Movies Silently’s Updated Top Ten Most Wanted Silent Films (That Are Still in Vaults)

Back in 2016, I rather hopefully published a list of silent films that survived and were held in vaults but had never been released on home media. Well, with the recent release of one of those films, The Blood Ship, on Bluray, I revisited my selections.

My 2016 List Included (my reviews linked if available):

• The Captive (1915): Released by the now-defunct Olive Films.
• The Song of Love (1923): Released as part of the Pioneers: First Female Filmmakers box set
• Corporal Kate (1926): Released by Grapevine.
• Midnight Sun (1926): Still unreleased.
• Michael Strogoff (1926): Still unreleased.
• Le Chant de l’amour triomphant (The Song of Triumphant Love, 1923): Still unreleased.
• The Constant Nymph (1928): Still unreleased.
• The Blood Ship (1927): Just released on Bluray through Sony.
• Ivanhoe (1913): Released to stream by EYE.
• The Cossack Whip (1916): Released by Edward Lorusso via Grapevine.

That’s 60% now available and I couldn’t be happier. The best part? I thoroughly enjoyed every single one of the six films on my wishlist that I have now seen! Not a dud in the lot. With that in mind, I decided to put another list out into the universe and see if I can say the same thing in another nine years.

So, here are ten more films that survive in archives but have not been available on disc or currently via streaming. I am focusing mostly on features because there is simply more information about feature-length archival holdings. The list is in no particular order and I tried to be as off the cuff as possible with it, since my instincts proved to be good last time.

The Carmen of St. Pauli (1928, Germany)

Known for its nightlife and red light district, the St. Pauli quarter of Hamburg could not be a more perfect setting for a Carmen adaptation. (It was released in the U.S. under the far less evocative title Docks of Hamburg. Yawn.) A smuggling plot in a port city? Ideal. And director Erich Waschneck seems to have done a splendid job capturing both the industrial and the neon glitz of the film’s setting. Cast includes Jenny Jugo, Willy Fritsch and Fritz Rasp. (Weimar cinema couldn’t make a move without Fritz Rasp in some role or other.) Germans excelled at these films of moral dilemma and this one looks like a standout. Print held by the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung.

Travelin’ On (1922, USA)

I actually have seen this one at a film festival screening and it is an absolute riot. On paper, it sounds like a Hell’s Hinges dupe with Hart as a gunslinger who finds religion but on the screen, wackiness ensues and thank goodness! Western comedy is an underrated genre and one of my favorites: so many tropes ready for parody and plenty of wry humor from western stars. Hart was not known for his sense of humor but his forays into comedy are enormously amusing (The Bargain is a great favorite of mine) and this is no exception. Plus, there’s a monkey! Print held by the Library of Congress. (I believe a reel is missing but it is still quite easy to follow the plot.)

The Unafraid (1915, USA)

Cecil B. DeMille directed a pair of romances set in Montenegro in 1915: The Captive and this. The Captive was on my other list and it turned out to be as bonkers and entertaining as I could have wished, so I am hoping for lighting to strike again. Based on an overbuttered romance novel by Eleanor Ingram, it’s the tale of an American woman named Delight (stage star and, later, Lusitania survivor Rita Jolivet was seen as quite a “get” for the movies) who tries to marry one Montenegrin nobleman but ends up tangled in internal politics and forced to marry his brother. I am hoping for more action, adventure and melodrama, more wild Balkan Wars shenanigans and more DeMille flourishes, that’s certainly what period trade reviews lead me to expect as they describe the picture as highly entertaining. (DeMille of the 1910s was a lean and zippy filmmaker with a penchant for trash, love his early stuff.) Print held by the George Eastman House.

