Year |
Film |
Director |
Cast |
Notes |
Ref |
1911 |
A Victim of the Mormons |
August Blom |
Valdemar Psilander |
Danish film that initiated a decade of anti-Mormon propaganda films in America. Only about half of the 60-minute feature has been found, a copy of which is preserved at the LDS archive in Salt Lake City. |
[2] |
1913 |
Raja Harischandra |
D.G. Phalke |
D.D. Dabke, P.G. Sane |
First Indian feature film, of which a fragmentary print still exists. |
[3] |
1914 |
My Official wife |
James Young |
Clara Kimball Young |
Tells the story of Helen Marie, a woman on the run from the St. Petersburg police, who plots to assassinate the Tsar. Only 44 seconds of this film exist. These fragments contain an extra mistakenly said to be Leon Trotsky, in fact, Trotsky was not yet in the United States when this was filmed. |
|
1914 |
Neptune's Daughter |
Herbert Brenon |
Annette Kellerman |
A reel of footage exists in Australia's National Film and Sound Archive. |
|
1914 |
The Perils of Pauline |
George B. Seitz |
Pearl White |
Of the original 20-chapter serial running 410 minutes, only a 90-minute version, released in Europe in 1916, is known to exist. |
|
1915 |
The Golem |
Paul Wegener |
Henrik Galeen |
Only about 3 minutes survive. Found in private collection |
1915 |
The Millionaire Paupers |
Joe De Grasse |
Lon Chaney, Sr. |
Only a fragment of the film survives. |
[4] |
1916 |
The Place Beyond the Winds |
Joe De Grasse |
Lon Chaney, Sr. |
Four of the five reels survive in the film archive of the Library of Congress. |
[5] |
1916 |
Kiss of Death |
Victor Sjöström |
Victor Sjöström |
Approximately 30 minutes of the film survives in the Cinémathèque Française film archive. |
[6] |
1917 |
Cleopatra |
J. Gordon Edwards |
Theda Bara |
Approximately 40 seconds exist at George Eastman House. |
[7] |
1917 |
Nuts in May |
Robin Williamson |
Stan Laurel |
Laurel's first film, with only 60 seconds of footage surviving. |
|
1917 |
The Red Ace |
Jacques Jaccard |
Marie Walcamp |
Originally a 16-episode serial, only Episode 7 survives in the film archive of the Library of Congress |
[8] |
1917 |
The Devil-Stone |
Cecil B. DeMille |
|
Two reels of this feature film. originally with Handschiegl Color Process sequences, survive in the AFI collection of the Library of Congress |
|
1917 |
The Secret Man |
John Ford |
Harry Carey |
Two of the five reels survive at the Library of Congress film archive. |
[9] |
1917 |
Triumph |
Joe De Grasse |
Lon Chaney, Sr. |
Three of the five reels survive. |
[10] |
1918 |
The Ghost of Slumber Mountain |
Willis O'Brien |
Herbert M. Dawley, Willis O'Brien |
Only 19 minutes survive. |
|
1918 |
Riddle Gawne |
William S. Hart, Lambert Hillyer |
Lon Chaney, Sr. |
One of the five reels survives in the film archive of the Library of Congress |
[11] |
1918 |
The Scarlet Drop |
John Ford |
Harry Carey |
Just over 30 minutes of footage survives in the Getty Images Archive. |
[12] |
1919 |
A Gun Fightin' Gentleman |
John Ford |
Harry Carey, John Ford |
Only three reels of originally five or six are believed to have survived. |
[13] |
1919 |
J'accuse (1919 film) |
Abel Gance |
Séverin-Mars |
Original film was in four episodes (film length 5250 metres). The most complete reconstruction is 3525 metres long. |
|
1919 |
Just Squaw |
George E. Middleton |
Beatriz Michelena |
Four of five reels survive at the Library of Congress. |
[14] |
1919 |
The Miracle Man |
George Loane Tucker |
Thomas Meighan, Lon Chaney, Sr. |
Two clips exist as part of compilation films released by Paramount, The House That Shadows Built (1931) and Movie Memories (1935). |
|
Year |
Film |
Director |
Cast |
Notes |
Ref |
1921 |
The Centaurs |
Winsor McCay |
|
Animated film, ninety seconds of footage survives. |
|
1921 |
Devil Dog Dawson |
Jack Hoxie |
Jack Hoxie, Helene Rosson, Evelyn Selbie, Wilbur McCaugh, Arthur Mackley |
38 seconds of footage from this Western, found in a mislabeled tin, were the subject of an investigation in a 2006 episode of the PBS series History Detectives |
[15] |
1921 |
Disraeli |
Henry Kolker |
George Arliss |
