NFPF News

Reminder: Catch THE UNKNOWN on the big screen, September 30th!

Mark your calendar: on Saturday, September 30th, the National Film Preservation Foundation and Silent Movie Day will join forces to present a special screening of Tod Browning’s macabre masterpiece The Unknown. Featuring Lon Chaney and Joan Crawford, the film screens the day after Silent Movie Day at nine Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas throughout the USA. Proceeds will support the NFPF’s preservation efforts.

Lon Chaney in The Unknown (1927), screening at nine Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas on Sept. 30th.

The September 30th screenings take place at the following Alamo Drafthouse locations; tickets are available through the links:

Alamo South Lamar (Austin)
Alamo Wrigleyville (Chicago)
Alamo Sloans Lake (Denver)
Alamo DTLA
Alamo 28 Liberty (Manhattan)
Alamo Yonkers
Alamo Raleigh
Alamo Stone Oak (San Antonio)
Alamo New Mission (San Francisco) … Read more

The NFPF teams with Silent Movie Day to screen THE UNKNOWN

Lon Chaney gives his most disarming performance in The Unknown (1927), screening at nine Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas on Sept. 30th.

To celebrate silent film history and raise funds for film preservation, the National Film Preservation Foundation and Silent Movie Day are joining forces to present a special screening of Tod Browning’s macabre masterpiece, The Unknown. Featuring Lon Chaney and Joan Crawford, the film will screen on Saturday, September 30th—the day after Silent Movie Day—at nine Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas throughout the USA. Proceeds from the screening will go to support the NFPF’s preservation efforts. You can donate to the NFPF directly by clicking here.

Directed by horror legend Tod Browning and released in 1927, The Unknown is a highwater mark of Browning’s silent-era work and one of ten films he made with Lon Chaney. Set in … Read more

Four NFPF-Preserved Films Unspooling at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival

Norma Shearer going mad in Man and Wife (1923), preserved by UCLA Film & Television Archive.

Next week the 26th installment of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival opens in San Francisco’s Castro Theatre. Four of the films have been preserved through grants administered by the National Film Preservation Foundation.

On Thursday, July 13, Doll Messengers of Friendship (1929) will screen during the free “Amazing Tales from the Archives” program. This short film commemorates a doll exchange between the U.S. and Japan that was initiated by the Committee on World Friendship Among Children. 58 dolls commissioned by the Japanese government from master doll makers toured the U.S. and were acclaimed as works of art. Doll Messengers of Friendship was screened at the local doll exchange ceremonies that comprised the tour. The surviving 9-minute … Read more

"The Oath of the Sword" Screens at the Academy Museum

On Sunday, May 28 the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures will screen The Oath of the Sword (1914), a three-reel silent drama preserved with National Film Preservation Foundation support. Made by the Japanese Film Company and featuring an all-Japanese leading cast, The Oath of the Sword is the earliest known Asian American film production. It is an important and rare surviving exemplar of an under-explored part of early Asian American film history: movies made by and for Japanese Americans.

The Oath of the Sword (1914) preserved by the Japanese American National Museum and George Eastman Museum with NFPF support.

The Oath of the Sword tells the tragic story of lovers separated when an ambitious young man leaves his beloved in Japan to study abroad at the University of California, Berkeley. It contrasts the morals of traditional Japanese society with the forces of … Read more

Go “Below the Surface” at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival!

Below the Surface (1920).

After a two-year break the San Francisco Silent Film Festival roars back to life on May 5th. This 25th anniversary edition lasts until May 11 and is jam-packed with films. Among these treasures is Below the Surface (1920), preserved by the Festival through the support of the National Film Preservation Foundation. The premiere of the restoration occurs on Friday, May 6, at 2pm, and we hope you can make it.

Below the Surface was the follow-up to the notorious revenge melodrama Behind the Door (1919). It reunites producer Thomas Ince, director Irvin Willat, star Hobart Bosworth, and cinematographer J.O. Taylor (later to film King Kong). Both films have action aboard submarines and a macabre shipboard denouement. In Below the Surface Bosworth plays a diver in small-town Maine who’s assisted by his loyal son (Lloyd Hughes). Their relationship is … Read more