The Midnight Sun (1926, USA)

Okay, Uncle Carl Laemmle’s hype machine got me! This Russian romance was billed as better than The Phantom of the Opera! Better than The Hunchback of Notre Dame! The greatest ever! Was it? I don’t know. The film stars Laura La Plante as a ballerina, Raymond Keane as her officer lover and Pat O’Malley (?) as a duke and there’s all sorts of star-crossed antics. This picture was a Super Jewel, Universal’s designation for big pictures with generous budgets. The picture had a fancy Technicolor sequence, which certainly speaks to its lavishness. Print held by UCLA.

Oliver Twist (1912, USA)

What’s this? Oh, the earliest confirmed American narrative feature film, that’s all. While other longer stories were being eked out a reel at a time, this was the American film that gave audiences and theater owners what they had been asking for: all of the story at once! Reviews were positive, praising the smoothness of the narrative. Was this a rose-tinted outlook because of the novelty? Or is this version of the Dickens novel really a hidden gem? I am not sure but I would love to see this historically significant film to find out. Print held by the Library of Congress.

The Sunset Trail (1917, USA)

I want to see this for one reason only: Vivian Martin. I loved her in The Wishing Ring (1914) and she was a popular star but her films are quite scarce on the ground. She played spunky and vivacious characters, in the same basic family as Mary Pickford but very much her own thing. In this picture, she plays a western tomboy who goes back east to meet her estranged mother. Soon, she is smoking and drinking, much to the displeasure of her sawdust sweetheart Harrison Ford (not that one). Sounds fun! I’m in! Print held by the George Eastman House (16mm).

Michael Strogoff (1926, France)

This one is kind of available already, as a 9.5mm copy, as an abridged VHS rip with English titles and as a full-length VHS with French titles but a movie this epic deserves a beautiful transfer in HD and that is what I am wishing for. It’s an epic adventure based on the novel by Jules Verne and manages to be that rarest of things: an artistic blockbuster. Now it needs a release that showcases all its visual details and a rollicking score to match its mood. It was thought lost for decades before all the missing pieces were tracked down for reassembly, which surely also makes it deserving of a prestigious release. Print held by the Cinémathèque Française.

If I Were King (1920, USA)

Hollywood loved the novel and play by Justin Huntly McCarthy and would later make a version with Ronald Colman and Basil Rathbone, after shooting a version with the numbers filed off as The Beloved Rogue with John Barrymore and Conrad Veidt. William Farnum as poet François Villon and Fritz Leiber. Sr. as Louis XI may lack the same modern name recognition but they have plenty of pizzazz for this story of a poet and a king. This is another one I have seen at a festival screening and, while (like the Colman-Rathbone version) it lacks the bonkers energy of The Beloved Rogue, it is still a greatly entertaining picture and silent era medieval mayhem is a bit thin on the ground. Print held by the Library of Congress.

The Life of Moses (1909, USA)

Sometimes erroneously listed as a feature film, this Vitagraph production was a series of short subjects that totaled five reels. They could be screened in chronological order and, interestingly, a trade magazine published an unofficial narration script that survives. Vitagraph was a quality outfit and I have enjoyed some of their other mini epics, plus the idea of an American film with surviving narration appeals to me. Print held by the Library of Congress.

The Eagle’s Mate (1914, USA)

This picture was from fairly early in Mary Pickford’s stint as a feature film star and followed up her hit Tess of the Storm Country (which she would later remake). This picture is about her adventures among the mountain moonshiners and, from contemporary descriptions, sounds like it has the kind of pep we would expect from a Pickford character, critics of the time were certainly enthusiastic. Who, by the way, is named “Anemone.” It’s a very good thing this was a silent movie, so nobody had to actually say it out loud! In any case, I would love to see more work that she made between her beginnings in short films and her embrace of child roles in the late 1910s and this sounds like a good one! Print held by the BFI.

☙❦❧

Like what you’re reading? Please consider sponsoring me on Patreon. All patrons will get early previews of upcoming features, exclusive polls and other goodies.

Disclosure: Some links included in this post may be affiliate links to products sold by Amazon and as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.