14 "lost" films still to be found

I expect once everyone is dead an agreement will be reached, yes. (And checking IMDB shows that Denton and O’Brien, who held the rights to the original story, have both been dead for over a decade. So really just Lewis now.)

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I assume you’ve watched the Weng Weng films.

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Only a grey market version of For Your Height Only back in the mid 90’s.

If you like trashy films, these are gems.

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as others have said, thanks! sometimes you just don’t know what you don’t know :slightly_smiling:

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A lot of people think London After Midnight would actually disappoint if it were found. The film was probably not as good as LC’s makeup. Browning more or less remade it as Mark of the Vampire, which isn’t all that great. TMC’s reconstruction makes it clear that it was a fairly silly, lightweight movie.

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The real disappointment is that Lon Chaney didn’t survive long into the sound era. If his only talkie is something to go by (The Unholy Three), Chaney was quite capable of the transition and was even talented in voice acting.

People use the stills from London After Midnight as a way to speculate how Chaney would have handled the role of Dracula. Chaney was certainly more intelligible and versatile than Bela Lugosi.

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True, but I wonder how good he would have been? The sound Unholy Three isn’t nearly as good as the silent, but Chaney IS great in it. But… would he have been as good as Karloff in Frankenstein? I tend to doubt it. He probably wouldn’t have been so quiet and still.

The sound version of Unholy Three does have one good spot, taking advantage of the medium. Chaney’s character is given away by a slip of the tongue and accidentally using his real voice in court instead of impersonating an elderly woman. Its less contrived than the silent version.

Chaney would have been a good Dracula. I doubt anyone else could have filled Karloff’s ginormous “asphalt spreader” shoes in Frankenstein. Its funny that Karloff had such a distinctive and memorable voice, but he is best known for a role he played mostly mute.

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Yeah, I suppose after his death, Jerry Lewis may get some respect as a filmmaker.

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The BBC recently aired a documentary about the Jerry Lewis film: https://youtube.com/watch?v=jbZIyXNRxos

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Great stuff in there and in this thread, but yeah, the Day the Clown Cried is “lost” in the same way Todd Haynes’ Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story is “lost”. It’s officially not supposed to be seen but it’s out there… I remember having to torrent it back in the day but just found that it’s been up on Youtube. Is Richard Carpenter just too old to know that Youtube exists? Or did he finally realize that it’s one of the most potent eating disorder PSAs ever?

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Have you seen Machete Maiden’s Unleashed documentary? It’s about Roger Corman’s production company that operated out of the Philippines. (Sorry, I would like your comment, but I’m all out today!)

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No. I was unaware of it. But now I just have to track it down. Thanks for the suggestion!

Most of what I know about the film comes from 2 sources:

The defunct Subterranean Cinema site
www.subcin.com/clowncried.html

I think it is now:
https://subcin.wordpress.com/category/don-alex

and defunct Spy Magazine article on the film
http://therumpus.net/2009/03/the-day-the-clown-cried/

Now I got to check out the BBC doc.

Damn! You guys are giving me such great suggestions for stuff to watch

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It’s really fascinating and gets into some of the weeds in terms of the exploitation of Filipino workers and actors. You’ll dig it!

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