Lost Films

[RCMerchant]

A few years back,some mo mo claimed he had found a copy of the lost CHaney film- LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT (under it's alternate title the HYPNOTIST). Naught came of this, unfortunatly (I spelt that wrong,huh?). What lost films intrige you? For me,of course would be the lost Bela and horror films. Some-

.DER JANUSKOPF (1920)
Directed by FW Murnau (of NOSFERATU and JOAN OF ARC fame) and starring Conrad Veidt and Bela Lugosi, this was a early version of Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde. The names were changed for copyright reasons (Jekyll/Hyde became Warren/O'Conner)-to no avail. The estate of Robert Lewis Stevenson filed suit and all prints were ordered destroyed.


Veidt as Mr.O'Conner


Veidt and Lugosi (far right)

.LOCK UP YOUR DAUGHTERS (1951)
Made in England compilation of old Lugosi clips-possibly from the Apeman,someBowery Boy films....Sam Katzman is listed in the credits according to the British film register. Lugosi may have done an on screen prolouge and narration. But until the film is found-if ever-no one really knows.

A BLIND BARGAIN (1922)
Lon Chaney played the duel role of Dr.Lamb and his apeman creation. Later remakes include the WIZARD (1927) which is also lost-and DR.RENAULTS SECRET(1942) with George Zucco as the doctor,and J.Carrol Naish as the apeman.


Chaney as the Apeman in A BLIND BARGAIN


Lobby card with Chaney as Dr.Lamb


Lobby card for the lost remake the WIZARD.

And of course...the elusive Holy Grail of lost films...
LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT (1927)
How MGM could have not made more than 1 print of this classic Chaney vehicle (burned in a fire in 1966) is a mystery to me. Also lost is Chaneys last silent film THUNDER(1929) He got some artificial snow from a blizzard scene lodged in his throat-which contributed to his death from throat cancer.








Still from the lost Chaney film THUNDER (1929)

So...what lost films interest you?

[Raffine]

Great topic, RC!

THE CAT CREEPS (1930) was a sound remake of THE CAT AND THE CANARY (1927) and was arguably the first Universal sound horror film, even before DRACULA. It was directed by Rupert Jullian, who directed Chaney in THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA.

There was also a Spanish version filmed at the same time, with the same director George Melford and the same leading lady Lupita Tovar as the Spanish version of DRACULA. The Spanish version was supposedly so good Universal ordered several scenes of the English version reshot to match Melford's film.

Both films are considered lost. 

The only footage that exists is in the comedy short BOO!, which is on the FRANKENSTEIN (1931) DVD.




Several of Andy Milligan's 60's films such as THE NAKED WITCH are also considered lost, because the producer's son got tired of paying for storage and dumped the only prints in the East River!

[lester1/2jr]

there is someone somewhere who has a reel or two of "Nest of the Cuckoo bird" (1965) but nothing in terms of even bootleg prints exist.

Investigating Florida moonshiners, a detective is searching the Everglades when he discovers a remote inn managed by a demented showgirl, a taxidermist who stuffs humans for display in her grotesque Chapel Of The Dead.

[RCMerchant]

WOAH! Waitaminute! I am POSITIVE! POSITIVE I saw the CAT CREEPS on Double Creature Feature in 1971! When was it lost? Or did the local (South Bend Indiana-Ch.28) Have a rare print? It was doubled billed with MURDER IN THE BLUE ROOM.

[peter johnson]

1)  The actual footage that was cut from King Kong that shows what happens to the men once they get twisted off the log.  Either Forrest J. Ackerman, or someone he knew, claims to have seen this footage in a restored version shown on a big screen in The Phillippines, but no one has been able to track that print down.  The latest "restored/uncut" version of Kong on DVD/Blu-Ray has Peter Jackson's production unit recreating the cut footage based on scribbled notes on Miriam Cooper's copy of the script, but that's about it.

2)  The long-rumoured-to-exist footage of flying saucers actually landing near the fence at White Sands, New Mexico, and the pilots allegedly speaking with officers that went out to meet them, from 1952.  The story pops up in about 3 different versions - In one, Eisenhower is said to have walked out and met with them - and is probably bogus, but it's one of those stories that won't go away, and periodically people in the UFO community are contacted by "government reps" who say they can get them a copy.

[Raffine]

WOAH! Waitaminute! I am POSITIVE! POSITIVE I saw the CAT CREEPS on Double Creature Feature in 1971! When was it lost? Or did the local (South Bend Indiana-Ch.28) Have a rare print? It was doubled billed with MURDER IN THE BLUE ROOM.

There was a 40s Universal horror-comedy with the same title that was about a woman who may (or may not!) have been reicarnated as a cat. It used to play on our local station all the time. I wonder if that's what you saw?