The entire film was screened at the MOMA in 1947. In the sixty years since only reel 3 survives at George Eastman House. |
|
|
1921 |
The Mechanical Man |
Andre Deed |
Gabriel Moreau, Valentina Frascaroli, Fernando Vivas-May |
Originally around an hour long, only about 26 minutes remain. |
|
1921 |
The Adventures of Tarzan |
Robert F. Hill |
Elmo Lincoln, Louise Lorraine |
Originally released as a 15-chapter movie serial, the film only survives in the 10-chapter 1928 re-release. |
|
1923 |
The Darling of New York |
King Baggott |
Diana Serra Cary |
Only the last reel showing the fire exists. |
[1] |
1923 |
Flaming Youth |
John Francis Dillon |
Colleen Moore |
Only one reel, and a film trailer, exists. |
[16] |
1923 |
La Roue |
Abel Gance |
Séverin-Mars |
The original film was 32 reels long and shown over three days. Only 12 reels exist, with some supplementary material |
|
1923 |
The White Shadow |
Graham Cutts |
Betty Compson |
Alfred Hitchcock received his first screen credit, as a writer and assistant director. Three of the six reels were found in New Zealand in August 2011. |
[17] |
1923 |
Lost and Found on a South Sea Island |
Raoul Walsh |
House Peters, Pauline Starke, Antonio Moreno, Rosemary Theby |
One reel survives from this film |
[18] |
1924 |
A Sainted Devil |
Joseph Henabery |
Rudolph Valentino, Nita Naldi |
Less than one reel has survived |
[19] |
1924 |
Greed |
Erich von Stroheim |
|
Initially running 9½ hours, the film was cut by Von Stroheim to just under four hours, and then trimmed by the studio to 140 minutes of surviving footage. |
|
1925 |
Body and Soul |
Oscar Micheaux |
Paul Robeson |
Originally running nine reels, it was cut to five reels to gain approval from New York censors. The surviving copy is based on the censor-approved edited version; the original nine-reel version is considered lost. |
|
1925 |
The Lost World |
Harry Hoyt |
Wallace Beery, Bessie Love, Lewis Stone |
It initially had a running time of 106 minutes. Though partially restored, the longest cut runs at approximately 100 minutes. |
|
1926 |
The American Venus |
Frank Tuttle |
Esther Ralston, Louise Brooks |
Two trailers and a short color clip are held at the Library of Congress. |
|
1926 |
The Great Gatsby |
Herbert Brenon |
Warner Baxter |
A one-minute trailer exists. |
|
1927 |
Now I'll Tell One |
James Parrott |
Laurel and Hardy |
The first reel is missing. |
|
1927 |
The Enemy |
Fred Niblo |
Lillian Gish |
The last reel is missing. |
|
1927 |
The Magic Flame |
Henry King |
Ronald Colman |
The first five reels out of nine are preserved at George Eastman House. |
|
1927 |
The Battle of the Century |
Clyde Bruckman |
Laurel and Hardy |
The first reel (featuring a boxing match) was found in the late 1970s, but scenes featuring Eugene Pallette, and a final climatic gag showing a cop receiving a pie in the face are still missing. |
|
1927 |
The Private Life of Helen of Troy |
Alexander Korda |
Maria Corda |
Academy Award nominated film; one reel of film exists in the British Film Institute. |
|
1927 |
The Dove |
Roland West |
Norma Talmadge |
at the Library of Congress, reels 1,3,4&8 survive. Lost are reels 2,5,6,7&9. |
|
1927 |
The Cradle Snatchers |
Howard Hawks |
Louise Fazenda, Dorothy Phillips, Ethel Wales |
Rediscovered by Peter Bogdanovich in the 1970s at the Fox vault, missing half of reel 3 and all of reel 4 |
|
1928 |
Beau Sabreur |
John Waters |
Gary Cooper, Evelyn Brent |
A trailer exists with footage from the film. |
|
1928 |
The Divine Woman |
Victor Sjöström |
Greta Garbo |
One reel was found in a Russian film archive and has been shown on Turner Classic Movies. Another short excerpt was found in a Swedish newsreel and has been shown at Filmhuset in Sweden. |
|
1928 |
My Man |
Archie Mayo |
Fanny Brice |
Reels #1,#2 & #11 survive. Almost complete set of soundtrack discs plus soundtrack trailer survive. |
|
1928 |
The Patriot |
Ernst Lubitsch |
Emil Jannings |
A few fragments, and a trailer, survive at the UCLA Film and Television Archive. Also, a six minute reel was found in the Portuguese Archive, which was copied to safety stock. |
|
1928 |
The Terror |
Roy Del Ruth |
