RAMBLINGS.....FILM PRESERVATION

In just a few days I will start reviewing 12 of the 14 Sherlock Holmes films starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. There were 14 films, but I have already reviewed "Hound Of The Baskervilles" and "Pursuit To Algiers".

The truth of the matter is that if it wasn't for UCLA Film Archives and Hugh Hefner some of these films might not exist at all anymore. The first two films in the series, "Hound" and "Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes" have been well taken care of as they were produced by 20th Century Fox and they take care of a lot of their product.

Universal bought the rights to make Holmes films and they made 12 of them. Over the years they were not taken care of and several fell into the public domain. In 1993 a massive restoration was started on these films and it was discovered that some of them had missing reels, snippets of film were missing and some had vinegar syndrome setting in. A sad tale indeed.

These 12 have been restored and thank god for that, which brings me to what I wanted to briefly talk about. Film Preservation is a hot topic with me as film is a part of who I am. There are literally thousands of movies out there that are beyond any kind of repair and many more are being saved by people who work silently behind the scenes.

Three particular genre films come to mind that have been restored and saved. They are "Manos The Hands Of Fate", "Monstrosity" and "Night Of The Living Dead". These are but a small example, but people have cared enough to make this happen so these little films can be enjoyed by everyone for many years in the future.

I find it shocking that this is even allowed to happen. Film, since the very first movie back in the late 1800's is a reflection of our American culture and way of life. Also, making ANY film is a lot of hard work and even if the movie stinks it does not deserve to be lost forever. The UCLA Film Archive, Museum Of Modern Art, George Lucas Family, Hugh Hefner are just some of the names involved in preserving our movie past.

It's always been sad for me to see film not taken care of and I have seen this with my own work. I made several films back in the late 70's early 80's and the film prints have deteriorated and thanks to so much moving and divorce and other things I lost the original negatives. I hurriedly transferred them to DVD for some kind of preservation, but it is all that is left of those films now and I never show them to the public.

We all live in a great time when movies can be saved, but it is time consuming and expensive. I hope it can continue as I feel we need to preserve our film heritage.