Cinema's 100 Most Wanted
100 of the most sought after (and if not, they should be) lost or partially lost films. I don't want people coming on here and chiding me for choosing to be concerned about this, so please don't. Some have at least 5 IMDb votes, so please report any findings to egmeinder@gmail.com.
List activity
1.1K views
• 3 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
97 titles
- DirectorJames H. WhiteStarsJames J. JeffriesSailor Sharkey
- DirectorJoe Rosenthal20 scenes: The birth, life, marriage and death of Hiawatha.
- DirectorWallace McCutcheonKit Carson is captured by Indians and tied to a tree in the Indian village. An Indian maiden helps him make his escape.
- DirectorJ. Stuart BlacktonStarsGilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' AndersonH. Kyrle BellewPaul PanzerThe millionaire's child is kidnapped. Sherlock Holmes after many thrilling adventures and narrow escapes rescues the child.
- DirectorCharles TaitStarsElizabeth TaitJohn TaitNicholas BrierleyOriginally 70 minutes in running time, only 17 minutes of the world's first full-length narrative feature film survived in stills and other fragments and tell the story of Ned Kelly, an infamous 19th-century Australian outlaw.
- DirectorFrancis BoggsOtis TurnerStarsL. Frank BaumFrank BurnsGeorge E. WilsonLost film that adapted L. Frank Baum's books "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", "The Marvelous Land of Oz", "Ozma of Oz" and "John Dough and the Cherub". Only the narration script, read by L. Frank Baum himself, and production stills survive.
- DirectorWallace McCutcheonStarsD.W. GriffithWhat is more miserable than love-blighted life? For the heart that truly loves can never forget. Such is the sad fate of the hero of this Biograph story. Herr Von Mitzel, a disciple of Antonio Stradivari, fell deeply in love with his pupil, the daughter of a wealthy English lord. His love was returned by the fair young maid, who grieved at the disparity of their rank, and wished that he had been more highly born or she more lowly. Oh, the tyranny of fate! What discouraging conditions were brought to bear upon their affections; but true love can no more be diminished by showers of evil-hap than flowers are marred by timely rains; so the conspiring circumstances tended rather to strengthen than to weaken their passion. Now, in the Winter of his existence, we find Von Mitzel alone and forlorn. His only companion and solace is his faithful violin, the strains of which are more eloquent than melodious, conjuring up as they do the recollections of life's Spring-time. We picture him seated at his cheerless fireside, playing his, or rather her favorite selection, and as the sweet tones float out upon the silent night, there appears on the wall a phantasmagorical portrayal of his thoughts, which bring him back to days of yore. The image of his inamorata is first seen; then the lesson on the harpsichord, when he declares his love; next the scene of her being forced by her parents into an odious marriage compact; then a duel with his rival, in which he is wounded. The scene dissolves into the reappearance of the girl. The subject is most beautiful and touching and is sure to win the sympathetic approval of the spectator, besides being a work of photographic excellence.
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsFrank PowellArthur V. JohnsonMarion LeonardAn historical dramatization of a Spanish woman during the reign of Spanish and Mexican owned California in the early 19th century.
- DirectorAugust BlomStarsValdemar PsilanderClara PontoppidanHenry SeemannA Mormon missionary seduces and kidnaps an attractive young woman, forcing her to accompany him to Utah to become one of his wives.
- DirectorÉtienne ArnaudStarsDorothy GibsonAlec B. FrancisJulia StuartThe story of the Titanic disaster based on the account of a survivor.
- DirectorHenry MacRaeStarsClarence BurtonMarie WalcampPhyllis GordonAn old Indian legend tells of the supposed ability of persons who have been turned into wolves through magic power to assume human form at will for purposes of vengeance.
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsDonald CrispLillian GishRobert HarronFrank Andrews is a successful businessman. He has always found pride and joy in the company of his wife, son and daughter. He suddenly finds himself enthralled by the advances of a gay young woman siren, who lives in the same apartment house as he does. So marked an influence does she have over him as time progresses that at last he quite forgets his home ties, neglects his family, and goes the way of many other men who have forgotten the meaning of paternity and blood ties. The story is advanced through many scenes enacted with the accompanying notes of New York's night life, and the denouement comes when the faithful wife discovers her husband's infidelity. At this time the mother's mind nearly loses balance, while Jane, the beautiful daughter, crazed by the grief of her mother, determines to take part in the tragedy. With revolver in hand she steals up to the apartment of the woman, but her frail nature is overcome by the temperamental anger of the woman and her mission fails. However, the errand is not fraught with failure for the father, coming in at this moment, finds his daughter being made love to by the sweetheart of the young woman, and realizes the road upon which he has traveled. When he confronts his daughter and says, "You, my daughter, what are you doing here?" The daughter answers, "My father, what are you doing here?" The realization is brought home to the father's mind that the law of moral ethics that governs a woman's life necessarily governs that of wan as well. Reformation comes in his character. He takes his daughter away with him and together they go back to their home of happiness and content.
- DirectorJames YoungStarsClara Kimball YoungHarry T. MoreyEarle WilliamsHelene Marie, on the run from the Russian police in St. Petersburg, plots to kill the Czar.