May McAvoy |
Soundtrack exists. |
|
1929 |
Red Hot Rhythm |
Leo McCarey |
Alan Hale Sr. |
One filmed sequence, the title song ("Red Hot Rhythm"), survives in early Technicolor process. |
|
1929 |
Fox Movietone Follies of 1929 |
David Butler |
Sue Carol |
With Multicolor inserts; partial soundtrack survives. |
|
1929 |
Gold Diggers of Broadway |
Roy Del Ruth |
Winnie Lightner |
Last ~20 minutes survive, but are missing a bridging sequence and the last minute of the film. |
|
1929 |
Honky Tonk |
Lloyd Bacon |
Sophie Tucker |
Complete soundtrack survives. |
|
1929 |
Married In Hollywood |
Marcel Silver |
J. Harold Murray |
The final reel survives (in Multicolor) at the UCLA Film and Television Archive |
|
1929 |
On With the Show |
Alan Crosland |
Betty Compson |
First all-Technicolor, all-talking feature. Survives only in black and white, although a very brief clip of color footage was found in a toy projector. |
|
1929 |
Paris |
Clarence Badger |
Irene Bordoni |
Soundtrack discs survive. |
|
1929 |
Thunder |
William Nigh |
Lon Chaney, Sr. |
Chaney's last silent film; several clips exist. |
|
Year |
Film |
Director |
Cast |
Notes |
Ref |
1930 |
General Crack |
Alan Crosland |
John Barrymore |
The silent version of this film exists. dialogue version is lost |
|
1930 |
The Man from Blankley's |
Alfred E. Green |
John Barrymore |
complete soundtrack survives on Vitaphone discs. |
|
1930 |
Bright Lights |
Michael Curtiz |
Dorothy Mackaill |
No Technicolor print of this Vitaphone musical has survived. |
|
1930 |
Good News |
Nick Grinde |
Bessie Love |
Final reel in Technicolor is lost. |
|
1930 |
No, No Nanette |
Clarence G. Badger |
Bernice Claire, Alexander Gray |
Soundtrack discs survive. |
|
1930 |
The Rogue Song |
Lionel Barrymore |
Lawrence Tibbett |
A Technicolor film. Soundtrack, two reels, and several clips survive. |
|
1931 |
Annabelle's Affairs |
Alfred L. Werker |
Jeanette MacDonald |
The last of Jeanette MacDonald's films for Fox, only one reel is known to survive. |
|
1931 |
Der Mann, der seinen Mörder sucht |
Robert Siodmak |
Heinz Rühmann, Lien Deyers, Hermann Speelmans, Friedrich Holländer |
A very little known early Robert Siodmak film which was in fact the inspiration for D.O.A. (1950). Though a comedy, it follows the same idea. Upon release, it was acclaimed as "a fun, fast-paced mix of crime drama and musical". Only 50 of the original 98 minutes are known to exist. It is also known as Jim, The Man with the Scar. |
1932 |
Freaks |
Tod Browning |
Olga Baclanova |
Because of disastrous test screenings, 26 minutes of the original 90 were cut out, leading to a final length of 64 minutes. These parts of Browning's second and last big-budget production are considered lost. |
[20] |
1932 |
Horse Feathers |
Norman Z. McLeod |
Marx Brothers |
The only existing prints of this film are missing several minutes, due to both censorship and damage. |
|
1932 |
Veiled Aristocrats |
Oscar Micheaux |
Lorenzo Tucker |
All that survives is the trailer and fragments of two reels. |
|
1933 |
King Kong |
Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack |
Fay Wray |
A famous scene following that in which Kong shakes several sailors off a log into a crevice, showing them eaten alive by a giant spider, a giant crab, a giant lizard, and an octopoid is only available in some stills. After the preview of the film, Cooper was forced to cut the scene, since it caused horror among the test audience. In one of Cooper's notes, however, it is indicated that he might have cut the scene for pacing reasons. |
[21] |
1933 |
My Lips Betray |
|
John Boles |
The sixth reel is assumed to be lost forever. |
|
1935 |
Devdas |
P.C. Barua |
P.C. Barua, Jamuna Barua |
Of this classic Bengali film, only 60% still survives. |
|
1936 |
Things To Come |
William Cameron Menzies |
|
The most complete existing version of this film runs 96 minutes compared with its original running time of 117 minutes upon submission to the BBFC. A reconstructed version using extant film, production stills, and extracts from the script is available on DVD. |
|
1937 |
Lost Horizon |
Frank Capra |
