create two new 35mm exhibition prints. One copy was made available to the EYE Film Institute and the other to the U.S.

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The librar ...

. Research on the movie also led to the discovery of an original trailer for the film located in the archives of the Library of Congress. The restoration team encountered another problem. The original

intertitles In films, an intertitle, also known as a title card, is a piece of filmed, printed text edited into the midst of (i.e., ''inter-'') the photographed action at various points. Intertitles used to convey character dialogue are referred to as "dialo ...

for the American film were in English. The intertitles for the discovered copy were in Dutch. Two volunteers were able to translate the Dutch intertitles back to English.

Preservation status

A report created by film historian and archivist David Pierce for the

claims: * 75% of original silent-era films have perished. *14% of the 10,919 silent films released by major studios exist in their original 35mm or other formats. *11% survive in full-length foreign versions or on film formats of lesser image quality. Many silent-era films did not survive for reasons as explained on this Wikipedia page.

directed 13 films - 11 were silent, and 2 were

Talkies A sound film is a motion picture with synchronization, synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decad ...

. ''The Last Edition'' was the seventh film in Emory Johnson's eight-picture contract with FBO. The film's original length is listed at 7 reels. According to the

website, this film has the status of - Archive: Eye Film Institute Netherlands (Amsterdam) laThe Library of Congress American Silent Feature Film Survival Catalog: ''The Last Edition''
/ref> A completely restored copy of this film exists. On January 19, 2021 a complete copy of the restored film in HD was uploaded to

Vimeo Vimeo, Inc. () is an American video hosting, sharing, and services platform provider headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices. Vimeo's business model is through software a ...

. A link to the film is provided here
The Last Edition Restored

Gallery

References

External links

* *
''The Last Edition''
at silentera.com
website about the restoration
{{DEFAULTSORT:Last Edition, The 1925 adventure films 1920s romance films 1925 films 1925 drama films American action adventure films American adventure films American black-and-white films American romance films American romantic drama films American silent feature films Film Booking Offices of America films Melodrama films 1920s rediscovered films Rediscovered American films 1920s English-language films 1920s American films Silent romantic drama films Silent adventure films Silent American drama films