"When Lincoln Paid" (1913) found

[Gil1957]

Here is an article about a movie that was supposedly lost and has been restored.

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010 ... ng+News%29

[gjohnson]

Praise be for New Hampshire winters.

Gary J.

[Daniel Eagan]

Here's the Keene State College story, with film clips:

http://keeneweb.org/newsline/2010/04/06 ... he-putnam/

[silentfilm]

http://sentinelsource.com/articles/2010 ... 397639.txt

FILM FOR THE AGES
Contractor makes rare find in Nelson barn
By Josh Stilts
Sentinel Staff
Published: Wednesday, April 14, 2010
If it weren’t for his love of films, Peter C. Massie might have thrown out an important piece of film history.

Massie, a Keene contractor, was commissioned by Dr. Winfield Raynor to clean out, demolish and rebuild a barn at his Nelson home. When Massie searched the second story of the shaky building, however, he found something he never could have imagined: seven reels of nitrate film, most dating back to the 1910s, and a 1924 Monarch projector.

“I was amazed,” Massie said. “They were just sitting in the corner.”

Among the findings was “When Lincoln Paid,” a two-reel, 30-minute silent film about a fictional event in the life of Abraham Lincoln.

“I love old films,” Massie said. “I knew these were something to hang onto.”

In the 1950s, Hollywood phased out nitrate films because they were highly combustible. Massie had no idea the nearly 100-year-old films he found could be dangerous.

“I put (the films) in the front of my pickup, smoking my cigarettes, and drove away,” he said. “It’s a wonder I didn’t explode.”

After sitting in Massie’s basement for a few weeks, he contacted Keene State College film professor Lawrence Benaquist.

“I knew when I was unreeling the film this was something special,” Benaquist said. “It wasn’t just another silent film.”

This month, people will be able to see “When Lincoln Paid” during a special screening at Keene State.

The film is directed by and stars Francis Ford, the older brother of four-time Academy Award-winning director John Ford. Thought to be lost forever, the film provides a unique look into the types of techniques John Ford would later use directing his own work.

“During the battle scene the film was dyed red, which John (Ford) used often. You can really see the similarities if you’re looking for them,” Benaquist said.

There are no copies in any film archives, Benaquist learned through work with the George Eastman House film preservation museum in Rochester, N.Y. He said “When Lincoln Paid” was one of eight silent films starring Francis Ford as the sixteenth president; there are no known surviving copies of the others.

It was his favorite role, Ford said in an article by film historian Tag Gallagher.

“There is nothing I like better than to play Lincoln. I have a big library devoted to this great man, and I have studied every phase of his remarkable character and when I am acting the part, I can feel the man as I judge him. I have taken the part in six or seven photoplays now, and every one of them has given a different side of his personality.”

“When Lincoln Paid,” which was released Jan. 31, 1913, opened to rave reviews. It tells the story of a woman who lost her son in the Civil War. Her act of revenge leads to another boy’s capture, but she ultimately seeks a pardon for him from the president, calling up a debt from when Lincoln was a young man and needed refuge at her home.

The majority of Massie’s find is preserved beautifully, Benaquist said. The project to restore it received a grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation. Benaquist said it took the Colorado lab more than a year to fix sprockets, which feed the film through the projector.

“Special tape was used to fix the sprocket holes,” he said. “The process was lengthy as they had to print the film frame by frame.”

The trouble for Benaquist was trying to fill in gaps in the story from the missing frames, which were either unrecoverable or lost long before the reels were found. But as fate would have it, he came across a book, “Abraham Lincoln on Screen, A Filmography, 1903-1998” written by Mark S. Reinhart. In the book, Reinhart detailed Francis’ portrayal in “When Lincoln Paid” as if he’d seen the movie numerous times, Benaquist said.

When Benaquist contacted Reinhart, Reinhart said he had a VHS copy of the film, which included several scenes missing from the original film. Through the two copies, Benaquist, with the help of Keene State film professor Tom Cook, was able to digitally splice together nearly the entire film on DVD.

“Without the added material it becomes difficult to understand the narrative,” Benaquist said.

Benaquist said he thinks the projector and films ended up in Nelson because the town is on Granite Lake, which was the site of numerous summer camps. Near Raynor’s old barn was a boys’ camp and Benaquist said it wasn’t hard to imagine the films were shown on special occasions, then stored and forgotten about.

This month, the public can see the results of the restored film. It will be shown on April 20 at 4 p.m. at Keene State’s Redfern Arts Center. Admission is free.

Josh Stilts can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1433, or jstilts(at)keenesentinel.com

[WaverBoy]

When Benaquist contacted Reinhart, Reinhart said he had a VHS copy of the film, which included several scenes missing from the original film. Through the two copies, Benaquist, with the help of Keene State film professor Tom Cook, was able to digitally splice together nearly the entire film on DVD.

This begs the question, what was Reinhart's VHS mastered from?

[BenModel]

The screening will have live piano accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis.

[PhilipS]

This begs the question, what was Reinhart's VHS mastered from?

