Lost Reels

The films collected by Dr. Manfred Hahn and myself have one thing in common, despite all their differences in layout, age, length and genre affiliation: according to the current state of knowledge, they are lost. In addition to films such as Hitchcock's "Mountain Eagle," which will mean something to experts, there are many films represented of whose existence virtually no one has yet taken note. Even though these films in all likelihood no longer exist, often the story of their loss is exciting, sometimes mysterious, but always worth at least a mention. However, even the reconstructed film plots often come up with surprises. For example, the first Godzilla film could be located far from its previously assumed country of origin. As far as possible, a film still was added to each film. When this was no longer possible, we resorted to historical documents such as contemporary film posters or photographs depicting the director or other participants. In the case of quite a few of the 124 films, it is all too regrettable that at least a small film sequence has not been preserved.