Who knows? During the 80s one of our local station used to play SKULLDUGGERY, a goofy 1970 Burt Reynolds movie about a tribe of little missing link monkey people, about once a month - at the exact same time it was reported as 'lost' in a FilmFax article. I was tempted to write the mag to call channel 13 in Birmingham, Alabama for some good news.  

[RCMerchant]

It's possible that was the film I saw-it was so long ago-I dont recall to many details of it. Thanks! (Id like to think I saw the original-but I guess thats doubtful,eh?)

1)  The actual footage that was cut from King Kong that shows what happens to the men once they get twisted off the log.  Either Forrest J. Ackerman, or someone he knew, claims to have seen this footage in a restored version shown on a big screen in The Phillippines, but no one has been able to track that print down.  The latest "restored/uncut" version of Kong on DVD/Blu-Ray has Peter Jackson's production unit recreating the cut footage based on scribbled notes on Miriam Cooper's copy of the script, but that's about it.

2)  The long-rumoured-to-exist footage of flying saucers actually landing near the fence at White Sands, New Mexico, and the pilots allegedly speaking with officers that went out to meet them, from 1952.  The story pops up in about 3 different versions - In one, Eisenhower is said to have walked out and met with them - and is probably bogus, but it's one of those stories that won't go away, and periodically people in the UFO community are contacted by "government reps" who say they can get them a copy.

I've seen stills of the giant spider in an early FAMOUS MONSTERS....but it seems that the scene may be lost. But who knows?





I think the scene of the giant spider in ONE MILLION YEARS BC (1966) may be Ray Harryhausens inside homage to Willis O'Brien's giant spider from Kong.

[RCMerchant]

In an ad much like the one below,Lugosi's one time agent Don Marlowe claimed to have for sale the test footage of Lugosi as the Frankenstein Monster. Marlowe is said to have sold the film to Carl Lammele Jr. in 1970 for $3,500...is it true-or not? Where would have Marlowe obtained this footage? It seems doubtful that it came from Lugosi  himself. Why would Marlowe advertise to sell a film he did not possess? And if he did-where is it now?


(This ad is an upload from an old HORROR MONSTERS magazine from the early 60's in my collection)

[claws]

The long lost Grizzly sequel Predator: The Concert (1987). Impressive cast in that one: George Clooney, Laura Dern, Louise Fletcher, Deborah Foreman, Charlie Sheen.
There used to be footage of the movie on youtube several years ago, not sure if its still up.

[Raffine]

I've seen stills of the giant spider in an early FAMOUS MONSTERS....but it seems that the scene may be lost. But who knows?

O'Brien reused some of the spider pit critter models for that wild cave scene in THE BLACK SCORPION where the giggling spider/crab thingies chase the kid around.

[RCMerchant]

I've seen stills of the giant spider in an early FAMOUS MONSTERS....but it seems that the scene may be lost. But who knows?

O'Brien reused some of the spider pit critter models for that wild cave scene in THE BLACK SCORPION where the giggling spider/crab thingies chase the kid around.

Speaking of King Kong-there was 1938 Japenese version made! It was reported to be destroyed during the Allied bombing of Japan.
A poster remains,though-



A giant monster movie fromJapan that predated GODZILLA! 

[Silverlady]

The Thing From Another World (1951) is one of my favorite old SciFi movies.  I've only seen it in BxW, but I read somewhere that a color version of it was released on VHS a long time ago in addition to restoring some deleted scenes. Have any of you ever seen the colorized version of it? Or a so called deleted scene of the dead scientists hanging from the rafters in the greenhouse?

[Umaril The Unfeathered]

I've seen stills of the giant spider in an early FAMOUS MONSTERS....but it seems that the scene may be lost. But who knows?

O'Brien reused some of the spider pit critter models for that wild cave scene in THE BLACK SCORPION where the giggling spider/crab thingies chase the kid around.

Speaking of King Kong-there was 1938 Japenese version made! It was reported to be destroyed during the Allied bombing of Japan.
A poster remains,though-



A giant monster movie fromJapan that predated GODZILLA! 

And since this was 1938, it's possible that Toho may have done this movie too. The monster's face looks a LOT like the infamous Cyclops from the Lost In Space season one episode, "There Were Giants On The Earth."

And, the body almost looks like the monster in Toho's 1958 movie, Half Human which was their take on the Abominable Snowman. 

On a side note, If I had made Half Human I'd have used the design for Sanda, the Brown Gargantua. Looking at him, he was the more human-looking of the two creatures.

[Raffine]

He sort of looks like Lupe the Wolfman from The Three Stogges' IDLE ROOMERS!

[Raffine]

By the way, my current avatar is a closeup of one of Obie's spider puppets from the KONG spider pit scene.

I like it because it looks like Harpo Marx pulling his 'Gookie Face'.