Ronald Colman |
Capra's initial 210-minute version was cut down to 131 minutes after a preview screening of the film went badly. In his autobiography, Capra claims to have personally destroyed the first two reels. Subsequent re-releases were further edited to downplay alleged "communist" elements, as well as hints of swinging and various scenes which were felt to present the native children in too positive a light. While a complete soundtrack of the original 131-minute release has survived, no complete 131-minute print is known to exist. In many currently-used versions, still photos and individual frames are used to replace the seven minutes of missing footage that accompanies the soundtrack. |
|
1939 |
Tsuchi (Earth) |
Tomu Uchida |
Mieshi Bando, Donguriboya, Masako Fujimura, Akiko Fujimura, Mari Ko |
The print of Earth that made its way to the Internet was apparently discovered in Germany in 1968, and is seriously compromised. On top of a bad case of nitrate damage and hard-coded German subtitles, the film is missing its first and last reel. (The IMDb says that Earth was originally 142 minutes long; this version is 93 minutes.) A 119-minute version of the film, again with hard-coded subtitles, was discovered in Russia around the turn of the millennium. It too is missing the last reel.[22] |
1939 |
The Wizard of Oz |
Victor Fleming |
Judy Garland |
Originally contained a musical number called "The Jitterbug", which was included in test showings. The musical number was edited for general release, and the footage of this scene has been lost. The soundtrack recording, however, survives, as does behind-the-scenes home movies showing the cast either rehearsing or actually filming the sequence. This footage, edited together with stills, has been edited together to recreate the sequence and this has been included on numerous retrospectives and DVD releases of the film. |
|
Year |
Film |
Director |
Cast |
Notes |
Ref |
1940 |
Fantasia |
Various Directors |
Deems Taylor |
For its 60th Anniversary DVD release in 2000, Disney's manager of film restoration, Scott MacQueen, supervised a restoration and reconstruction of the original 125-minute roadshow version of Fantasia. The visual elements from the Deems Taylor segments that had been cut from the film in 1942 and 1946 were restored, as was the intermission. However, the original nitrate audio negatives for the long-unseen Taylor scenes had deteriorated several decades earlier, so Disney brought in voice actor Corey Burton to rerecord all of Taylor's lines. Although it was advertised as the "original uncut" version, the Sunflower edit in Beethoven's Symphony No. 6 made in 1969 was maintained. In this version, it was accomplished by digitally zooming-in on certain frames to avoid showing the black centaurette character. |
|
1942 |
The Magnificent Ambersons |
Orson Welles |
Joseph Cotten |
44 minutes were cut by RKO Pictures from Welles' version after an unsuccessful preview. A handful of shots from the original version exist in the film's original trailer, which has survived. |
|
1943 |
Sanshiro Sugata |
Akira Kurosawa |
|
The film is missing 17 minutes of its running time. |
|
1944 |
Meet Me in St. Louis |
Vincente Minnelli |
Judy Garland |
The musical number "Boys and Girls Like You and Me", originally deleted from the initial Broadway run of Oklahoma! and replaced with "People Will Say We're In Love", followed "The Trolley Song" but wound up being deleted as well and is presumed lost. The soundtrack alone remains. |
|
1946 |
Ivan the Terrible, Part III |
Sergei Eisenstein |
Nikolay Cherkasov |
About 20 minutes were filmed, but the USSR Communist Party disapproved of the production's homosexual and political themes. About 16 minutes were burned following the death of Eisenstein in 1948, leaving the trilogy unfinished. The remaining 4 minutes can be seen as a Special Feature on The Criterion Collection DVD version. |
|
Year |
Film |
Director |
Cast |
Notes |
Ref |
1951 |
The Idiot |
Akira Kurosawa |
|
Kurosawa's adaptation of the novel of the same name. After one test screening that ended with poor reviews, the studio cut the film from 265 minutes to 165. The 100 minutes that were cut have never been recovered. |
