Yuku free message boards

Dave Sindelar wrote:

---

Anti-Hair Powder (1908) 

aka La poudre epilatoire

Country: France

Company: Pathe Freres

Commentary: The anti-hair powder is sold by a certain Dr. Quack, a name which hardly inspires much of a sense of competence, so I suspect that the hair removal process doesn't go quite as smoothly as hoped.  Certainly the process of finding this movie hasn't gone well, otherwise it wouldn't be seen on this list.  I'm classifying the survival status as Unknown.

This is an alternate release title of the lost film THE DEPILATORY POWDER, which is already covered on this list under that title. Here's a copy-and-paste of what I wrote about it here in 2010: "Originally titled LA POUDRE ÉPILATOIRE, this is yet another LOST film according to the Pathé Archive. The plot sounds suitably daffy, though: a hairy woman (!) purchases a new miracle powder from Dr. Quack. Unable even to wait until she gets home, she applies the powder to half of her face while seated on a park bench. The hair on half her face disappears! However, a little girl who had watched the transformation decides to steal the rest of the powder, and puts it into a vaporiser perfume bottle. She then runs amok all over town, leaving various men with half a beard and several policemen with semi-bald heads!"

The Apish Trick (1909) 

aka An Apish Trick

Country: France

Company: Pathe Freres

Fantastic content:  A monkey serum makes an man act like an ape.

Commentary:  Here's another one of a whole series of movies made at the time involving people who, for one reason or another, end up acting like wild animals, usually monkeys or apes.  I have yet to see one of the monkey ones, but I know I've seen one in which a man acts like a horse.  No votes on IMDB, and Silent Era says the survival status is Unknown, so I'm going with that.

This one has a second entry at IMDb, under its original French title, LES SINGERIES DU SIGNOR RAVIOLI [link]. As that title perhaps gives away, it was in fact one of the numerous comedy shorts shot in Italy by Carlo Rossi for distribution through Pathé of France. The Pathé Archive considers it to be LOST.

The Arrow Maiden (1915)

Directed by Francis Powers

Featuring Billie West, Harry Moody, Eagle Eye

Country: USA

Company: Reliance

Commentary:  It sounds like we've got an early weird western here.  An Indian warrior under suspended animation (or a spell, as they call it), is revived by a medicine woman and scares those who thought he was dead.  I'm assuming Eagle Eye (who is here playing himself) was an American Indian who specialized in playing those types of roles in westerns.

Aunt Eliza Recovers Her Pet (1908)

Country: France

Company: Pathe

Fantastic content: Hypnotism and open stomach surgery

There's no listing for this one (under this title) on IMDB, and I'm classifying its survival status as Unknown.

AUNT ELIZA RECOVERS HER PET is the title given to this film in its 28mm show-at-home version, a copy of which EXISTS in the collection of the British Film Institute. Although the Pathéscope Catalogue identified it as a Pathé production, this may have been in error, and its original identity remains a mystery at the moment; it's clearly one of a whole slew of comedy shorts produced about older women and their pet parrots in 1908 and 1909, with many different companies putting out their 'own version' of the subject matter, including  THE OLD MAID'S PARROT from Karl Werner in Germany and MOTHER-IN-LAW'S PARROT from Aquila in Italy.

Aviation Has Its Surprises (1909)

aka Les surprises de l'aviation

Director unknown

Company: Pathe Freres

Listed in "Horror and Science Fiction Films" by Donald C. Willis

Fantastic content:  A mixture causes a man to inflate like a balloon.

And, adding to the excitement, the action takes place on the Eiffel Tower! This one also EXISTS under its English-language title at the British Film Institute.

A couple of updates for some obscurities first added to the list back in May 2011 ---

Dave Sindelar wrote:

---

No More Bald Heads (1908)
Country: France
Company: Pathe

Fantastic content:  Super hair-growth tonic

This turns out to be an archival title for a movie whose original title remains unknown, and 1908 is merely an approximate date for it. As the fact it's been given an archival title at all makes clear, it EXISTS, in the collection of the British Film Institute. I strongly suspect - but can't conclusively prove - that it's a cut-down (or a fragment) of L'ELIXIR CAPILLAIRE, produced by Carlo Rossi of Italy for release through Pathé of France. If that does eventually prove to be the case, then this will be another double entry, with that movie also included on this list under the title THE HAIR RESTORER (1909).

Papa Gaspard; or The Ghost of the Rocks (1909)
Country unknown
Company: Le Lion/Brockliss

Fantastic content: Miser poses as ghost

Commentary:  This one must be really obscure; the Willis book is where I found the listing, but I don't see it listed in the Walt Lee book, nor do I find it listed in either IMDB or CITWF.  This one is a real mystery to me.