I read in another article that the VHS was from an 8mm version, so it seems this film was not really lost.

[silentfilm]

Jay Leno actually joked about this discovery on the Tonight Show. He said that the guy that discovered this film now owes Blockbuster $17,000!

[moviepas]

Blockbuster is always going broke & a couple of local stores near me in Australia have been ransacked in the recent past(ethnic violence in one case) so I guess they need the US$17,000 but do they offer silent films to their customers?????

[Jeff Rapsis]

To get together music for 'When Lincoln Paid,' I've been working with a DVD copy provided by the college. They did a nice job recovering this film. Assuming most folks here can't make it to Keene, N.H. for the screening this coming Tuesday, here are a few advance notes to satisfy any curiosity.

First, the 20-minute film is not completely intact. It's missing two sequences (the very opening and one part in the middle) that have been filled in with titles. But the story still flows nicely and I think an audience will have no trouble following it.

About 85 percent of it is from the 35mm print found in the barn in Nelson, N.H., and the picture quality on this material looks great. Some sequences are tinted, though I'm not sure that's original with the print, but it sure looks it.

The remainder of the the film comes from a VHS copy of an 8mm print that survived separately. (As I understand it, the 8mm print is missing and only the VHS exists.) The image quality on this material is much poorer, but it's only a distraction in a few places where the restoration has to switch quickly between the two sources. Also, the end seems a little truncated, but the key scene is there.

The film itself: my opinion is that it's well above average for the period. The story has a surprising sweep, covering a time span of maybe two decades. Acting is standard issue for the period, but overall seemed more cinematic than theatrical.

The big surprise to me is that several Civil War battle scenes were staged on a pretty ambitious scale, with hundreds of extras and some wonderful from-above shots (especially for 1913!) of rows of mounted soldiers crossing from L to R on a ridgetop in the foreground while artillery columns trudge the other way far below.

The only wrong note to me is that the war action is supposed to take place in Virginia, but the landscape seems to be sagebrush country out west somewhere. Not a big deal, though.

The story of this film's discovery and restoration was picked up last week by the Associated Press, so the college has been flooded with inquiries. Expecting a good crowd for Tuesday's screening, they've moved it from an arts center to a much larger facility at the student union.

If you're interested, there's more on my silent film/music blog:

http://silentfilmlivemusic.blogspot.com/

I'll report back after the screening....

Jeff Rapsis
www.jeffrapsis.com

[Jeff Rapsis]

Okay, the screening of Francis Ford's 'When Lincoln Paid' (1913) took place yesterday (Tuesday, April 20) at Keene State College. Fortunately, a news story about how the film was found a few years ago in a New Hampshire barn got picked up by the Associated Press the week before, so interest was high. Something like 250 people crowded into the auditorium of the college's student center, an amazing turnout for an event of this nature.

Prior to the screening, the audience was treated to a slide show of stills of Ford (older brother of legendary director John Ford) and clips from some of his few remaining films. It was a nice tribute for which I was able to improvise organ accompaniment on the Korg synthesizer. The screening itself was very matter of fact: first a few remarks from Professor Larry Benaquist, longtime KSC faculty member who directed the restoration, and then the film.

As a two-reeler packed with a lot of action (and, alas, still missing a couple of scenes), the restored 'When Lincoln Paid' races right by. But the audience, most of which was clearly the non-silent-film crowd, seemed to stay with it, and some moments got good reactions. Though the restored film switches back and forth between the 35mm "barn" material (which looks great) and other footage that only exists as grainy VHS of a now-lost 8mm print, it plays quite well, especially for a 1913 drama.

What was really nice about all this was that it introduced a lot of people to the idea of seeing silent film the way it was intended: on the big screen, in a good print, with live music, and with an audience. Even a relatively early short film such as 'When Lincoln Paid' can generate an immediate emotional impact if shown under the right conditions, and Benaquist and his team at Keene State really did this one right.

So score one point for silent cinema as a distinct (and timeless) art form that's clearly different from sound film, and which still has a lot to say to today's audiences.

(For more on the screening, check out a blog posting at www.silentfilmlivemusic.blogspot.com)

Jeff Rapsis
www.jeffrapsis.com

[wildhoney66]

cool i've never heard of this film, buut thanxs for the news

[silentfilm]

http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/new ... htm?csp=34

1913 Abraham Lincoln film found in New Hampshire barn
Posted 4/13/2010 8:21 PM | Comment | Recommend

By Kathy Mccormack, Associated Press Writer
CONCORD, N.H. — In a tale celebrating the romance of movies, a contractor cleaning out an old New Hampshire barn destined for demolition found seven reels of nitrate film inside, including the only known copy of a 1913 silent film about Abraham Lincoln.
When Lincoln Paid, a 30-minute film about the mother of a dead Union soldier asking Lincoln to pardon a Confederate soldier whom she had initially turned in, stars the brother of John Ford, director of The Grapes of Wrath, The Quiet Man and other classics.

