The Miracle Man

You can see the only surviving footage of The Miracle Man on YouTube (link below).

This is one of those films that cause intense anguish for me, wondering what might have been. We see just enough of it to want to see the whole thing, but most of it hasn't survived, unless there's a print out there somewhere, hidden away.

It was Chaney's breakthrough role, as a con man named Frog, and he's incredible, as always. DeMille leading man Thomas Meighan also stars, but that one scene - the fake healing, followed by the real thing - makes the film Chaney's, and his alone.

I hope that, as with Metropolis, we'll soon hear that the "lost" footage has been found, and the whole movie will be restored and presented to the public.

Take a look.

Lost

One of the saddest things about the silent era; so many films from that time no longer exist. I read somewhere that the guesstimate is 80 - 90%.

That is one GRIM statistic. For all of the great films that still exist, how many more are gone? No wonder we get excited at the news that the missing footage of Metropolis has been found. I wouldn't mind taking a tour of screening rooms, old movie theaters, and the houses of theater owners, in the hope of finding even one reel of a missing film. I'm that intent.

I know that the AFI has a list of "Most Wanted" of the lost films, but I couldn't find it online; I found many mentions of it, but not the list itself.

Here are some of mine:

The Miracle Man
The Greatest Thing in Life
London After Midnight (I've seen this referred to as perhaps the most famous lost film of them all)
Remodeling Her Husband (starring Dorothy Gish and directed by none other than her sister, Lillian; her only film behind the camera)
Cleopatra
The entire epic of Greed
The Boy in Blue
Number 13

Chaney! Gish! Murnau! Hitchcock!