MovieChat Forums > 4 Devils (1929) Discussion > still in fox archives?

still in fox archives?

posted 15 years ago by dredsov07
4 replies | jump to latest

is "4 devils" still in the fox archives? i have been reading Lotte Eisner's book on murnau, and in the section on 4 devils, he specifically says that the original negative is still in the fox archives.

granted the book was published in 1973, but if he's right, it makes me wonder if the film really has been lost in that amount of time. it makes me wish i had access to the fox archives, to conduct my own search. i may just be stupid, but i found this very curious indeed! what a wonder it would be if the fox people had just been lazy when looking for it! or maybe they have never looked at all?

the discrepency peaked my interest, and if anyone has any information confirming the fact that it was looked for and found lost, or if you have opposite info, it would be appreciated. it would be funny if fox took all that time to put together the documetary on 4 devils featured on the sunrise dvd, for a film they have always had in their archives.

if i find more discrepencies, i may just have to petition to the fox headquarters to do a thorough search of their archives!!!!

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] dredsov07 15 years ago

oops! lol. i didn't know eisner was a woman, never met her. lol. anyway, thank you very much for the info. i hope one day we will all be able to see 4 devils, and witness another link in murnau's chain of brilliance.

[–] haciendacaliente 15 years ago

Since there were sonorized and silent versions of 4 Devils, shouldn't two separate negatives (theoretically) exist, or have existed? There's also the matter of the re-shot ending -- would this footage have been inserted into the original negative(s), or would a dupe negative have been created? Of course, if both versions were lost in the Fox vault fire, it doesn't really matter.

[–] mlink-36-9815 9 years ago

the movie was deliberately destroyed. fox did not want to release murnau's cut.
then it was taken from him and recut to try and reduce his ideas into money making ones. when that didn't work they took the whole turd pile and burnt it lock stock and barrel. thats duh duh duh hollywood!