There were approximately 150 silent films recently found in New Zealand. Out of the 150, 75 were violable enough to preserve on safety film stock and one of them was John Ford's Upstream which was thought to be lost. I'm thrilled that is was found - Hopefully we'll see it soon.
shareTwelve people are so excited about the find that they've already cast their vote -- [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0018530/ratings].
But seriously , this is very good news.
gleam o green
I think it's great news for people who like the films of John Ford and film historians who want to follow his progression as a director. Personally I'm thrilled about it even if it proves to be a lousy film.
share[deleted]
Does anyone know how long it was lost for?
I'm still waiting for The Mountain Eagle to turn up, although my feeling is that it could have been deliberately destroyed or discarded.
Upstream appears to have been lost since 1927. Half the films found in the vault with had disintegrated and couldn't be salvaged. I didn't get the titles of the ones that were too decayed to reprint but since they were all American films, I think that leaves out The Mountain Eagle. Sorry about that one, I love Hitchcock too.
shareThanks for the response.
In Donald Spoto's biography of Hitchcock, he mentioned that the film seemed to disappear very quickly. I got the impression from this that the film was just discarded after its lack of success.
It's a real shame. I suppose as film was in its early stages, there was no real appreciation at the time that, good or bad, these films should be recognised and preserved for future generations.
Hi DC1977,
Yes, you are corect about people not realizing these films had worth and it's a shame No one knew that movies would become the art form of the 20th century and there was always the problem of nitrate film stock igniting and causing fires. I recently read an article about a small silent film studio called Balboa Films which sold all their old film stock during W.W.I as part of the war effort. The nitrate was so flamable, the nitrate was extracted for dynamite. The sad thing was that Balboa made films starring Fatty Arbuckle and Mary Miles Minter. All those films are lost.
It sounds as though Balboa lost the wrong films...
Rocky IV and V have been preserved for all eternity!
Thanks DC1977 - So true! I'll be laughing about your comment for the rest of the night!
shareApparently this film is now called Footlight Glamour...
Interesting.
So they have retitled it? I agree - interesting.
shareI read that this was originally released in the UK as Footlight Glamour but it doesn't appear to have been renamed per se. It's playing at the Samuel Goldwyn Theatre in Beverly Hills in September as Upstream.
shareI just got the "Lost and Found: American Treasures from the New Zealand Film Archive (Silent)" DVD, saw this movie last night, and quite liked it. I primarily bought the DVD because of the Mabel Normand short included on it, but for some reason decided to start by this movie. It's quite enjoyable, most characters are charming and funny, and the print quality is rather good, beautifully tinted.
Animal crackers in my soup
Monkeys and rabbits loop the loop