Sergei

Sorry to tell you but "Over The Hill To The Poorhouse" is not officially listed with any major film archive. Its survival status is unknown at present. If it still exists, it is probably in the hands of a collector who doesn't realize he has a "sole surviving" copy, so to speak. In its time is was very successful. Its budget was $100,000 and it brought in $3,000,000. There were at least two other versions, one of which it is suspected D.W. Griffith wrote the scenario for (1908). Roy

Having read an extensive interview with David Shepherd, he admits that he works with about 10% of the budget that the Photoplay editions work with (or that the archives work with. Considering that, I would say he does a fabulous job presenting these films. For instance, he made the restored Lost World available by independently tracking down all the footage contained in the restored Eastman House edition. He had tried to negotiate the release of the complete version with them because he had supplied much of the material but they refused to cooperate with him. So, apparently he said, "I can do this on my own," and put out his own edition independent of them. Thank you David! Roy

Excellent post Gagman, I've had the good fortune to see The Phantom of the Opera with John Muri ( a great theater organist) accompanying the film and he literally shook the rafters with the Mighty Morton Pipe Organ at the Loew's Ohio in Columbus, Ohio. It was the first performance of the organ after it had been restored. I sat in the front row near dead center and close to John's feet. It was an amazing experience when he pushed the deepest pedal tones. The theater was packed. I also saw The Phantom with a full 90-100 piece live orchestra plus theater organ in a packed concert hall and it is hard to explain to someone who has lacked this experience how impressive and visceral these films can be. The only thing close might be if you have sub-woofers in your home theater system and turn the volume up in a pitch black room with 20 friends, hahaha. Then tell me what you think. Roy

I can tell you one thing for sure. It helped a lot of immigrants learn to read and speak English. Roy

What you are describing sounds like "The Kid (1921)." If you know the original Addams Family TV show, the child is Uncle Fester. Roy

If you want to check out the literary equivalent of the Hollywood series check out Kevin Brownlow's "The Parade's Gone By" and "Spellbound in Darkness" by George Pratt. They are both amazing reflections/histories of the era by the people who made the movies. They have the same emotional resonance that the Hollywood series does. There is another book written during the silent era called "A Million and One Nights" by Terry Ramsaye. It covers the history of film from the beginning to just before the onset of sound because it was published in 1926 (and endorsed by Edison as the true history of the early film). A great modern summary is William K. Everson's "American Silent Film." These are all classic books on the era and the films. And, by the way, I think the Hollywood series is the best documentary ever produced about film, period. Roy

I have no way of knowing if any or all of them are bootleg. When I bought mine it wasn't a consideration. I would say if the bootleg issue makes you nervous don't buy it. I know eBay tries to keep an eye out for people selling bootlegged films. It is definitely against their policy. So if a lot of copies of Wings are on there it may be from a legitimate licensed source. I just don't know. In my case I only paid a couple of dollars for it so I wasn't too concerned. And I had a very nice VHS copy of it at home. So I could watch it when I wanted. As far as a library having a bootleg, it is entirely possible one could slip into a lending collection. I am sure no one has the time to track down every video title's licensing agreements. Librarians tend to be busy people. I hope that helps. Roy

No, I can't be sure. But mine was very inexpensive (and therefore worth the risk) and had the Carter score and was obviously taken directly from the laserdisc. I can't imagine that a whole bunch of people are remastering it over and over. I suspect they just market it under a lot of different company names with different covers the way certain American DVD manufacturers do. Roy ps: Wings was one of the first silent DVD's I bought. I didn't know a thing about the Asian bootleg market and still know very little (on purpose). I recognized the Carter score from having heard it so many times on VHS.

The Chinese DVD is a bootleg of the Paramount laser disc. Roy

My copy is the same as the Laserdisc. Roy

I just checked eBay and there are about 30 copies of this DVD on there, starting as low as $.99 + postage. Roy

Or how about a restored copy of "The Bat" (1926). It is really an excellent mystery / killer in the old dark house movie. And it still exists. Roy

Hi Gagman, I personally see nothing wrong or inappropriate with your remarks. You didn't identify anyone by name. I wouldn't give the criticism a second thought. Roy

I had a typo: Those films after January 1, 1923 need to be researched on an individual basis. Plus, in the case of a music score, an individual song in a post-1923 score may still be copyrighted while the film itself is not. Roy

Yes, there are a lot of films that were not renewed for copyright after the first 28 years lapsed. Phantom of the Opera, Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Lost World, Cat and the Canary, etc. those films need to be researched on an individual basis. But, as I said, basically everything before January 1, 1923 is in the public domain. European copyrights are a different issue. Roy