A silent movie lost in a Hollywood fire 50 years ago could have a duplicate in Melbourne., is considered one of the most sought-after pieces of film history.
Rumours abound about whether a copy may have survived and one enthusiast hoping to find it believes it could be somewhere in Australia due to the tyranny of distance that brought films here later than other parts of the world. “So all the films would get dumped here because the studios in America didn’t want to pay for the freight to send them home.“They’d get snapped up by projectionists or collectors or people who just worked in the cinema industry. So it means that many films now that have been lost are turning up in Australia.”’s cult status in the years since it went missing has outgrown its original reception among film-goers and critics.
“We were seen as the end of the world in those days. Everything was coming by ship and they didn’t bother sending it back,” he said.