"I was up in the attic space, and shoved away over in a corner was the film and a silent movie projector, as well," Peter Massie, a movie buff, said of his discovery in the western New Hampshire town of Nelson. "I thought it was really cool."

It was the summer of 2006, and the film canisters sat in his basement for a while before Massie thought of contacting nearby Keene State College, where film professor Larry Benaquist thought it was a rare find.

After working with the George Eastman House film preservation museum in Rochester, N.Y., the college determined that the film, directed by and starring Francis Ford, did not exist in film archives. In fact, it was one of eight silent films starring Ford as Lincoln; there are no known surviving copies of the others.

"The vast majority of silent films, particularly from the early period — the first decade of the 20th century — are gone," said Caroline Frick Page, curator of motion pictures at George Eastman House. "That's what makes these stories so incredibly special."

The college, which plans an April 20 film screening, received a grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation to restore it. It took a Colorado lab a year to complete the task.

Benaquist said the images themselves were well preserved, likely because they endured decades of New England winters in the barn, which also was well sheltered by trees. Nitrate film, which was phased out in Hollywood in the 1950s, is highly flammable. The 35 mm film itself had shrunk and the sprocket holes used on projectors were shredded.

"What the laboratory had to do was remanufacture the sprocket holes to a new dimension, make it in strips, adhere it to the image, and then run it through a printing process where they would print it, frame by frame," Benaquist said.

Benaquist thinks the film was discovered in Nelson because the town is on Granite Lake, the site of many summer camps through the years. He said there was a boys' camp in the area of the barn and believes the films were shown to entertain the children, then put away and forgotten.

Helping the restoration was Mark Reinhart of Columbus, Ohio, author of Abraham Lincoln on Screen. He had a crude video copy of the film that had been made from an 8-mm copy and included a few scenes that were missing from the film found in the barn. The college combined a DVD of the restored film with a DVD taken of Reinhart's film for its final version.

Back in 1913, the film was praised by Moving Picture World, a weekly trade publication sent to film distributors, as "a great war drama" with vivid battle scenes.

Francis Ford, who died in 1953 at age 72, is better known for small, mostly comic roles in at least 30 of his younger brother's films, "often playing a coonskin drunk who can spit across the room," said Tag Gallagher, author of the book John Ford.

"If you're into these things you quickly recognize him and it becomes a kind of cult thing to finding him, and he's quite delightful," said Gallagher, who lives near Boston. "But if you go back to the teens, he was a very big and important director."

The Fords were from Portland, Maine. Francis Ford, who introduced John Ford to the business, was quite famous as a director and star, acting in numerous silent films up until World War I, Gallagher said. When John Ford started directing, his fame overshadowed his brother's.

Old movie buffs might remember Francis Ford in such scenes as a drunken juror in 1939's Young Mr. Lincoln starring Henry Fonda, and an elderly man who miraculously rises from his deathbed to see a climactic fistfight in 1952's The Quiet Man starring John Wayne.

During the silent film era, Francis Ford was one of many actors who portrayed Lincoln, Reinhart said. "He's not a particularly good Lincoln, he's kind of short and stocky," he said. Lincoln was better depicted by others in that era, such as Frank McGlynn and Benjamin Chapin, Reinhart said.

Massie is looking forward to seeing the restored film. "I can't wait to see what's on there myself."

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[earlytalkiebuffRob]

This begs the question, what was Reinhart's VHS mastered from?

I read in another article that the VHS was from an 8mm version, so it seems this film was not really lost.

Yes, that's what made it a bit confusing, as Reinhart comments on the film in Abraham Lincoln on Screen', published in 1999. However Jeff Rapsis (21/04/2010) comments that the 8mm copy is now lost, so perhaps it was referring to all film materials being lost.

[silentfilm]

This restoration was screened at the 2019 Kansas Silent Film Festival. My review:

WHEN LINCOLN PAID (1913) is the only surviving film of a series that Francis Ford (John Ford’s brother) made where he played President Abraham Lincoln. A young Abe Lincoln enjoys the hospitality of a Southern lady and her young son. He writes her an IOU for a favor whenever she needs it. Years later, the U.S. Civil War breaks out. The young son is old enough to enlist, and he is captured as a Union spy. He is executed. A Southern general’s son is also a spy, and takes refuge at the lady’s house. She turns him into the army as a spy, and he is to be executed. She feels remorse, and there is a race to get her to Lincoln to ask for a pardon. A 35mm print of this film was found in a barn in 2006. However, it was missing some scenes and many sprocket holes. Keene State College restored the film, using a videotape version made from an 8mm print to fill in the missing scenes. (Surely a 16mm print of this film survives somewhere, since Charles Tarbox’s Film Classic Exchange sold it in both formats.) The 8mm scenes look terrible, but are necessary to flesh out the film. Keene State must be afraid of someone uploading the film to YouTube, since almost the entire film has “Copyright Keene State College” superimposed over the center of the frame. This was distracting and made it hard to read some of the titles. It is hard to fairly evaluate the film with it surviving with some scenes in poor condition, but it seemed pretty good for 1913. (Jeff Rapsis on piano) **½