science

List of lost films

List of lost films is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand List of lost films rather than just read about it. In short: For this list of lost films, a lost film is defined as one of which no part of a print is known to have survived. For films in which any portion of the footage remains (including trailers), see List of incomplete or partially lost films.

Key takeaways

List of lost films belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect List of lost films to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of List of lost films from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

For this list of lost films, a lost film is defined as one of which no part of a print is known to have survived. For films in which any portion of the footage remains (including trailers), see List of incomplete or partially lost films.

Reasons for loss Films may go missing for a number of reasons. One major contributing factor is the common use of nitrate film until the early 1950s. This type of film is highly flammable, and there have been several devastating fires, such as the 1914 Lubin vault fire, the Universal Pictures fire in 1924, the Warner Bros. First National fire in 1933, the British and Dominions Imperial Studios fire in 1936, the 1937 Fox vault fire, and the 1965 MGM vault fire. Black-and-white film prints judged to be otherwise worthless were sometimes incinerated to salvage the meager scrap value of the silver image particles in their emulsions. Silent films in particular were once seen as having no further commercial value and were simply junked to clear out expensive storage space. Occasionally, a studio would remake a film and destroy the earlier version. Films have also disappeared when production companies went bankrupt.

Statistics on lost films Martin Scorsese's Film Foundation claimed in 2017 that "half of all American films made before 1950 and over 90% of films made before 1929 are lost forever". Deutsche Kinemathek estimates that 80–90% of silent films are gone; the film archive's own list contains over 3,500 lost films. A study by the Library of Congress of 2013 states that 75% of all silent films are lost. While others dispute whether the percentage is quite that high, it is impractical to enumerate here any but the more notable and those which can be sourced. Roughly 200 out of over 500 Méliès films and 350 out of over 1,000 of Alice Guy's films survive. Of the roughly 1,100 films made in India between 1912 and 1931, only 29 are known to have survived. As of 16 August 2006, The Image of the Journalist in Popular Culture, a project of the Norman Lear Center at the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism has not found an existing copy of 429 films.

Notable lost films Among the films commonly mourned among critics and film historians are early films by noted directors and films of unique cultural importance. The Mountain Eagle (1926) is the second film directed by Alfred Hitchcock; the silent melodrama has been described by the British Film Institute as their "most wanted" lost film. London After Midnight, starring Lon Chaney and directed by Tod Browning in 1927, was a silent-era mystery-thriller pseudo-vampire film that is now considered to be the "holy grail" of lost films by collectors. Hollywood, a 1923 silent comedy film directed by James Cruze, featured over 30 cameo appearances from major stars of the day, including Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Astor and Pola Negri, but no footage exists.

Silent films

1890s

1900s

1910s

1920s

Sound films From 1929 on, films are "all-talking" unless otherwise specified.

1920s

1930s

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

Lost music videos

References

External links Media related to Lost films at Wikimedia Commons

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with List of lost films

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what List of lost films claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to List of lost films before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about List of lost films ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of List of lost films

In research: List of lost films appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses List of lost films in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: List of lost films is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics History of film, Lists of lost films, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for List of lost films outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study List of lost films in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what List of lost films means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain List of lost films out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is List of lost films in simple terms?

Why does List of lost films matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study List of lost films?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on List of lost films.