MGM has been notorious for things like that from day one. They bought up and attempted to destroy all the prints of film like "Murder on Thornton Square" , and the Mamoulian "Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde" (Marnau's Jekyll is, of course, lost and Lugosi had a small part in it) . Of course, they have misplaced a few of their own, such as "London after Midnight" of course. Now the consensus seems to be that it's probably not that great a film, which I would be tempted to disagree with, judging from the still re-creation of TCM. Browning has been taking so much critical flack over the last few years that the negative 'assessment' over an unseen film seems hopelessly silly. Still, if I had my rathers, the Browning work I would hope most to see is the fully restored " West of Zanzibar".
Louis Brook's 'The Canary Murder Case' was lost for half of forever and when it turned up, proved very disappointing,
especially in light of the work she did with Pabst. Still, much of her early film work is lost, as is all but one of Olive Thomas' films and most of Theda Bera's work.
This thread is veering a bit, but on the topic of destroyed film, I have to make note of the fact that MGM sold most of the videotape that Zappa used to create "200 Motels" to be taped over & re-used. Now that's really gone for good . . .
peter johnson/denny crane