I've handled quite a few reels of nitrate-stock film from the days of silent movies and the early talkies. On more than one occasion, I've encountered a silent film from which a sequence was deliberately cut out. Unless this was an intertitle, the missing footage almost invariably turns out to have been an insert shot of a handwritten note, a typed letter or a newspaper article. In silent-movie days, in order to exhibit films in foreign-language markets, the original insert shot of a piece of text had to be removed, a substitute (in the new language) made and photographed, and then sufficient footage of the new image spliced into the print.
Thus, for instance, we now have Lon Chaney's silent film 'The Unknown' (copied from a French print) missing the original shot of Chaney's blackmail letter, and Laurel and Hardy's silent short 'Duck Soup' (copied from a French-language print found in Belgium) missing the original newspaper article about the forest-fires. In both of these cases (and many more recovered silent movies), a new image had to be constructed, shot, and edited into the film for modern reissue.
I screened the Library of Congress print of 'The Little Darling': an acetate dupe made from a paper print. For some reason, the paper print -- especially made for copyright registry in the Library of Congress -- is missing the shot of the letter which triggers the plot of this brief film; without the text of that letter, all that follows is confusing. Fortunately, I've also seen (in Europe) a print which includes several feet of an insert shot: a French-language version of the letter that's missing from the Library of Congress print, so I understood the plot which follows it. IMDb's synopsis of this movie (probably from a vintage film exhibitor's catalogue) is accurate.
A boarding-house landlady receives a letter from her cousin (that's the one we're missing), which announces that the cousin is sending her "little darling" to visit the landlady, arriving on this afternoon's train. (At least, this is the text of the French version.) The boarding-house's many bachelors -- all of them believing the "little darling" to be a child, and all of them amazingly paternal -- run out and buy various toys and a pram for the new arrival. They carry all this lot to the railway station. Off the train steps the "little darling": a very pretty Mary Pickford, who's 17 years old and nobody's baby. Collapse of several stout parties.
Mack Sennett is briefly glimpsed in this crude comedy as one of the burlier bachelors, clutching a jumping-jack toy. Before founding the Keystone studio in Edendale, Sennett had served as D.W. Griffith's apprentice at Biograph in New York City, and Sennett often paid tribute to his mentor. Pickford's sister Lottie is glimpsed here in the shop sequence. I was annoyed that several of the actors in 'The Little Darling' perform directly to the camera, emoting in precisely that exaggerated style which has given silent-film acting a bad name. I'll rate this quickie just 3 points out of 10.
Thus, for instance, we now have Lon Chaney's silent film 'The Unknown' (copied from a French print) missing the original shot of Chaney's blackmail letter, and Laurel and Hardy's silent short 'Duck Soup' (copied from a French-language print found in Belgium) missing the original newspaper article about the forest-fires. In both of these cases (and many more recovered silent movies), a new image had to be constructed, shot, and edited into the film for modern reissue.
I screened the Library of Congress print of 'The Little Darling': an acetate dupe made from a paper print. For some reason, the paper print -- especially made for copyright registry in the Library of Congress -- is missing the shot of the letter which triggers the plot of this brief film; without the text of that letter, all that follows is confusing. Fortunately, I've also seen (in Europe) a print which includes several feet of an insert shot: a French-language version of the letter that's missing from the Library of Congress print, so I understood the plot which follows it. IMDb's synopsis of this movie (probably from a vintage film exhibitor's catalogue) is accurate.
A boarding-house landlady receives a letter from her cousin (that's the one we're missing), which announces that the cousin is sending her "little darling" to visit the landlady, arriving on this afternoon's train. (At least, this is the text of the French version.) The boarding-house's many bachelors -- all of them believing the "little darling" to be a child, and all of them amazingly paternal -- run out and buy various toys and a pram for the new arrival. They carry all this lot to the railway station. Off the train steps the "little darling": a very pretty Mary Pickford, who's 17 years old and nobody's baby. Collapse of several stout parties.
Mack Sennett is briefly glimpsed in this crude comedy as one of the burlier bachelors, clutching a jumping-jack toy. Before founding the Keystone studio in Edendale, Sennett had served as D.W. Griffith's apprentice at Biograph in New York City, and Sennett often paid tribute to his mentor. Pickford's sister Lottie is glimpsed here in the shop sequence. I was annoyed that several of the actors in 'The Little Darling' perform directly to the camera, emoting in precisely that exaggerated style which has given silent-film acting a bad name. I'll rate this quickie just 3 points out of 10.
