Greetings, and thanks for keeping this discussion going. I'll post Friday or Saturday if there are posts tomorrow that ask for a reply.
"Miss Goddess," I see that STRAIGHT SHOOTING is on VHS from Movies Unlimited. AFI exchanged a negative with long-defunct Radim Films, perhaps they sold some prints. I don't have one myself: why? Well, Kevin Brownlow and I once asked D. W. Griffith's film editor, Jimmy Smith, if he wanted to see INTOLERANCE. "God, no," he said, "I saw enough of that when I was working on it!"
Hey, charliechaplinfan, I'm one also. Although Milestone has an exclusive deal with the Mary Pickford Foundation to distribute its films, which I strongly suspect sell rather small numbers, the editions are all produced and financed by the Pickford people. They (actually, Hugh Munro Neely) try to do first rate work. Why not write to them (
www.MaryPickford.com) and submit your requests?
There's lots of online discussion about the ever-changing but always-challenged situation at BFI these days. Within the last month I have been told both that video publishing would be shucked off on a commercial outfit that would work in the Institute's name, as was done with publishing; and that they had hired new staff to continue with video themselves. I had to deal with them recently over some Melies films, and within a matter of a few months they established a new trading division (which made our negotiations very complicated) and then liquidated it, along with its personnel.
I think several of the pre-MGM Cosmopolitan films with Marion Davies would be available if someone wanted to acquire, restore and publish them. She was certainly an outstanding comedienne but the costume pictures I saw struck me as less than sparkling. You might hunt up Michael Yakaitis at Library of Moving Images in Hollywood; he's a great Davies fan, and I believe he has many of her films and might make you private copies.
Jon, you asked about scoring. I work with about ten different artists for our silent film music. The choices depend upon who is available at any given time, how much I can afford to spend (determined largely but not exclusively by anticipated income), the size of the accompaniment which the production seems to demand, and my own sense of the sympathy a particular musician might bring to a particular film. I feel honored that all of these talented artists will give their best to silent films if they are not hopelessly overbooked when I approach them, and we have released relatively few scores which I later regret. There were only two instances in twenty years when a finished score was such a misfire that I commissioned another one -- and easily a hundred instances where I was delighted. On the first project or two with a new musician, I like to look at sketches and comment upon work in progress, but after I know we are of one accord, I do not interfere and simply await the finished result. Once that is in, I have been known (but hardly ever) to ask for revisions.
Lynn, when you see Gardner Monks, please remember me to him. The Hollywood series grew in part from an American public television series which was never made, to have been called "The American Film Experience," for which Kevin Brownlow and I wrote scripts. After it fizzled, rights in the scripts reverted to us and some of them were folded into "Hollywood." I also suggested and procured lots of foootage for the shows, and worked with Carl Davis to introduce him to musical practice of the period; but the production was entirely the work of Kevin, David Gill, and the British crew; I was not otherwise involved. A lot of the interviewees were corralled by Bessie Love, who was not credited, but who was delightful (and who fixed great Italian food). One funny memory I have of our time working on this show is when Kevin was reviewing footage at my house. I was taking care of a friend's cat. I had to go out for a couple of hours and cautioned Kevin that the cat must not get out, since he probably would not come back to a strange house. Of course the cat did get out, and Kevin (dressed as always in suit and tie) spent much time crawling aound the neighborhood calling "kitty kitty". When he finally gave up and came home cat-less, the cat was sitting at the door waiting to be let in ...
Gagman 66, the material that survives on CAMEO KIRBY (incomplete, worn source, Czech titles) and THE BLUE EAGLE (also incomplete and in parts streaming with nitrate decomposition) is not suitable for publication. Some day maybe we will do THE ROAD TO YESTERDAY -- we have a 35mm fine grain master. ROMOLA belongs to David Packard who is not an enthusiast of film on small screens --- the bad prints around derive from an ancient 8mm source. The good Raymond Griffith films belong to Paramount, and we discussed that situation earlier this week.
However, THE PATENT LEATHER KID belongs to Warner Bros., and no studio except Disney has done more than they with their very old films. Write to George Feltenstein and maybe he will think of some way to use it somewhere.
Why are you reading this? Go watch a good film!
David S