GOOD news, film lovers.
Footage from the film Orson Welles made before he made Citizen Kane has been found. Welles shot some 40 minutes of film to be shown as a prologue to a 1938 Mercury Theatre stageplay, Too Much Johnson. The film was abandoned after a disastrous preview of the stage show and then thought to have been lost in a fire in Welles's Spanish villa.
But footage has now reappeared in Italy. Such a discovery will give heart to cineastes eager to see the tyro efforts of their favourite film directors. Who knows what cultural riches may resurface in the years to come? Just imagine what might turn up …
California Smith and the Garage of Mild Danger: Nine-year-old Steven Spielberg prepared for his future career as the director of Hollywood blockbusters by making this five-minute meisterwerk in the back garden. Gasp as Cally (played by a pre-Leonardo DiCaprioed Harrison Ford) flees from Spielberg's dad's rogue bowling ball. Scream as he stumbles into Spielberg senior's collection of fishing flies. Shriek as he gets wrapped up in that big mess of spider-webs over in the far corner. And is that a prepubescent Goldie Hawn as the damsel in distress screaming at the prospect of getting splattered with paint from the pots dangerously close to the edge of the shelf next to the lawnmower?
Dial H for Homework: Schoolboy Alfred Hitchcock's silent film about the time he forgot to do the essay about glacial erosion for his geography teacher. Note the use of stabbing strings on the soundtrack as his teacher gives the young Alfred six of the best.
Cycle Unchained: Made by Quentin Tarantino 15 years before he made Reservoir Dogs, this surprisingly violent short safety film about bicycle security was banned for its novel use of a bike-pump in one particularly gruesome scene.
Fez: A young Ken Loach's unfinished movie about a boy and his pet hat. Loach is reputed to have stolen the final shot - in which the hat is deposited in the bin - for a later movie.
The Modfather. Little-known documentary by Francis Ford Coppola about Paul Weller. Those who have seen it always talk about the scene where Noel Gallagher wakes up with Fred Perry headwear in his bed.
Fortunately, there's no truth in the rumour that Richard Curtis originally made a zombie movie called Notting Hell, before someone suggested he have a rethink.
Not as far as we know.
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