I finally tracked down the original title of this French production by Le Lion, which turns out to have been LE FANTÔME DES ROCHES (i.e. 'The Ghost of the Rocks', the subtitle given to the film for its British release). Obscure is surely the word for it, since neither the IMDb nor the CITWF contain a listing for the movie under its French title either, and a Google search for it likewise yields no results whatsoever. It was released in France in the first week of December 1909 (as per the ad below), and the review of the movie in the December 23rd, 1909 issue of the Bioscope that Don Willis tracked down appears to be the lone surviving contemporary write-up of it anywhere. At least it's now possible to say with certainty that, as with so many Le Lion productions, the movie can safely be considered LOST.

Goddess of the Sea (1909)
Country: France
Company: Les Lions

Fantastic content: Gods and Goddesses

The only other Le Lion production on the list to date, the English-language title of this one also turns out to have been a literal translation of the original French title, LA DÉESSE DE LA MER, released in France in the last week of October 1909. As with the previous LE FANTÔME DES ROCHES, this one is unknown to the IMDb or the CITWF under its original French title, and will yield no results on Google either. It too can safely be considered LOST --- unsurprising really, in view of the fact that Le Lion was only in business for four years, with its productions having left barely a trace in the annals of movie history. For the record and since there's no other proof available online, I've again included the original French release ad below.

Dave Sindelar wrote:

---

Back to Life After 2000 Years (1910)

aka The Roman's Awakening

Country: France

Company: Pathe Freres

Fantastic content:  Ancient Roman comes back to life.

Commentary:  It's deja vu all over again again.  Didn't I just cover a movie called THE ANCIENT ROMAN?  At any rate, this one is probably more of the same, though I don't know if it has the same ending as the other film.

This was Pathé's knock-off of the Cines production from a few months earlier, although altogether more light-hearted: this time, the Roman gets drunk on champagne and can thus be easily returned to his tomb while in a drunken stupor! Originally titled LE RÉVEIL DU ROMAIN [IMDb], this one is considered LOST by the Pathé Archive.

A Battle in the Dark (1916)

Directed by James W. Horne

Featuring Marin Sais, True Boardman, Frank Jonasson

Country: USA

Company: Kalem

Apparently this was part of a series of shorts known collectively as GIRL FROM FRISCO, and IMDB classifies its genre as a western.  I'm not sure how much of a role the mystic plays in the story, but I do know that Walt Lee consigned the movie to his Out list, so I'm guessing that it's a pretty minor plot element. 

Having said that, the mystic element was certainly played up in advertising for this weird western: "The mystery and occultism of India are excitingly combined with the red-blooded materiality of the West." A copy of this one EXISTS at George Eastman House.

Beauty and the Beast (1908)

aka La belle et la bete

Directed by Albert Capellani

Featuring Julienne Mathieu

Country: France

Company: Pathe Freres

When the sole user comment on IMDB is from F. Gwynplaine McIntyre, there is reason to be skeptical.  However, his entry on this one (which lists its showing at a specific film festival and claims that only a third of the movie exists, the rest being lost to deterioration) has the air of truth about it this time, so I'm going take his word on this one. If he is correct, than not enough of the film exists to really make me want to classify it as such, and though I suppose a new copy might have popped up in the interim, I'm going to let the classification of Lost sit on this one... though I would be quite glad to be contradicted on it.

The Bells (1913)

Directed by Oscar Apfel

Featuring Edward P. Sullivan, Irving Cummings, Gertrude Robinson

Country: USA

Company: Reliance

Commentary:  The thing that just caught my attention while looking over the entry for this one is that Edgar Allan Poe is listed among the writing credits.  I'd assumed that this version was based on the same play that resulted in the 1925 movie of the same name, and though I'd seen that one, I never associated any connection of that movie to the Poe poem (which, if I remember, didn't really have a plot to speak of).  But I see this version credits both Poe and Emile Erckmann, who wrote the play.

And since I've been working through several obscure old French sources in recent days, here are FOUR additional confirmations of LOST status for some movies whose original identity had hitherto remained unknown:

BLEARY-OH! THE VILLAGE AVIATOR (1909 Gaumont) turns out to have originally have been L'AVIATEUR RESTATERRE [CITWF].
THE BUTCHER'S DREAM (1909 Lux) was originally LA BOUCHERIE EN RÉVOLTE [CITWF].
MacNAB VISITS THE COMET (1910 Lux) was originally ENFIN! LA COMÈTE, which has no entry at IMDb or CITWF; at least a poster for this one survives at the Cinémathèque Française, so that some pictorial trace of the movie remains.
THE PHANTOM SIRENS (1909 Éclipse) originally went by the rather cumbersome title LES SIRÈNES DE L'ÎLE D'HYPSO, which French-language title has also eluded the IMDb, CITWF and indeed Google completely hitherto.

Refusing to end this post with such a cavalcade of the lost, though, I'm pleased to confirm that DEATH IN SPACE (1974) certainly EXISTS in some form, having been released on PAL-vhs in Spain [link], dubbed into Spanish as MUERTE EN EL ESPACIO. Obviously, it's to be hoped that an original English-language copy may yet surface from the archives too!