Fragments: Surviving Pieces of Lost Films

This is an excellent compilation of exactly what the title says, "Fragments: Surviving Pieces of Lost Films," produced by Randy Haberkamp and the good folks at "Flicker Alley". Some of this material has been available, usually as a "bonus feature" on an accompanying home video release. But it's great to have so much of it available in one place. There is no explanation for some famous footage not included - possibly the "fragments" starring Greta Garbo have received a new copyright. Her "The Divine Woman" reel has been shown fairly frequently on Turner Classic Movies (TCM), which also shows this documentary.

Our hosts are Michael Pogorzelski from the Academy Film Archive, and Mike Mashon from the Library of Congress. We begin with an explanation and look at "paper prints" and proceed with a small look at Theda Bara's "Cleopatra" (1917). Very little of Ms. Bara's work survives, and the tiny fragment looks like it may be her best. Next is a more generous sample from Colleen Moore's "Flaming Youth" (1923). Clara Bow is represented by "Red Hair" (1928) and "Three Week Ends" (1928). These three films appear to have been typical, but charming. This is also the case with Douglas Fairbanks' "He Comes Up Smiling" (1918).

Before Doug's romp comes one of "Fragments" highlights, the surviving footage from "The Way of All Flesh" (1927) starring Emil Jannings. This performance was noted as one of the era's best by the "Academy Awards" (and others), and Mr. Jannings' characterization is still dazzling. The two surviving portions of "The Way of All Flesh" are quite striking in that they form a "story" of their own, thanks to fate (and narration). Donald Keith, who was frequently co-starred with Clara Bow, is also memorable. Also seen is the only surviving portion of "The Miracle Man" (1919), one of the most legendary of all lost films.

A newly discovered reel of John Ford's melodrama "The Village Blacksmith" (1922) follows a rollicking trailer for his "Strong Boy" (1929) starring Victor McLaglen. Then, in another highlight, "Baby" Peggy Montgomery aka Diana Serra Cary appears to reminisce about the filming of her own "The Darling of New York" (1923). The 93-year-old star is still a darling. More small fragments from big stars are shown, along with trailers from otherwise completely missing films. The final highlight is the surviving footage from the colorful sound picture "Gold Diggers of Broadway" (1929). That's entertainment… let's have a sequel!

******** Fragments (4/3/11) Randy Haberkamp ~ Michael Pogorzelski, Mike Mashon, "Baby" Peggy Montgomery, Emil Jannings

This is like a home movie where the guys sit around and talk about the films. Less talk and more films would be better. And if there is going to be talk, more incisive analysis would be nice.

This documentary consists of a couple film historians/preservationists showing clips of surviving footage from missing films. They are almost exclusively silent movies and the fragments are probably mostly of interest to HUGE silent film buffs and historians. However, other folks will not only find the clips of dubious value but the delivery of the hosts is about as dull and lifeless as humanly possible. Any interest and excitement they have about the subject matter is totally lost and this makes the documentary a lot more tedious than it needs to be. There were also a few interviews and the one with Baby Peggy was exceptionally interesting--one of the few highlights of this film shown on Turner Classic Movies.

The actual fragments here are well worth seeing with lots of lost stars and movies BUT the two hosts are the most wooden, disingenuous, cue card reading charisma vacuums imaginable. Could they not get ANYone else to host? They were laughably bad... The rest is great though!

... but it comes up a bit short for fans of early sound film. If the title had been Fragments of Lost Slient Films I'd give this one a ten, because it is very good at giving the viewer a sense of what has been lost from our silent film heritage - 90% of these are gone largely due to two factors. One is the fact that all silent films were placed on volatile nitrate and either decomposed or worse burst into flames causing the loss of many other silent films. Safety stock did not come into use until 1950, and even then only MGM made an organized attempt to transfer their films to the newer more durable media. The other factor is that after sound came in people considered silent films to be useless and simply discarded or neglected them en masse.

Specific stars are mentioned who have had their film histories largely erased. These include Theda Bara who made over 40 films for Fox but only two of her films survive. The narrators mention that her appeal in the 1910's is impossible to evaluate since so little of her work survives. Then there is child star Baby Peggy. The final reel of one her few surviving films - Darling of New York - recently resurfaced and the exciting conclusion is shown. That's a real fire they're showing there folks and the piece is made even better with Baby Peggy - now 93 - talking about her actual memories of making the film and her fear of the real fire that was part of the set. The surviving fragment of "Flaming Youth" starring Colleen Moore was shown as well as surviving footage of "Red Hair" starring Clara Bow - the only footage of her in color that survives. Even Douglas Fairbanks and Lon Chaney, whose silent films have a pretty good survival rate, have some among the lost and fragments were shown here. The surviving portion of Emil Jannings performance in "The Way of All Flesh" is shown. It is particularly shocking that Paramount just let this one decay since it was one of the films that won Emil Jannings his Best Actor Oscar.

The only place this documentary comes up short is in lost sound films. Only two fragments are shown and both are well known to early sound enthusiasts and are even on DVD - the two reels of the lost "Gold Diggers of Broadway" from 1929 and a very short surviving color fragment from "The Rogue Song" that shows only enough Laurel and Hardy to prove that they were actually in that film. The narrators do mention one reason why many of these early sound films were lost - the very early systems used sound on disc so the films were separate from the disc. Thus today we have complete soundtracks for films available from the late 20's and early 30's but no film. In fact, all that survives of many of the earliest sound films are their silent trailers, which were also shown in this program.

Interesting fragments for sound films that could have been added to the presentation - 1929's "He Married In Hollywood" - the final reel of this musical survives in two strip Technicolor. Another good choice might have been the title musical number for 1929's "Red Hot Rhythm". That is all that survives of that film because it was accidentally edited into Vivian Duncan's personal copy of 1929's "It's a Great Life". Probably an interesting clip and definitely an interesting story of accidental preservation.