|
1954 |
A Star Is Born |
George Cukor |
Judy Garland |
Originally premiering at 181 minutes, Warner Bros. cut the film down by about 27 minutes for general release. The 1983 restoration included soundtrack from this cut and a few establishing shots, with stills filling in the rest. |
|
1954 |
Southwest Passage |
|
Joanne Dru |
Initially released in 3-D, this feature only survives in its flat form. |
|
1954 |
Top Banana |
Alfred E. Green |
Phil Silvers |
Shot and edited in 3-D, the film was released flat. The film only exists in 16mm, and does not exist in 3-D at all. |
|
1956 |
The Burmese Harp |
Kon Ichikawa |
|
In Japan, Nikkatsu, the studio that commissioned the film, released it in two parts, three weeks apart. Part one (running 63 minutes) opened on January 21, 1956, and part two (80 minutes) opened on February 12, both accompanied by B movies. Its total running time of 143 minutes was cut to 116 minutes for later re-release and export, reputedly at Ichikawa’s objection. The original 143 version is lost. |
|
Year |
Film |
Director |
Cast |
Notes |
Ref |
1961 |
One-Eyed Jacks |
Marlon Brando |
Marlon Brando |
Brando shot 5 hours of additional footage that was later destroyed. The theatrical cut stands at 141 minutes, while the 300-minute version does not exist. |
|
1963 |
It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World |
Stanley Kramer |
Spencer Tracy |
Originally premiered at 192 minutes, then edited to 162 for general release. In the late 1980s, 20 minutes of deleted footage were found in a warehouse which had been slated for demolition, and edited back into the film. Kramer was technical adviser on the partial-restoration project, and this 182-minute partial restoration was issued on VHS in the early 1990s. This version is also the one shown on Turner Classic Movies. When the film was released on DVD in the early 2000s, MGM chose to issue the 162-minute general release version and not the 182-minute partial restoration. |
|
1964 |
Man in the 5th Dimension |
Dick Ross |
Billy Graham |
This short film was originally shot in the 70mm Todd-AO widescreen process. Eleven 70mm prints were created, but none survive. The film exists in a 16mm version only. |
|
1968 |
2001: A Space Odyssey |
Stanley Kubrick |
Keir Dullea |
After the original premiere, Kubrick cut 24 minutes (also adding title cards and a small insertion at the "Dawn of Men" sequence). These trims are considered lost, although there are rumors of the cut sequences being in the possession of Kubrick's family. Seventeen minutes of cut footage were discovered in a Kansas salt mine where some motion pictures are archived. |
|
Year |
Film |
Director |
Cast |
Notes |
Ref |
1971 |
The Big Boss |
Lo Wei |
Bruce Lee |
After the original premiere, Hong Kong censors demanded that some of the footage be trimmed, including more graphic violence, and an explicit "pre-sex" scene, featuring Bruce Lee's only implied nude scene. The missing footage has been rumored to still exist, but hasn't been confirmed. |
|
1971 |
Bedknobs and Broomsticks |
Robert Stevenson |
Angela Lansbury, David Tomlinson |
Many scenes were cut for theatrical release. Most of these scenes were located, restored, and re-inserted for the 30th anniversary DVD release in 2001. However, several lines of dialogue were lost and had to be redubbed, and one complete musical number, "A Step in the Right Direction", is presumed lost. However, the original demo recording does exist, and is available in a reconstruction using production stills on the DVD. |
|
1973 |
The Wicker Man |
Robin Hardy |
Christopher Lee, Edward Woodward |
All original elements to the film (camera negative, etc.) are thought to be lost after having been destroyed in the late 1970s. |
|
1976 |
Taxi Driver |
Martin Scorsese |
Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster |
Scorsese was obliged to de-saturate the colors of the infamous climactic shoot-out scene in order to obtain an "R" rating. The original full-color footage has become lost. |
