Lost noirs
Two of the lost noirs have been uncovered recently - Shed No Tears was released by Alpha in March and Fugitive Lady (in Italian, subtitled in English) has been uncovered by Rob. He reports only other noir is still MIA - Incident (1948). Are there any others? I see that Alpha just released Man of Courage on DVD.
This is a good idea for a thread. However, I think that defining what we mean by "lost noir" would be helpful for framing the discussion. (It's an issue I touch upon briefly in my NotW entry for Shed No Tears). Does it mean that it's not on DVD? Not on VHS? Never made into the home movie market in any format? That bootleg copies don't exist? Or maybe even that no known prints are known to exist? If we're just talking about never making into the home movie market, we have a thread for that elsewhere. If we're talking about rarities that don't even exist in bootleg form, I think that Don't Gamble with Strangers (1946) fits into this category. Also, no one seems to be able to find the uncut, 95-minute original version of They Won't Believe Me (1947), although Warner Archive said recently that they hope to release the original version eventually. But there again, a difference exists between films that exist in truncated form whose uncut, original prints are lost (see: Orson Welles after Citizen Kane) and films that can't be found at all.
PS - Nice catch on the Man of Courage release. I'd never heard of it until now. Hopefully the quality is as good or better than their Shed No Tears release.
Last edited by Nighthawk; 06-10-2012 at 12:21 AM.
Wasn't TEMPTATION HARBOR considered some degree of "lost" until recently?
I have the unedited They Won't Believe Me and it's shown by Eddie at Noir City sometime so I wouldn't consider it lost.
I didn't know TEMPTATION HARBOR was found. Do you know if/where it's available?
I couldn't remember where I'd heard it, but it turns out it was here: http://www.backalleynoir.com/showthr...ght=temptationOriginally Posted by spress
Looking back at my notes, I have never been able to find copies of:
City of Chance (1940)
Don't Gamble With Strangers (1946)
The Flame (1947)
Incident (1948)
Mad at the World (1955)
Man of Courage (1943)
Million Dollar Pursuit (1951)
Unmasked (1950)
The Walls Came Tumbling Down (1946)
Why Must I Die? (1960)
There Ain't No Justice (1939)
Now they are probably not very good but it'd be nice to get them... or at least see them. Has anyone seen these?
As below: Don't Have/ Have + Print Condition.
The one's I remember are 'Why Must I Die' and ''There Ain't No Justice'. Neither is that great but when did that ever deter us? :-)
Here's a link to the recent Alpha release of Man of Courage: http://www.amazon.com/Man-Of-Courage...man+of+courage
Also, here's what Warner Archive had to say about Don't Gamble with Strangers: "We're hoping to release this if the elements will yield us a decent master. Still too soon to tell, but it's on our radar."
I've seen:
The Flame (1947)
Mad at the World (1955)
Million Dollar Pursuit (1951)
Unmasked (1950)
The Walls Came Tumbling Down (1946)
Why Must I Die? (1960)
Unfortunately I no longer have any of them.
more good info. Thanks!
We can add Waterfront at Midnight (1948) to this list.
I can get a copy of this. I've watched it at a friend's. I've seen every film mentioned in this thread except one: Incident. This raises the question what is a "lost" noir. For me, lost means it's gone. There are no copies of it known.
Muscle Mike: you've seen Temptation Harbour?
I agree on principle with your definition of "lost." But it's often hard to know if any copies actually exist. For me, if it's not available on any home movie format (DVD, VHS, LD, Blu-ray, etc.), it's not available through any torrents or download sites, it's not shown at any repertory screenings such as the Film Noir Festival, and no collectors seem to have any copies available for trade, then it's lost until a copy surfaces. You're the first person I've heard of that knows of a copy of Waterfront at Midnight. If you can get a copy of it, I'd be happy to trade with you.
Yeah, I've got a badly faded 16mm of it. I bought a bunch of noirs on EBay over the years. I was outbid in 1999 on Incident.
Hi, I've been desperately looking for Waterfront at Midnight! NOBODY seems to have any leads. Since it's listed and graded on IMDb, someone must have seen it at some point. I'll gladly pay for a copy in any format! My email is shields1952@gmail.com and I'm in Victoria B.C. Canada.
Hi, I have They Won't Believe Me, just wondering what the running time should be for the unedited version? My copy is 91 minutes.
Yours is most likely the unedited version with the 4% PAL speedup. The unedited version should run 95 minutes, so with the 4% speedup, it runs 91 minutes.
I have Unmasked.
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