Treasures from American Film Archives

[LawrenceA]

The website for the National Film Preservation Foundation has posted a number of restored short films for streaming on the site. They range from slice-of-life pieces from 1893, to a 1928 version of The Fall of the House of Usher,  to newsreels, war documentaries, and even a presentation from the West Virginia State Archives from 1929. 

 

http://www.filmpreservation.org/preserved-films/treasures-from-american-film-archives-online-edition

[film lover 293]

I watched 1928's "The Fall of the House of Usher" and a 1943 Private Snafu cartoon "Spies".  Both beat the **** out of the versions available on YouTube in terms of clarity, distinct images, and sound.

[scsu1975]

The Gay Shoe Clerk is interesting, especially when one reads the accompanying description.

[Fedya]

The films don't show up on my browser (Firefox on Linux).

[EricJ]

I watched 1928's "The Fall of the House of Usher" and a 1943 Private Snafu cartoon "Spies".  Both beat the **** out of the versions available on YouTube in terms of clarity, distinct images, and sound.

 

The best-known Private Snafus (and if you have to watch one, "Spies" would be it) were restored for the extras on Warner's Looney Tunes DVD/Blu sets.

There's a complete collection somewhere on DVD that's not too bad looking either, but the ones that got the Warner restorations show it.

 

(Some of the best early Snafus show the distinct writing of Cpt. Ted Geisel:  "Our new secret weapon did this to the foe...What hit you, Tojo?  Wouldn't YOU like to know?")

[Movie Collector OH]

The films don't show up on my browser (Firefox on Linux).

 

Assuming you have Ubuntu or Linux Mint - as I do (may also be compatible with other distros)

 

From within Terminal:

 

sudo apt-get install flashplugin-installer

[replaces default Adobe Flash installer (adobe-flashplugin) with different updater]

 

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get upgrade

[run these two run in sequence to update all programs installed from repository to latest versions, including

Firefox and Flash]

 

Also check your extensions within Firefox.  Flashblock plugs it up on mine.

 

One of these should make it work.

[Fedya]

I enabled Flash for the site, but the videos still don't load.

 

Edit: I don't even get any indication that there's a Flash video being blocked, the way I do on other sites that use Flash to embed, say, Youtube videos. Just a big blank white space.

[Movie Collector OH]

I enabled Flash for the site, but the videos still don't load.

 

Edit: I don't even get any indication that there's a Flash video being blocked, the way I do on other sites that use Flash to embed, say, Youtube videos. Just a big blank white space.

 

Go to the Firefox "Help" menu and click "Restart With Add-ons Disabled".  Then click "Restart".  Then click "Safe Mode" and try again. 

 

[You haven't said which plugin you are using to prevent Flash videos from showing automatically, so this will cover everything.  I tried Flashblock, and I can't get Snafu to show under any circumstances with Flashblock installed and enabled.  Disable that and restart FF, and it starts playing right away.  I suspect an incompatibility here between the Flashblock add-on and the website's video player "JW Player Pro".  Too many cooks spoil the broth.]