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Not to mention "belligerent, bonkers, brittle and in black."

And the questionnaire is filled in with green ink.

L.A. wrote:Never-seen cut of Keaton's "The Blacksmith (1922)" found

That's quite a surprise. Judging from the linked footage included in the story, I'm thinking this may be an example of Keaton becoming dissatisfied with his original edit and revising the film to keep the action centered on the blacksmith shop itself (the running around the house stuff is okay, but not up to the quality of the other gags in the film). In the interim, some prints had already been released using the earlier material which is how this footage survived. This is just speculation on my part, but it seems unusual for Keaton to want a whole set of gags to be reserved for European screenings only.

Warner Brothers exec Ned Price was quoted by Lou Lumenick at the New York Post the other day as saying

“The collector who held ‘Hello Pop” didn’t even know it was a lost film because he doesn’t have access to the Internet.”

Price then teases us with the following announcement. Does anyone have any information on what titles these might be?

Price says a “deep search” of Warners’ own vaults recently turned up “a few” two-color Technicolor negatives for features that were only believed to exist in black-and-white versions created for the early TV market (he didn’t disclose any titles). “The belief was that we didn’t keep any of them. But you can’t take anything at face value.”

based on the wikipedia article

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ea ... ture_films" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The Show of Shows and On with the Show seem likely, particularly if they were put on TV in black and white in the fifties because of the same named Your Show of Shows series.

Other possible warner films that survive only in black and white would be Sally, The Desert Song, The Life of the Party, Show Girl in Hollywood, Bright Lights, Sweet Kitty Belairs, Son of the Gods, Golden Dawn, Manhattan Parade, Fifty Million Frenchmen, Kiss Me Again.

Golden Dawn creates its own colors when you see frigging stars and tweety birds circling your own head as you watch the bizarre, hilarious thing that it is.

Oh, jesus, I thought you were talking about these guys for a minute there.

Sure I always mix up Greek political maniac sliver parties with cinema.

Anyhow the title they gave themselves is apt since they are so goofily right wing as to be comedic, just like the film is so unashamedly and naturally racist you find yourself rolling around the floor pissing your clothes at the absurdity.

But I'd love to hear how you almost thought that I meant those guys instead of the film, which is listed above.

I saw your post first, and hadn't previously been aware that there was a movie of that title.

Not quite a lost film, but an as-good-as-lost one, perhaps, the 1955 version of Terence Rattigan's "The Deep Blue Sea" will be getting some rare screenings in November -- part of the BFI's Vivien Leigh 100th Anniversary program, running throughout the month.

According to the program notes: "...this is a rare opportunity to watch one of Leigh’s lost performances, as the film has remained unseen for many years. The BFI National Archive has made a digital copy of the only surviving 35mm print we were able to locate; the condition is variable." Screenings are Nov. 26, 6:10 PM and Nov 30, 3:50 PM.

Apparently, the film was printed in Eastmancolor, so I have to wonder just how "variable" this "only surviving 35mm print" must look like now. That aside, it's welcome news to find "The Deep Blue Sea" being screened again. It might be too much to hope for a full-scale restoration, but maybe a DVD edition is somewhere in the vicinity.

Nine Doctor Who episodes discovered, bringing the total missing episode count down to 97 (from 106)

The Fanciful Norwegian wrote:Rediscovered Ozu-penned TV drama to air in Japan on Monday

It's said he also directed it. Or did he only co-wrote it?

The article (and every other source I've seen) says the director was one Yosho Hatanaka, who has no theatrical credits that I can find. The Japanese TV Drama Database lists work at NHK from 1953 to 1970, with one possible production (a Cinderella adaptation) at rival NTV. He seems to be a obscure figure, at least where the internet is concerned.

Thanks. The article contradicts itself, "Japanese public broadcaster NHK will air a recently rediscovered television drama directed by OZU Yasujiro" then "It was directed by HATANAKA Yosho". I missed that second line.

Two Peter Sellers oddities.

Local man just south of my hometown finally gets some proper attention. You know you're no longer a kook when the AFI spends three days at your house pouring over your family's silent film cache:

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/articl ... ck_check=1

Here's a list of the first couple of dozen or so slated for preservation this year, though Variety also said that among these are “'The Reckless Age' (1924), a flapper feature starring Reginald Denny; and the crime melodrama 'For the Defense' (1922) starring ZaSu Pitts."

I guess this likely gives us at least a partial idea of what a Treasures VIII set could look like (or Treasures VII if the planned avant-garde set is still held up for the foreseeable future).