- DirectorMack SennettStarsCharles ChaplinMabel NormandCharles MurrayLost Charles Chaplin's comedy film about her friend.
- DirectorVernon DayTheodore WhartonStarsBuffalo Bill CodyNelson Appleton MilesJesse M. LeeA propaganda re-enactment, co-financed by the Woodrow Wilson government, of the 1890 massacre of 300 Lakota residents of South Dakota, which was portrayed as American military heroism and justified as part of the assimilation effort.
- DirectorOscar ApfelCecil B. DeMilleStarsEdward AbelesJoseph SingletonSydney DeaneRobert Brewster, scion of a well-to-do family, elopes with Louise Sedgewick. Peter Brewster disinherits Robert and refuses to be reconciled to the marriage, and later drives the young couple from their home. A little son, "Monty," blesses the union. When Monty is a full-grown man, Peter Brewster dies and bequeaths a million dollars to him. The newly-acquired wealth staggers young Monty Brewster, and he is about to launch into the new life as one of the predatory rich when he receives a communication from an attorney in the West, advising him that his uncle, George Brewster, has left him $7 million, contingent upon his getting ride of the million dollars left him by Peter Brewster. "Peter Brewster mistreated your mother and father and I do not want you to touch a dollar of his money. If you spend the million left to you by him and can, at the end of a year, show by receipts that you have judiciously spent, not squandered this million dollars, my attorneys will turn over to you my worldly possessions, aggregating seven millions. You must own nothing of value at the end of the year," said George Brewster, and Monty, learning for the first time that Peter Brewster had mistreated his parents, begins to spend the million. He invests the money in a sure losing proposition in Wall Street in an effort to dispose of some of his unwelcome money, and the proposition turns out a winner. He backs a flabby fat pugilist, hoping to lose, and wins. There is a clause in the will of George Brewster which says that Monty must not tell anyone of his desire to spend the million and his friends think he has suddenly lost his mind. Everything Monty touches with the hope of losing some of his money, turns out just the reverse, and he wins. He has a most terrible time disposing of the undesired millions. Finally, in a desperate attempt at magnificent spending, Monty hires a palatial yacht, invites several dozen friends to accompany him and goes on a long cruise. The friends mutiny in mid-ocean, thinking him suddenly insane the way he is squandering his wealth, and threaten to lock Monty up, but Monty, to frustrate them, runs up a signal of distress. It costs him two hundred thousand dollars to be salvaged by a passing steamer, and the end of the year rolls around with Monty flat broke. He has squandered the entire million dollars, possesses a room full of receipts to show for every dollar spent, and his sweetheart, Peggy, believing him to be a pauper, consents to marry him. His friends, believing him broke, endeavor to press money and jewelry upon him, all of which he must not have in his possession or he loses the seven million. He dodges his friends, is met by the attorney and presented with seven million dollars, and everything turns out happily.
- DirectorFrancis FordStarsFrancis FordJohn FordGrace CunardThis is the first of the Sherlock Holmes' stories by the famous English author. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Sherlock Holmes and his friend, Dr. Watson, receives an invitation from Mr. Gregson, of Scotland Yard, to assist in unraveling a murder mystery. Holmes makes a careful study of the case and as a result of his ingenious deductions rounds up the murderer, one Jefferson Hope, a cabman. The man confesses his guilt and tells his life story and of the vengeance of the many wrongs he has suffered at the hands of the dead man in the years gone by. Before the case comes to trial the prisoner dies from heart failure. This is another victory for Holmes and his wonderful deductive methods, as the officers of Scotland Yard had all but fastened the guilt upon another and an innocent person.
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsDonald CrispF.A. TurnerRobert HarronA dramatic comparison between the mating habits of animals and the way humans choose their own partners.
- DirectorPaul WegenerHenrik GaleenStarsPaul WegenerHenrik GaleenLyda SalmonovaLost film about an antiques dealer who finds a golem that has been brought to life four centuries earlier by a Kabbalist rabbi to protect his people from persecution. The dealer resurrects the golem as a servant but it goes on a rampage.
- DirectorSol LesserHal MohrThis film -- now lost -- supposedly showed the last night of the depraved Barbary Coast section of San Francisco, although the neighborhood wasn't fully cleaned up by police and city officials until 1917. Made by Sol Lesser and Hal Mohr, the film was peddled by Lesser to individual movie theater owners as a lurid exploitation film depicting vice.
- DirectorThomas Dixon Jr.StarsLorraine HulingPercy StandingArthur ShirleyThree acts and a prologue. Act 1: A nation falls. Act 2: The heel of the conqueror. Act 3: The uprising two years later.
- DirectorHerbert BrenonStarsAnnette KellermanWilliam E. ShayHal De ForestA sultan agrees to help a wicked witch destroy a mysterious young lady if the witch will bring his young son back from the dead with magic.
- DirectorQuirino CristianiArgentinian President Yrigoyen burns Buenos Aires using Jupiter's thunderbolts.
- DirectorJ. Gordon EdwardsStarsTheda BaraFritz LeiberThurston HallThe story of Cleopatra, the fabulous queen of Egypt, and the epic romances between her and the greatest men of Rome, Julius Caesar and Antony.
- DirectorHekoten ShimokawaLost film.