|
1977 |
Martin |
George A. Romero |
John Amplas |
The original copy was entirely in monochrome and ran for 165 minutes. To Romero's knowledge, no copy of this version exists. |
|
1977 |
The Hills Have Eyes |
Wes Craven |
|
To avoid an X rating violent shots were trimmed.The cut footage is believed to be lost however the alternate ending appeared on the DVD from Anchor Bay. |
- |
1979 |
Caligula |
Tinto Brass |
Malcolm McDowell |
This much-maligned film is missing most of the third act and many small scenes in the first two thirds. |
|
Year |
Film |
Director |
Cast |
Notes |
Ref |
1980 |
The Blues Brothers |
John Landis |
John Belushi |
Though much footage was restored for the 25th-Anniversary DVD release, an extended car chase and other scenes are lost. |
|
1980 |
Heaven's Gate |
Michael Cimino |
Kris Kristofferson |
According to Steven Bach's book Final Cut, the version first screened by Cimino for executives at United Artists ran approximately 320 minutes, more than an hour longer than the longest version shown in public. |
|
1980 |
The Shining |
Stanley Kubrick |
Jack Nicholson |
Kubrick cut a scene at the end, which was a discussion about the disappearance of Jack's frozen body. The scene was cut soon after being released in theaters, and the footage was apparently destroyed by the studio. |
|
1981 |
Friday the 13th Part 2 |
Steve Miner |
Amy Steel |
Almost a minute's worth of footage had to be cut from the film in order to secure an R-rating from the MPAA. Part 2 received a deluxe DVD release in February 2009, but the edited footage was not included, much to the disdain of fans, who have long clamored for an uncut release. Paramount has stated that the excised footage has been lost. |
|
1984 |
Once Upon a Time in America |
Sergio Leone |
Robert De Niro |
Originally six hours in length, Leone was forced to cut it down to four. Though some footage has been restored, Leone's full-length version has never surfaced. |
|
1985 |
The Breakfast Club |
John Hughes |
Molly Ringwald |
Hughes wrote a script for a film of about 2½ hours, but the film released runs 97 minutes. Many of the cut scenes were filmed and the negatives destroyed. Hughes, who died in 2009, said that he had a copy of the uncut film. |
|
1988 |
Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood |
John Carl Buechler |
Lar Park Lincoln |
This entry is infamous for its extremely harsh treatment at the hands of the MPAA. Virtually all of the death scenes were heavily edited to remove gore. All home video releases have been further trimmed down from the theatrical release. On video the "sleeping bag scene" shows Jason only slamming his victim against a tree once. In theaters it showed him slamming the person against the tree six times, and was much bloodier. Some of the deleted material was included in the boxed set of the series released by Paramount, but the footage was not integrated into the film itself. This same footage was included in the deluxe DVD edition released in 2009. Daniel Farrands, who has been supervising the deluxe DVD editions for the series, stated that it will be impossible to release a true director's cut of the film, as some of the deleted footage was accidentally destroyed in the early 1990s. |
|
1988 |
The Land Before Time |
Don Bluth |
|
The film was originally about 11 minutes longer, but several shots were cut due to them being seen as potentially traumatic or too scary for children. Many of these shots can be seen in the original theatrical trailer, and fans of the series have scoured auction websites and online markets for any copy with these scenes, but Don Bluth has stated that these scenes were cut before the film was released, and the original film has probably been destroyed or lost by now for storage reasons. However, highly collectible animation cels can be found from some of these shots. |
|
1989 |
All Dogs Go to Heaven |
Don Bluth |
|
Two darker scenes involving Charlie being hit by a car and his vision of Hell;Bluth owned an uncut print but was stolen,Goldcrest films destroyed the remaining uncut print to avoid storage fees. |
|