Lost Silent Movie Set to Be Screened For the First Time In Almost 100 Years
WDCB’s Gary Zidek visits Chicago Film Archives’ office to learn more about the non-profit’s discovery of the thought-to-be lost silent movie, THE FIRST DEGREE.
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“When I saw it on the Library of Congress’ list of lost films, that was certainly the point at which we started to get excited, (but) we didn’t want to get ahead of ourselves. So, even after we saw that it on that list we still wanted to cross our Ts and dot our Is before declaring ‘Chicago Film Archives finds lost film’.” - Olivia Babler, Chicago Film Archives Director of Film Transfer Operations, talking about when she started to get excited.
Olivia Babler, Chicago Film Archives
September 29 will be the first ever National Silent Movie Day. The new day of recognition was established by a group of film historians interested in celebrating silent film history and raising awareness of the significance of preservation. For around four decades starting in the 1890s, silent movies were the world’s most popular form of entertainment. Things changed as technology advanced and recorded sound was introduced to motion pictures. Today, despite some recent challenges, movies remain among our most popular forms of entertainment. The film industry generated over $100-billion in 2019. The origins of the artform can be traced back to silent movies, but unfortunately a lot of that history is no longer around. An estimated 80% of all American silent movies are considered to be “lost” forever. So, when a “lost” film is found … it’s cause for celebration. And that’s exactly what local cinephiles and silent film enthusiasts will be doing on September 29, when Chicago Film Archives screens the 1923 silent movie THE FIRST DEGREE in front of an audience for the first time in almost a hundred years.
Lobby card for Universal’s 1923 release THE FIRST DEGREE. Image courtesy of Chicago Film Archives
THE FIRST DEGREE was directed by Edward Sedgwick and stars Frank Mayo. The film is described as a rural melodrama that involves a love triangle, blackmail and sibling rivalry. Babler and the CFA team did a significant amount of research into the little-known Universal film.
The pandemic complicated matters a bit, but Babler says the hope was always to be able to screen THE FIRST DEGREE in front of an in-person audience. And that’s exactly what will happen September 29 at the Siskel Center. One key component of any silent film screening is the accompanying score usually performed by a pianist, organ player or sometimes a small orchestra. Once the decision was made to present a screening of THE FIRST DEGREE, organizers reached out to a former CFA employee and musician Matt Schwarz.
Musician Matt Schwarz composed a new score to accompany THE FIRST DEGREE
“We’re very happy that this film is in our collection and we’re excited to be able to share it with the public, but we also hope that it helps raise awareness about the contents of our collections in general. A lot of it falls under the radar, and it’s not necessarily as sexy as a big silent film that was previously considered lost, but we have a lot of intresting films that represent the cultural heritage of this region, and it would be great for more people to discover it.” - Chicago Film Archives collections manager Yasmin Desouki talking about her hopes that this silent film discovery draws some attention to CFA’s mission.
A look inside Chicago Film Archive’s vault
