The earliest films in history are a real revolution, both in art and in social terms. Stories from the screen very quickly find their way to the hearts of people and the fate of screen characters often means a lot to the audience. Because where did you hear and see such a miracle - the pictures to move! Unfortunately, about 80% of early movies are lost for a variety of reasons. These are some of the most important titles in the history of this art that will be left for the generations.


# The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906)

The first feature film of over an hour is the Australian biography drama for the country's most notorious criminal. 26 years after Ned Kelly was executed by the Melbourne Impressionist, Charles Tate is in charge of the director's work on the film. The experience is incredibly successful, and Ned Kelly himself would be delighted with the emergence of Australian bandit movies. But the authorities are again against him because "The Story of the Kelly Gang" and all such films are forbidden on the motif that chants criminals. So the famous film about the legendary robber-defender of the defeated was lost, and only nine minutes of it was discovered accidentally in 1979.

![Pancho_Villa_bandolier.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmY4oPwTFopYLfMjz63brTrFey187v9uyLMjZeLrAoMpq8/Pancho_Villa_bandolier.jpg)

# The Life of General Villa (1914)



The story is so famous that in 2003 a film about this film with Antonio Banderas was released. In 1914, a Hollywood studio undertook a nontraditional, risky but ultimately historic move. They made a deal with Pancho Villa, one of the leading figures in the Mexican Revolution raging across the border. An American team is negotiating to get the exclusive right to shoot footage from the scene with the participation of Villa and his army. The film is the first of its kind documentary cinema, directly from the battlefield and becomes extremely popular. The tape contained both real battles and fake battles with Villa's fighters. He has received money and a good image from the american studio, so everyone was happy. Everything has been officially documented and nowadays the contract between the two countries is exhibited at the Museum of Mexico City. Unfortunately, in 1923, Pancho Villa was shot down on the street, and only unedited segments remained behind him.


![hqdefault.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmSiT1y1m98eUiuCWcfvmfcsKjoRkDvvCMTQqwGPv3yHmk/hqdefault.jpg)

# Cleopatra (1917)

The pictures of the main actress Teda Bara in this role are so iconic to the dawn of cinema that you would hardly guess the movie is lost. And most of her participation ... An interesting fact about the film is that it is based not on one but on three works - the novel by H. Rider Haggard, the play of Shakespeare and the pianos of Emil Moro and Victory Sardo. For the time being, "Cleopatra" is one of the most expensive and spectacular films, especially in the form of décor and costumes. Then the production cost about $ 500,000, which is about $ 10 million in today's money. The movie has great success in the cinema halls and so it is so strange that it is lost forever.

# Humorisk (1920)



This is the first film of the famous American comedians the Marx Brothers, and their only silent film. Curiously, in this movie from the early 20's, comedians play different roles from their fans' acquaintances afterwards. "Humorisk" was destroyed by one of the brothers - Grauccio, who is disappointed with the production after just one screening. The next film of the brothers is only after 9 years and is called "The Cocoanuts."

# The Mountain Eagle (1927)

The 1927 film was the second in Alfred Hitchcock's film, but he himself did not want to remember it. The British film is a melodrama, shot in Germany and Austria in 1925, whose storyline unfolds in Kentucky, USA. Producers do not like the end result of the filming and refuse to release the movie in the cinemas before the director gains popularity with other films. When he finally comes out, the film does not appeal to the audience, nor Hitchcock himself, who claims to have been relieved of the thought that "The Mountain Eagle" is lost. There is nothing left of the film nowadays, and the British Film Institute is looking for surviving copies under wood and stone.



![london-after-midnight.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmNqPLANBodxYcxMyrChYsuRm2HBrAXbNym2nuRhCvkETn/london-after-midnight.jpg)

# London After Midnight (1927)


 
This is one of the first horror movie stories and that is why it may go to her to be lost. The film from 1927 is directed by Todd Browning, who will later make some of the first films about Dracula. Unfortunately, the tape was destroyed by a fire in the MGM archive in 1967. Fortunately, this movie may not be entirely lost because it has been spread abroad, and some copy can still appear somewhere.


# Convention City (1933)



This movie is a comedy that many people nowadays can see as a politically incorrect nightmare. For his time, however, the film has tremendous chances of success, both because of the peppery humor and star composition including the names of Joanne Bondel, Dick Powell, Mary Astor and others. The film, however, faces serious crashes with the US Film Association's censorship because of "risky" dialogues. So some frankly lustful replies have to drop out of the script, and Joanne Bondel was banned from showing nakedness in the movie. After all, the movie is forbidden. To solve the problem, one of the studio executives, Jack Warner, ordered all copies of the "Convention City" to be destroyed in 1943.

# The Patriot (1928)



This film has disappeared without success, although it has made great success when it was released in 1928. "The Patriot" was directed by Ernst Lubic, Emil Jannings, Florence Vidor and Louis Stone. The story of the Russian Tsar Paul I is so fascinating to his contemporaries that "The Patriot" has been nominated for 5 Academy Awards and won in the Scenario category. All this, given the fact that he is the only dumb movie that participates in the nominations in the respective year. In this sense, his loss is really sad news for cinema.

Image source: [1](https://ondacultural.org/ac/date/2015/page/9), [2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleopatra_(1917_film)), [3](https://boingboing.net/2016/01/21/14-lost-films-still-to-be.html)