PhantomXCI wrote:
Michael Elliott wrote:
It was clear the guy had never seen these movies so I never understood the "debate" that broke out among people.  I'm sure there are many like this guy around but as to why this guy gets so much talk just seems strange.  I never really understood why the fake reviews got so many people up in arms.  

By reviewing (literally) hundreds of lost films, MacIntyre was creating new urban legends about said films not really being lost.  Growing up, most of us Monster Kids heard the stories about LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT being held by a private collector, who wanted $1M to release it.  Forry Ackermann started the story about the 1914 version of DER GOLEM being found in 1958.  There's the story about how MGM is sitting on a complete print of GREED (all 846 reels of it), waiting "until the film becomes really famous" before they release it.

There are lots of whackjob stories interwoven so tightly with the truth that it makes the job of the film researcher/archivist a living nightmare.  If you're lucky enough to know an archivist, ask them how many phone calls/e-mails they get each year from people who know where to find a print of LAM or DER JANUSKOPF or THE WIZARD or THE MONKEY'S PAW, or the uncut KING KONG... because somebody, somewhere, decades ago, said that somebody else saw a print in an some obscure, unspecified foreign archive.

MacIntyre's harmless little reviews might not be causing cancer, promoting ethnic intolerance, or oppressing the lower classes; but they are still doing damage that will last for decades.


I guess I was just smart enough to realize this guy was full of it.  I certainly hope no one spent money trying to track down something because of a review they found on IMDB.  There are people on this very board who have held a print of LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT.  I think it's up to the reader/researcher to be smart enough to know where to give credit and when to tell when someone is a crackpot.  Perhaps when this guy started it was a mystery as to whether or not he was actually seeing these movies but after 10-20 lost movies started getting reviewed it would seem obvious that he was crazy.

I know several people who hate Ackermann and were happy when he died but this too I found to be strange.

Perhaps I'm just missing something but this "nut" really isn't any different than thousands of others out there.  Perhaps this one is just getting more attention on a film board due to the reviews.     

Last Edited By: Michael Elliott Dec 9 11 1:53 AM. Edited 1 times.